Thread: Die problem

Originally Posted by 30.06king

@Oldbloke Agreed, too short to be 30.06 brass. I also think this case was too long for the die. I'm guessing the case neck is too long ... ?? Looks to me as if the case mouth hit a stop inside the die and when the OP forced the press handle down all the way it has pushed the neck down onto the shoulder, forming that doughnut / ridge and also pushed the shoulder back as well, rounding off the normal sharp angle. Would be interesting if the OP could measure a fired case and compare that to max length in a Reloading Book.
What do you think @Oldbloke @grandpamac , would my theory hold water ?

Greetings,
I went out to the shed and pulled apart the only set of Lee dies here. I could see no evidence of any stop within the die that would cause a problem, the bit that sizes the neck opens up to a larger dia above and into the recess for the locknut. The locknut seemed to be well clear of the case even an overlength case. I think it was just a problem of thick and hard brass of the military case. The ridge that we can see is just where the sizing stopped due to the resistance. Perhaps the sizing lube was not up to the job or there was not enough of it. As far as the stripping of the threads goes consistent over tightening to stop the expander assembly riding up may have aided its final demise. Making sure that both the outside and inside of the necks are clean and well lubricated plus annealed after each third load go a long way to avoiding problems. As mentioned earlier sorting any brass to get rid of rogue cases would help as well.
Regard Grandpamac.