I came into about 11,000 empty Lake City 5.56 cases. They had been stored in a buddy's garage for about 20 years and he got tired of moving them around. In any case, I started to reload a few cases to see how they would work in my bolt action .223s.
The first problem I encountered was that most were hard to chamber even after a full length re-size. I understood from discussions with reloading acquaintances that this was likely due to the original brass being fired out of a fully auto weapon or one with a worn chamber. I then purchased a small base .223 die set. I de-capped and resized in a standard die and then turned my turret press over to the small base sizing die. To get the small base die to re-size where I could chamber the round, I set the die down so that the ram would just cam over at the bottom of the die. This adjustment re-sized to the point I could easily chamber a round in my bolt actions.
However, the next aggravating thing to come up was the fact that I ended up with a lot of stuck cases. So much so that I may now be the world's fastest stuck case remover. I got a lot of practice. I tried all of my various brands of case lube with no luck. I got to the point that I was using enough lube that I would get the lube dimple in the case after re-sizing (assuming it did not stick).
I was about to give the cases away out of frustration when I tried using WD-40 as a case lube.
Previously, I was running the un-capped cases in my tumbler for a few hours and then bring them out to de-cap and resize. I thought that the little bit of scale on the case might have been a part of the stuck case issue. When I first tried WD-40 I did it on the case before tumbling. I have now de-capped and full length resized over 500 of the cases in the small base die and with nary a stuck case. I de-cap in the standard size die and then move the turret to the small base sizing die with the de-capping pin and expander ball removed. I then have to turn the turret back to the standard die and run it up through the expander ball because the small base die seems to close the case mouth a tad (probably due to how high I have to run the case to get it full length resized).
Obviously I have to swage the primer pocket as well.
After the full length re-size process I have been tumbling the cases in corn cob media for about 24 hours. I see no evidence of any remaining WD-40 (which has been said by some to have a negative effect on primers).
Just thought that I would let you all know about my experience. I am now the owner of some 10,000 Lake City brass that I can get to work in my bolt guns.
The first problem I encountered was that most were hard to chamber even after a full length re-size. I understood from discussions with reloading acquaintances that this was likely due to the original brass being fired out of a fully auto weapon or one with a worn chamber. I then purchased a small base .223 die set. I de-capped and resized in a standard die and then turned my turret press over to the small base sizing die. To get the small base die to re-size where I could chamber the round, I set the die down so that the ram would just cam over at the bottom of the die. This adjustment re-sized to the point I could easily chamber a round in my bolt actions.
However, the next aggravating thing to come up was the fact that I ended up with a lot of stuck cases. So much so that I may now be the world's fastest stuck case remover. I got a lot of practice. I tried all of my various brands of case lube with no luck. I got to the point that I was using enough lube that I would get the lube dimple in the case after re-sizing (assuming it did not stick).
I was about to give the cases away out of frustration when I tried using WD-40 as a case lube.
Previously, I was running the un-capped cases in my tumbler for a few hours and then bring them out to de-cap and resize. I thought that the little bit of scale on the case might have been a part of the stuck case issue. When I first tried WD-40 I did it on the case before tumbling. I have now de-capped and full length resized over 500 of the cases in the small base die and with nary a stuck case. I de-cap in the standard size die and then move the turret to the small base sizing die with the de-capping pin and expander ball removed. I then have to turn the turret back to the standard die and run it up through the expander ball because the small base die seems to close the case mouth a tad (probably due to how high I have to run the case to get it full length resized).
Obviously I have to swage the primer pocket as well.
After the full length re-size process I have been tumbling the cases in corn cob media for about 24 hours. I see no evidence of any remaining WD-40 (which has been said by some to have a negative effect on primers).
Just thought that I would let you all know about my experience. I am now the owner of some 10,000 Lake City brass that I can get to work in my bolt guns.
