Case head separation -- stuck in die

Slooshark1

Slooshark1

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Hello fellow Gunnuters,

I was FL resizing some once fired brass for my .358 Norma Mag when the case broke about 1/8" ahead of the belt and the rest of the case is stuck in the die. What the heck do I do now? They're Hornady New Dimension dies.

Your expertise is welcome.

Thanks,

Slooshark1
 
Use a brass punch that will fit through the decap spindle hole and use it to tap on the case mouth. I've only had to struggle with stuck cases with intact case heads: Heating up the die might be necessary in conjuction with and/if the first fails used alone... using an electric heat gun.
 
What you can try to do is push a brass barrel brush in from the action end until it is about half way into the neck. Then try to pull the brush back out. You may need to run a cleaning rod down the barrel and push it out.
 
Jb weld a 30-06 (or whatever you have) in it and pull it out in your press the next day
 
one I had stuck in the die I plugged the case with a bullet and made a adaptor to thread in the die with a grease nipple, worked like a dam

Wow , that's thinking out of the box , more than one way to skin a cat
 
The one time I had this happen, this is how I got it out.

1) Removed the expander ball/decapping pin, then found a plain vanilla framing spike that fit the threaded hole in the die closely.

2) Filed the point of the spike off square with the shank.

3) Set die upside-down in a padded vice, and jammed several cotton patches hard into the case neck/shoulder area.

4) Very carefully scratched up the inside of the case with the end of a small file, being careful not to touch the inside of the die.

5) Melted some lead, dipped a ladle full, and poured it into the die.

6) After the lead hardened, just turned the die over, inserted the spike and lightly tapped the lead-filled case out of the die.

It came easily with just a few taps. Swabbed the die with some Hoppes #9, cleaned it dry with a few cotton patches, and gave a final swab with a patch anointed with some case lube.

Die went back into the press, and carried on. Still using the same die today, 30+ years later. :)

Ted
 
Take the expander assembly out. Find a tap that will slip about 1/2 way into the case; then give it about a half a turn. A starter tap with pronounced leade is best. You don't want to cut right through and mar the inside of the die, just enough to get a good grip. Run a drift punch or rod in from the top and give it a few love-taps with a hammer. It'll either pop out or tear out the partial threads you cut. If it tears out put the die back in and give it another 1/4 turn. Alternately to the punch and hammer you could screw a nut on the exposed part of the die and use a wrench to pull it. It probably isn't very stuck, the cases break because they were mostly separated to begun with.
 
the tap method should work except I would not be tapping on the tap they are very brittle. start taping the case try an get at least two turns take tap out install bolt with correct threads and tap on it maybe heat die with hair dryer first. good luck
 
torontogungal said:
Incipient case head separation.
Better it happened in the dye than in the gun.
Good time to check the guns head spacing.
Click to expand...

A separated case is much easier to remove from a gun than from a sizing die. A head separation will take your gun out of action until you clear it, but it is not going to blow it up.

Broken case extractors are worth having around if you reload bottle-necked cases and, as mentioned, would definitely be worth trying on a die.
 
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