Lee 8x57mm die problem

LUTNIT

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
75   0   0
Location
Eastern Ontario
So I was converting some .30-06 brass to 8x57mm for an M95M I bought at a gun show and they wouldn't chamber (bolt wont go all the way forward). I thought it was perhaps the neck thickness but I measured it and it only has a .003" difference from the surplus ammo I have that does fit. I checked the body thickness and found it to be .004" thicker than the surplus brass just below the shoulder.

I searched around for dimensions for 8x57mm brass and found this:
8_x_57_IS.jpg


I switched to my metric caliper and found all the widths to be within the listed maximums in the diagram. I then stood the cases beside each other to check height and found that the shoulder on the .30-06 converted cases are noticeable higher up the case than the surplus. I measured the height to the start of the shoulder and found it to be 47.26mm. Over 1mm higher than the CIP dimensions!

I made sure the shell holder was making contact with the die and ran a case up twice more to make sure it was sizing fully. Shoulder didn't move at all and is still over 1mm too high up the case. Tried switching from Lee paste case lube to RCBS liquid case lube after cleaning the die and nothing changed.

Has anyone else ran into this problem? Would grinding down the shell holder possibly fix it?
 
You will have to either dress off the bottom of the sizing die or the top of the shellholder to move that shoulder down to the proper location.
Eagleye.
 
I tried removing material from an old shell holder I had but ended up weakening it too much so the ridge that held the case crumbled. I was going to try removing some material from the base of the die but found out it started to gouge the shoulder of the cases around where the vent hole allows excess lube to flow out of the die. I haven't done anything to the die at all so this is weird. I tried cleaning it but it appears to be a burr of metal around the vent hole and not something caught in the die.

Back to Lee for warranty work/replacement it is. Already ordered a set of Hornady dies from SFRC.
 
Back
Top Bottom