FL RESIZING TRICK

[mike243]

I was preping a batch of twice fired cases last night and thought this simple hack would maybe help someone new to reloading who struggles to get consistant shoulder bump, I discovered this many yers ago and thought I would share it,

I run the cleaned and lubed case up into the FL Die, I try and use the same amount of force each time, instead of lowering the ram straight away, I hold the hamdle down for a count of 10 before raising the handle, it gives the brass time to stabilize after it has been stretched, I was aiming for a resized length with my Hornady head space gauge of 1.6225" all 34 pieces measured between 1.622 and 1.623, +or- half a thou, which as my pal Mark says " good enough for the girls we go with"

it may be helpful to somebody or not, but it has given me good results over the years

Mike

 

[Sinistral]

Or you could just save all the measuring and messing about by using a LEE Collet Neck Size die next time on your once-fired.
This will work for 4-5 firings.

 

[bluesako]

or you could do what mike243 does

 

[mike243]

Or you could just save all the measuring and messing about by using a LEE Collet Neck Size die next time on your once-fired.
This will work for 4-5 firings.

to do that I would need to buy another die, I enjoy the measuring and fiddling, it is part of the hobby, I have been doing this for over 20 years and have worked out a method that works for me, I dont use any expensive or fancy gear, the only change I have made to my proceedure in recent years is binning the decapping expander ball stems from my dies and using a dedicated decapping die and an expander die and mandrels to set neck tension, I try not to do any proceedure where I have to exert any great amount of force, I felt that dragging the expander out through the case neck required too much force and put un needed stresses on the cases and the press

 

[r judd]

I would also do what mike does

 

[Bavarianbrit]

I do that plus I use a bronze brush to polish up the inner necks before sizing but I do use the expander ball.

 

[mike243]

I do that plus I use a bronze brush to polish up the inner necks before sizing but I do use the expander ball.

i use an old bronze brush before I expand the necks and after I have trimmed and chamfered, it is part of my Dewalt case prep centre

 

[DVS1]

I guess I do a similar thing to you Mike, lube up a case, FL resize and whilst its in the die lube the next case so it has the time to stabilise prior to removing and inserting the next case.

I put it down to my OCD but glad to hear others do similar

 

[Rhudson89]

Never even gave this a thought but makes sense. Be interesting to see if just sizing without holding how much the variation would differ

 

[trickie]

to do that I would need to buy another die, I enjoy the measuring and fiddling, it is part of the hobby, I have been doing this for over 20 years and have worked out a method that works for me, I dont use any expensive or fancy gear, the only change I have made to my proceedure in recent years is binning the decapping expander ball stems from my dies and using a dedicated decapping die and an expander die and mandrels to set neck tension, I try not to do any proceedure where I have to exert any great amount of force, I felt that dragging the expander out through the case neck required too much force and put un needed stresses on the cases and the press

Very much the same process that I have slowly migrated to.
It started by obtaining a cheap lee press and mounting my decapping die on to it, keeping as much krud as possible away from my sizing die (fs). Later, I also moved onto removing the expander ball stem and bought a mandrel.
I don’t feel I need to modify my process any more as I can’t bring myself to buy an AMP machine, despite it being undoubtedly better than my Ugly

 

[mike243]

Never even gave this a thought but makes sense. Be interesting to see if just sizing without holding how much the variation would differ

I was measuring each case without holding the handle down and the variation in lengths was far greater than when I did, the brass didnt have time to form to the die and sprang back at varying levels, out of interest I just now measured 8 of the cases from last ight and they have sprung back a small amount over the last 24 hours, between a half and 1 thou, I hadnt considered that previously, long term spring back

 

[Bavarianbrit]

Off topic, it is known in plastic moulding as a sort of a shrinkage after leaving the tool while still hot then cooling down to air temp.

 

[Sinistral]

to do that I would need to buy another die, I enjoy the measuring and fiddling, it is part of the hobby, I have been doing this for over 20 years and have worked out a method that works for me, I dont use any expensive or fancy gear, the only change I have made to my proceedure in recent years is binning the decapping expander ball stems from my dies and using a dedicated decapping die and an expander die and mandrels to set neck tension, I try not to do any proceedure where I have to exert any great amount of force, I felt that dragging the expander out through the case neck required too much force and put un needed stresses on the cases and the press

I've been reloading twice as long, but still willing to learn.
You do use 'fancy gear' having bought specialised expander dies and mandrels which are not cheap. I'm with you in your last sentence about use of standard expander balls which pull at the necks, but continued resizing works cases unnecessarily. Lubing and cleaning is an extra step I don't need to do.
Collet neck dies use a straight-sided mandrel which the expanded necks are squeezed onto. The cases are fire-formed so the shoulder is automatically set by the chamber on firing. No need to fret about that.
We could debate reloading technique endlessly. Your method is tactile whereas mine is mechanical so doesn't vary.

 

[Bavarianbrit]

Another move I have begun to do is after taking the loaded round off the single station press I shake it near to my ear to hear the powder move inside = I did not forget it.

 

[MarinePMI]

I was preping a batch of twice fired cases last night and thought this simple hack would maybe help someone new to reloading who struggles to get consistant shoulder bump, I discovered this many yers ago and thought I would share it,

I run the cleaned and lubed case up into the FL Die, I try and use the same amount of force each time, instead of lowering the ram straight away, I hold the hamdle down for a count of 10 before raising the handle, it gives the brass time to stabilize after it has been stretched, I was aiming for a resized length with my Hornady head space gauge of 1.6225" all 34 pieces measured between 1.622 and 1.623, +or- half a thou, which as my pal Mark says " good enough for the girls we go with"

it may be helpful to somebody or not, but it has given me good results over the years

Mike

This is often referred to as "dwell time". And it is a very good reloading practice. So much so, that even automated machines have dwell time settings for both the top and bottom of each stroke (one for sizing and powder drop, the other for primer seating, respectively). A full 10 secs may be more than needed, but it certainly isn't harmful. I think I have a 2 sec dwell time set up for my larger (.308 sized) cases for exactly this reason; to let the brass flow fully, under constant/consistent pressure.

 

[User00056]

Another move I have begun to do is after taking the loaded round off the single station press I shake it near to my ear to hear the powder move inside

I do this too. I don't often miss charging a case, but doing this has picked up my mistakes more than once!

 

[MarinePMI]

I do this too. I don't often miss charging a case, but doing this has picked up my mistakes more than once!

As I'm sure you already know, if loading in batches, another method is to drop all charges, then use a small flashlight/torch and visually look for a charge in all the cases in the loading block.

 

[User00056]

As I'm sure you already know, if loading in batches, another method is to drop all charges, then use a small flashlight/torch and visually look for a charge in all the cases in the loading block.

This too. I take no chances. You need to bear in mind I'm skilled enough at being absent minded to forget what I'm doing while I'm actually doing it

 

[Howa]

I think that I will try your method Mike.
I'll try it first on my 6.5 x 55 for my Swedish Mauser, sizing those cases is a real effort, you can feel the tension.
I would like an annealer, perhaps ask for one for Xmas.

 

[mike243]

I have just finished resizing 33 pieces of .308 brass, as an experiment I held the press handle down for 1 minute on each case, they all resized to +or- 0.0005" except 2 case which were 1.5thou short, but they might have been short anyway, I will measure them all tomorrow evening if I get time to see what spring back, if any, has occured