308 Lake City Brass Issues

Gunner4life

Gunner4life

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Hey all,

I got a bag of 1f lake city 308 and was resizing them. During the process I had to use a lot more force than usual when compared to other brands of brass. I gave them a generous coat of Imperial wax in both the outside and in the neck but still no luck. The case gets stuck about half way in, right when the expander ball hits the neck.

Has anyone else had the same problem I'm experiencing?? I know that mil brass is slightly thicker, but should it make such a difference?

I used a cloth and cleaned the inside of the die and took out a bunch of gunk, but that didn't seem to help that much.
 
Probably fired in loose machinegun chambers.
What press are you using?
Should be possible to size, particularly with Imperial.
 
May be that the little Lee isn't up to the job.
I suspect that my Rockchucker would make short work of them.
 
Pretty hard to judge exactly how much "force" you are applying. Some brass just needs a little extra push to get it over the expander ball. If the neck or shoulder are not deformed there is no harm done.
 
I never had problems with the expander, it was always when the bottom of the die got to the base. SERIOUSLY blown out with maybe 1 in 5 rounds, because of those sloppy MG chambers.

Get some Dillon spray-on lube and it'll help a TON. Trust me.

-M
 
Imperial Sizing Die Wax or Amsoil motor oil on cases. Any press should do it as long as it is mounted solid. Sometimes it's the heavier NATO 7.62 brass and or the fact it may have been fired in a larger chamber.
 
Bah I just spent 2 hours resizing and decapping all 100 cases... used a copious amount of wax but worked out in the end hahaha

Now to trim them all...by hand. At times like this I wish I paid the extra $20 for the case prep centre.

Thanks guys for helping me out.
 
I find the Lee trimmer in a drill or Lee Zip Trim with .308 case length gauge handy for this.
 
Gunner4life said:
Bah I just spent 2 hours resizing and decapping all 100 cases... used a copious amount of wax but worked out in the end hahaha

Now to trim them all...by hand. At times like this I wish I paid the extra $20 for the case prep centre.

Thanks guys for helping me out.
Click to expand...

Crimped primers?
 
Yes, I've found lake city match ammo to be tougher to resize in my Lee press as well. Mine was shot as factory loads through my Savage .308 and still tough to resize. Just a bit of extra lube and it does work fine though. I just assumed it was very thick brass.
 
Suggest that next time you consider doing it in two stages. Take the expander ball out and run them through, then do it again with the ball in.
 
The two stage idea sounds genius, I'm definitely going to try that next time.

Decrimping the primer pocket was easy enough with a power drill, but having to do 100 of then was tedious hahaha.
 
I have this exact problem with federal cases as well . The ones from american eagle and federal blue box , very tough to resize , even with generous lubing .

Winchester , SB and Remington though no issues ...

same press as well .
 
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