Thread: Shell seat problem.

Anyone have problems trying to seat S&B 8mm Mauser shells into Lee shell seat?
Any other brand of 8mm shells seem to seat ok but S&B is one I always have problems with.
Anyone have a solution apart from buying another firms shell seat.?
Phil.

S&B .308 gave me the same problems.... and was harder than a hard thing to resize....

RWS 7x57mm Brass same issue. Wrote to Lee and they advised to try different Lee Shell holders or other brand shell holders. Said European brass tended to be dimensionally thicker than American. Lee makes its gear for American brass, surprise, surprise.

yeah but if it was sloppy enough for euro..it would be doubly sloppy for "merican".....cant have it both ways unfortunately LOL.

Some .338LM cases are the same, the extractor groove is designed around Lapua spec but some sizes are slightly bigger grooves meaning you need a different shell holder. And then for a while Lee autoprime shell holders didn't fit either so it's been a bit of a recurring thing.

I found the 7x57 S&B cases had the same issue. Had a spare shell holder for that range of cases, so used a Dremel to carefully chamfer the top edge until they slid in nicely. As it didnt actually alter any critical dimensions, the same case holder can be used for other cases no problem. And to remind me that it was modified for S&B cases I dremeled a couple of small nicks on the outside edge for easy reference.

I might do that myself to see how it works.
Phil.

Well, I bit the bullet (so to speak. No pun intended) & ended up solving the problem by finding that the Hornady no1 shell seat works. I don't know if it'll solve Husky1600's problem, although it should both being the same base diameter. Today I converted a few x mil Berdan primed to boxer & they seem to fit the standard Lee shell seat ok. The S&B shells are for a friend that needed ammo pretty quickly so he had to wait until the Hornady seat arrived. Phew, problem solved.
Cheers,
Phil.

Originally Posted by Husky1600#2

I found the 7x57 S&B cases had the same issue. Had a spare shell holder for that range of cases, so used a Dremel to carefully chamfer the top edge until they slid in nicely. As it didnt actually alter any critical dimensions, the same case holder can be used for other cases no problem. And to remind me that it was modified for S&B cases I dremeled a couple of small nicks on the outside edge for easy reference.

I had the same problem, not only with 7x57 S&B but also older Winchester brass - I ended up using a RCBS #11 shell holder which is listed as the alternate from the #3.