Drilling hole in Redding sizing die

That is my experience I haven’t had dents pop very often but they were always on the shoulder the long neck is maybe the best explanation I know he has a lot of other dies with out any problems so that is why he thought maybe it was caused by lack of vent hole. David
 
Has he taken a before and after diameter measurement just below the shoulder?

If he is willing to sacrifice a case, he could drill a small hole in one then resize it and see what happens.

My first guess is the die is not a match for the chamber and the case diameter is being squeezed until it buckles.
 
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Unless I missed it, my question is, "What cartridge are you reloading?" The photos in the OP look like a 40 degree shoulder, it that's the case (<--no pun), then perhaps the problem is the process for the forming/fireforming and not so much the die itself. I have a set of custom Hornady dies for the .270 Ackley Improved, it took a while to get them, but I think no matter who makes the dies there's going to be a lengthy waiting period. I had some issues with hydro-forming my brass until I started annealing the brass, could totally feel the difference in press/ram pressure when necking/resizing and in mandrel neck sizing.

I've read here where someone said to chuck the Hornady lube, I've had good luck/performance with Hornady One Shot, so have stuck with it. I'm not saying that this is the best lube or that there is not a better lube out there, I've just had good luck with the One Shot. I also use graphite lube when using the Sinclair mandrel die, and I use the mandrel neck sizing on everything that I reload for, .270AI, .308, 30-06, 358 Winchester, 35 Whelen. I'd like to add that I would not discount any information or recommendations that I have read about in the forum, lots of good stuff and recommendation found on this site; and.....lots of good people on here who are sharing their experience and information, who are trying to help others.
 
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I have seen this before but here are my takes on this .
Other than over lubing of the brass I feel that that the brass needs to be annealed. These dents can appear on brass that has been reloaded too many times ( WORK HARDENED ) ,and in order to bring back some elasticity back into your brass ya gotta anneal it (brass is too hard to form correctly after repeated firings and must go someplace hence dimpled shoulders or worse)
To prove this out full length resize a virgin piece of brass.
Now assuming that you have cleaned your reloading dies religiously and reassembled them correctly in order to root out any potential issues with your dies (at least for now) go ahead and FL resize as normal.
If you do not encounter any denting on your case shoulder you know that is not the dies themselves ,and the fault lies with the brass itself.(hopefully the brass will chamber without issiues)

If on the other hand you still notice dents then you are over lubing your cases, or the die itself has issiues.
Another culprit could be the way you are using your dies in conjunction with your reloading press.
Still another culprit could be your resizing wax or fluid. (I myself have been using a copy of the Dillon sizing lube for over 10 years with no adverse problems) ( recepie found on the WEB)
Al in all you must re-examine your entire reloading procedure one step at a time being very analytical until you have solved your problem. Be very open to changing things/components up until you are successful.
INMO this is more like a pep talk but I sincerely hope it will give you food for thought to get that old noodle working !
IF NONE OF THIS WILL WORK I SUGESST USING THE REDDING BODY DIE IN THE CORRECT CALIBER IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE REDDING COMPETITION SHELL HOLDER SET AGAIN IN THE CORRECT CALIBER. (SEE VIDEOS ON WEB).
HOPE THIS ADVICE HELPS!
 
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I'm in agreement with others who are suspecting too much lube on case. I used to have that trouble using RCBS case lube. Switched to Imperial Die Wax -- problem solved. And drilling a hardened die is really difficult.


Is the whole die hardened or just the inner surface?
 
May be irelavent but what caliber? Custom dies often are for Ackleys or wildcats with sharper shoulder angles. Cases like these are often harder to bump.

When he backed off the shoulder bump and the dents quit but the bolt closed stiffer makes me think the cases need annealing in order to bump easier. The dents may be from case compressive distortion rather then air or oil.
Just a thought,
Randy


As long as he can close the bolt on a resized case I'd live with it as long as it wasn't to be used for hunting. A really light application of sizing wax to the case head would likely prevent getting brass stains on the bolt face.
 
Reviving a Zombie because I have this issue with a new custom sizing die and it is NOT a lube issue...definitely a pneumatic issue.

Background- The cartridge is a 7 Sherman Short which I spec'ed a slightly modified reamer for along with the corresponding resize reamer from JGS. The cartridge has much of the taper removed from the body, a 40deg shoulder, and a long straight neck. I was getting clickers at around 8 firings so the new die was spec'ed for more sizing of the bottom of the body. The die works great...no more clickers...but I was getting 'lube' dents on the shoulder which I have not had with the other die (non-vented). I tried 5 different lubes and going as light as I could without having to pull out the stuck case extractor. Still dents in the shoulder. I noticed that if I very slowly sized the case the dent was reduced to a couple of slight 'wrinkles'. It appears that the long neck is engaging the die at the same time as the lower portion of the body producing a seal that is trapping enough volume of air to compress and form dents. If I run the ram much quicker than usual it really makes a huge dent.

Solution- I spoke to the chap at Newlon precision and he has heard of this a couple of times with some Ackley chambers. He suggested drilling a vent hole at the shoulder level. I am also considering making a base sizing die (think ring die) and sizing in a two step process. I will attempt the vent hole solution first and if that is not satisfactory then a new die will be made and melonited and the vented die parted off to make a base sizing die.
 
If the vent hole works consider a ring die from pbike in Minnesota i believe is were hes at. I have one for a 17 wildcat chamber i redid the reamer on that was smaller at the .200 and it saved me about 500 brass worked great
 
This is his info he's in Michigan
 

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