Ever buy once fired brass that was so out of spec if would not resize?

[lancetkenyon]

"I do see round marks from both the Remington and Winchester brass from the pressure gauge."

I see a couple issues with this statement.

1. You are using mixed headstamp brass. In my opinion, not a good thing for consistency. I NEVER mix headstamps. Even if I weight sort the cases.

2. Do you mean "ejector marks" on the case head? This would be caused by:
A. Overpressure loads in the parent rifle.
B. A sloppy chamber allowing the case to not grab the chamber walls and slam back into the bolt face causing a bit of false pressure signs.
C. Too much headspace in the parent chamber, causing the same issues as "B".

Any/all of these issues would cause the cases to overexpand on the first firing.

 

[JustMe2]

New or freshly cleaned dies sometimes require inside neck lube breakin. After a couple of fairly heavily lubed inside necks, it will function smoothly. After initial die breakin, I lightly lube the inside of every neck with Lee resizing lube. I use 2 cotton swabs, one I grease for use before sizing and the other is used to dry the inside of the neck after sizing. Lee lube does not affect the powder and has never caused any neck tension/adhesion problems.

 

[Gorill@]

I've had this problem with some LC brass before. Imho, it's a worn out mil chamber over expanding the brass. Risks of re fired brass.

 

[Mike Matteson]

No. Any quality die should not have that issue.

FWIW, Hornady is the only die I've ever had stuck cases in and it was multiple times. I've gotten rid of them and stuck with Redding and Forster.

I don't have Hornady die's, but have stuck cases in other dies. A little better lube job, would have been the trick to stop that. I do hate it when it happens.
The easies was using a RCBS Lub pad and thier lub. A little messy, but it works. I have changed to wax now. That's beside the point.
If I find brass laying around, I pick it up, and store it for a rainy day.

 

[Turpentine21]

Get rid of the One Shot or save for lighter duty. Use Imperial or Sharpshooter Royal or maybe Lee case and die lube and make sure you lube inside of the neck. Don't get any lube on the shoulder. You'll likely need to tumble your cases afterwards. Or try those lubes on the case sides and imperial dry neck lube on the necks. Then you can just wipe the outer case clean.
I used imperial when resizing LC brass that has been machine gun fired. Anyone who has done that knows those cases take some effort to size. I never stuck one with imperial and my Forster die.

 

[kfreeze]

Hello Long Range Hunting forum community. I love to handload and would classify myself as and advanced intermediate loader (I measure from the datum point on the shoulder, etc.). I currently successfully load .223, 6.5 Creedmoor and 30-06 in bottlenecked rifle cartridges and .350 Legend and a bunch of pistol calibers in straight walls. I rarely buy commercial ammunition, and usually when I buy a new caliber gun, I buy the dies and once fired brass for it. This has been very successful and enjoyable for me.

Here is my problem, I recently bought a Winchester Model 70 super grade in .270 Win. I bought some once fired .270 brass from Diamond K Brass LLC out of Phoenix. The rounds that I was successfully able to resize require inordinate about of effort and force. Several cases have stuck in both the die and the expander ball, which only happened once before on a 30-06 case years ago. I sent the sizing die back to Hornady and they checked the dimensions and gave it a polish. Once I received it back I lubed a case with One Shot, let it dry and the case immediately stuck in the die.

I called Hornady and they assured my my die is in spec. They said the case may be blown out of dimensions. I do see round marks from both the Remington and Winchester brass from the pressure gauge. Has anyone encountered this problem before?

Part of your problem is the way you are using the one shot case lube. I found that for that stuff to work great, and not give me stuck cases, I put the brass in a one gallon ziploc bag, spray a bunch of it in the bag, then close the bag and roll it around for a couple of minutes, then spray some more lube in there and repeat one more time. After that I let the cases dry. While the cases dry, I spray some of the lube into the die and let it dry. I do that twice too. I learned to do that years ago from other guys who had stuck cases using the hornady one shot lube. The big thing was to prelube the die. I always clean my dies out with carb or brake cleaner before I size cases too.

The first case sized that stuck was a problem for me as well as the harder push on the press handle when sizing. That completely solved the problem for me. Good luck!

 

[59FLH]

Start at the start, and purchase some new brass as others have stated.

Try another lube, I have issues with One shot, basically due to application techniques.

Imperial sizing wax, Pro Blend Assembly lube, are excellent.

 

[Gorill@]

Of the brass you successfully resized, how is it working in your go no go guage?

 

[Hugnot]

I almost always buy 1X fired brass because it is real cheap. I full length resize after each firing.

I bought a Lee F/L size die in 6.5 Creedmoor because it was real cheap. I lubed the cases up good with Hornady Unique Case Lube & promptly tore the rim off a 1X fired 6.5 CM case upon an extraction attempt. This caused frustration & slowed my schedule down because I needed to pull the stuck case from the die. I then cleaned the inside of the die again with Hornady One Shot Cleaner & Lube & checked the insides out that looked real good. I then lubed up another case & the same problem almost happened again but did not because I became real smart & remembered the previous stuck case event.

I then bought a Redding 6.5 Creedmoor F/L die & sized the remaining 99, 6.5 Creedmoor cases using Hornady Unique Case Lube. Regrettably, the Lee die has not been used for over one year. I might try using it again with cases fired in my rifle.

I turn necks after the first F/L size after lubing the insides of the necks with 3 in 1 Lock Lube (graphite) & then after for each F/L sizing when using an expander ball. Forster dies have the expander button up high in die near neck portion. Neck walls in most brass are excessively thick. Skipping neck expansion or lubricating neck insides might reduce neck run out.

AR ammo is made in batches of 250 -500 using 62 grain boat tail bullets. Each 1X fired case is lubed with Hornady Unique Case Lube then sized with a .223 small base die. Brass fired in strange chambers. No stuck cases ever.

.20 Practical ammo is made in batches of 100 - 500 using 40 grain Vmax bullets. Each 1X fired case is lubed with Hornady Unique Case Lube then sized with a .223 small base die. No stuck cases ever. Brass is then neck reduced using a Redding .223 F/L bushing die having a .226 bushing. Necks are turned so no expander ball or 3 in 1 graphite lock lube is used for subsequent loads. I got a real good deal, real cheap, on 1000 1X fired Lake City 5.56X45 brass and use this in the .20P.

All my 1X fired brass after F/L sizing, chambers real easy having slight resistance upon closing stripped bolt. No case separations.

No stuck cases with Hornady Unique Case Lube. I use the same stuff on my leather shoes worn when doing yard work on wet days.

 

[wildcat westerner]

Hello, had the same problem when I purchased once fired 300 WSM brass for my rifle. I did not know there was an automatic made in .300 WSM, but I do now, since NOTHING I did would allow those cases to chamber in my bolt action rifle.

 

[Calvin45]

Hello, had the same problem when I purchased once fired 300 WSM brass for my rifle. I did not know there was an automatic made in .300 WSM, but I do now, since NOTHING I did would allow those cases to chamber in my bolt action rifle.

My condolences. That sucks.

Yeah sometimes chamber tolerances vary so much that once fired brass proves tricky if it's not been fired in your own chamber.

That being said I've bought tons of used brass if the price was right, and have rarely had issues. When I have had issues I've understood that does just come
With that territory, a bit of a gamble. I'm pretty liberal about throwing out "suspect" cases as well and clean and inspect them all.

 

[VinceMule]

Small base sizing 300 WSM, NI brass was a chore recently, which was not fired in a Semi auto. Going from brass fired in a factory rilfe to a custom barrel, better start off with new brass!

 

[Calvin45]

Small base sizing 300 WSM, NI brass was a chore recently, which was not fired in a Semi auto. Going from brass fired in a factory rilfe to a custom barrel, better start off with new brass!

That's a good point about the custom barrel…I've had very few issues with once fired brass from other peoples chambers in my rifles. But all my rifles save one are unmodified factory rifles with factory chambered barrels.

My 358 Norma is a rebarreled gun but I've formed brass for it from .300 win mag that's been fired in multiple different .300 win chambers first haha. No problems. Only surprise was how short the throat is but that has nothing to do with brass. With 250 grain interlocks it kisses the lands if you seat to the cannelure! Just crimp them extra hard and it's not a problem…but I learned this when I first acquired this gun and went to test some uncrimped loads. Went to extract a live round and it resisted extraction then ended up dumping powder everywhere and needing to poke the bullet out from the muzzle end with a cleaning rod.

 

[VinceMule]

Brass has a memory, you size it down, and it does not stay there on huge chambers, especially. I have ran into issues with brass "normalizing" after five years or so after being full length sized, with perhaps three out of fifty cases that would no longer chamber.

I have used a redding body sizer to size loaded ammo on more than one occasion.