Resizing .308

[BigBill]

Since I do not have any experience with this cartridge, I thought I'd ask for help here.

I work with a guy that shoots .308. He has a bunch of Lake City empty brass to be loaded.
He has reloaded other cartridges successfully for years, but this stuff gives him fits.
He lubes the clean cases and allows the lube to dry before resizing, but he can't get the brass all the way up into the die.
With about 1/2" to go, the brass seems to hit a wall. He has been able to extract the cases before jamming them, so far...
Could it be the brass entering the neck sizing portion of the die that is causing the extra tightness?

any ideas?

[JustaShooter]

Well, I've not run into this issue so pure speculation... What rifle are the cartridges being shot in? Some semi-auto chambers are a bit large to increase reliability, so if chamber is a bit too large that could cause problems. Might want to do a chamber cast and check dimensions. Also, is the resizing die a small base die by any chance? If so, combine the two and I could see problems.

Next, what kind of press? It may not have enough leverage to do the job easily.

Sounds like he is using spray lube, what brand? Has he tried other brands or types?

What brand of dies? Have you followed manufacturer's instructions to adjust them? Have you inspected the sizing die to make sure there's nothing wrong with it? Have you tried removing the decapping rod to make sure the expander ball isn't causing the problem - maybe it is oversized. If you can run the case up into the sizing dies without it, then that could be the issue. If you know someone else with a set of dies that they use successfully, perhaps see about borrowing them for a test.

[shooterwolf]

Is it once fired surplus brass? If so, it likely was fired in a machine gun with a very generous chamber.

I had a batch of this stuff, ended up lubing it generously and resizing it till I hit firm resistance. I then extracted the troublesome piece of brass and put in a separate container and moved on to the next piece. All the trouble brass later got lubed again and run through the resize die a second time. Never stuck a piece, sure did have me wondering though.



S.W.

[evan price]

Is it once fired surplus brass? If so, it likely was fired in a machine gun with a very generous chamber.

I had a batch of this stuff, ended up lubing it generously and resizing it till I hit firm resistance. I then extracted the troublesome piece of brass and put in a separate container and moved on to the next piece. All the trouble brass later got lubed again and run through the resize die a second time. Never stuck a piece, sure did have me wondering though.



S.W.

I agree. Lots of LC surplus was shot in machine guns and they tend to be pretty swollen. When he stops trying to push and looks at the brass, is there an obvious bulge towards the base?

Also might try a different lube such as Imperial Sizing Wax. If he's using Hornady One Shot I've never been impressed with its lubricity. Shooterwolf's homemade lanolin and alcohol works good for 223, have not tried it in 308- I use Lyman Kwik spray.

[BigBill]

He did say it was 6000 rounds, fired from a helicopter machine gun.

He tried the spray lube, but was getting better results using a 'paste' lube, wiped on from a cup container.

I'll ask him about the base bulge.

Thanks for the input.

[JustaShooter]

He did say it was 6000 rounds, fired from a helicopter machine gun.

Some people have all the fun!

[shooterwolf]

Also might try a different lube such as Imperial Sizing Wax. If he's using Hornady One Shot I've never been impressed with its lubricity. Shooterwolf's homemade lanolin and alcohol works good for 223, have not tried it in 308- I use Lyman Kwik spray.

With the homemade lube, you can add a little extra lanolin to the mix for tough resizing jobs.



S.W.

[landrvrnut22]

He needs to be careful resizing that brass.

I ran into a similar problem. I had a couple thousand 308 fried from a M134 (read: Mini-gun ) given to me by a friend. I was inexperienced reloader, and muscled my way through it, only to find that I was crushing the shoulder of the case, and 500+ pieces were trashed.

I sell the mil-surp brass, buy new Winchester Brass, fire form, and then only neck resize. I only have 1 .308, and it has a tight match chamber. It's not worth the hassle of the mil-surp brass to try to full length resize.

[Sevens]

He did say it was 6000 rounds, fired from a helicopter machine gun.

Some people have all the fun!

Not all the people have fun in these scenarios.

"Anyone who runs is a VC. Anyone who stands still is a well-disciplined VC!
"Any women or children?"
Sometimes!
How can you shoot women or children?
Easy! Ya just don't lead 'em so much!

[hershey]

one way I have found to beat this headache, is to use a 30-06 sizing die to pull the swell of the case in then move on to the 308 die to form the neck.

[CoronaGold111]

Is your buddy tumbling/polishing before he lubes? That might be worthwhile...