Stumped - .308 inside diameter

Keller

Keller

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So here's the deal. I've been reloading for .308, as well as other calibers, for over ten years now with my Lee single stage press with zero issues. In the past I have used almost exclusively Winchester brass, but recently I purchased some Remington when the store I buy from didn't have any Winchester. Taking the extra care to full-length resize this new virgin brass using Dillon Case Lube (the spray on stuff) there was very little resistance to resizing this new brass; just a couple of very slightly bent necks.

After cleaning the brass in hot soapy water I dried them with a hair dryer to get them warm enough to aid the drying process, I then proceeded to check the length with my Lee trimming tool. This is when I discovered that the inside diameter of the necks was too tight to even insert the trimming tool. My bag of 50 brass actually contained 52 pieces so I went back to check the 2 that I had set aside and hadn't resized; these too were snug in the neck but the brass that I had resized was even tighter. This resized brass is so tight that I worry that I would shave the jacket on any bullet that I try to seat.

At this point I disassembled my die and made sure it was clean; I degreased and polished the inside with fine steel wool. I then lubed up the cases again and did the whole process over, but still the necks are the same. I should also note that I have cleaned the die before when I was using Lee Case Lube (the paste) and re-installed the decapper as per the proper Lee process for doing so. This issue has happened once in the past when I used some Nickel plated Remington brass, but since going back to Winchester brass solved the issue I just set aside the Nickel stuff and haven't used it again.

Is this an issue with the Remington brass, or is it possible that I've worn out my Lee die with only ~1500 rounds reloaded?
 
Is the decapper in the wrong position? It performs a dual function of pushing out the primer, and expanding the case neck. It should just protrude out the bottom of the die.
 
measure the thickness of the brass at the neck (assuming you have calipers) and report back.

if the necks on that batch of Remington brass are a different hardness or a different thickness than that of the Winchester, you could be getting a different amount of spring back when sizing.
 
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Winchester measures 0.012 at the neck; this brass has seen 4 reloads.

I think I might have screwed up my decapper with the nickel brass I used some time ago. Lee recommends that you chamfer the neck of nickel brass prior to resizing to remove any nickel burrs that might be present; looks like I damaged my decapper ball by not knowing this. The decapper ball does appear to have scores on it, oh well; chalk it up as a lesson learned I guess. Now to source either a new decapper, sizing die, or complete set. The decapper is pretty cheap to replace but finding one might be the tough part.
 
Call Lee, they might replace it for free and if not, it won't be that expensive.

Brass won't really wear the ball, but the nickel is harder and could have. Also, you are likely to see a difference in neck tension with the different thickness of the necks.

But .303 is too small for sure. Should be closer to ~.306-.3065 (obviously depending on your brass, the neck tension desired, the 'bushing' portion of the die body, etc)
 
Remington brass is normally thicker than Winchester brass, I have sized new Winchester brass and the expander button barely touched the inside of the neck. Turn around and do the same thing to new Remington brass and the expander button would be tight and screech if you forgot to lube the inside of the neck.
 
Update: So I sent an email to Lee on Monday and didn't recieve a reply, then all of a sudden today I get an order confirmation email from Lee that I have a package on the way. Guess they're sending me a new decapping ball free of charge; damn that's fine customer service!
 
Already mentioned in post #11 - Rem brass is thicker ..and when new, will spring back more than after work hardened a bit. So, when your expander ball exits, the brass is spinging back quite a bit...hence lots of neck tension. I doubt that the expander ball is worn.
 
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