Hornady die problem

T

TSPIRI

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Hi folks i was fl resizing some brass this weekend for my 270wsm and I was just bumping back the shoulder about 2-3 thousandths on brass that I had already fired in my rifle. The brass was annealed so it should work nicely. When I pushed my die down to bump the shoulder everything was fine the problem was when I pulled my expander ball out there was so much tension I was deforming the base of my cartridge. The rim was bending ever so slightly. To the point that I couldn't close my bolt.

All cases were annealed and had a light resizing lube on the neck/ shoulder.

I've never had this happen before with any of my other 3 lee die sets only this weekend with my hornady. Also some of the cases were nickel plated brass and they seemed to force more in the die but some plain brass did the same thing just a touch less.


HELP!
 
......you're supposed to have lube on the body of the case.
Not on the shoulder.

Your cases are getting stuck due to lack of lube in the appropriate area :)
 
The reloading manuals tell you to lube the case body and wipe any excess off the shoulder and neck. You can also lube the inside of the case neck to ease pulling the expander ball through the neck.

If you did lube the case body then the expander diameter is too large, or the die is sizing the neck down to small. Meaning the die may be marked incorrectly.

The cases you have with bent rims should be trashed as they will always affect shoulder bump and chamber fit.
 
Maybe the wrong size expander ball was installed from the factory. It has happened before. Measure the ball and post here as someone will know if its right or not. You could also remove the expander ball and see how much its actually sizing the neck.
 
I lube the cases exactly like I do on my other dies usually the top third to half case is waxed. Decapping pin is about 1/8 to 3/16 past the base of the die as per hornady instructions.

I'll try more lube on the case body and see what happens. Thanks
 
I would try lubing the whole case body. What happens?
Try lubing inside the neck. What happens?
Remove the decapper/expander and resize. What happens?
If your problem persists then I would try a full length resize as your base may have expanded due to repeated firings.
 
Old style Hornady dies are kinda notorious for the neck expander spindle slipping and not staying in adjustment. If that happened, you could be trying to expand the neck while it is still being held by the size die body. If you have the old style, replace the smooth spindle with a replacement kit with a threaded shaft.
 
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