Reloading Confusion

[Dougan]

T-Man,

I've just had a look at the setting up of the seating die (was a useful exercise as I'm no reloading expert myself) - The way you and the instructions describe setting it up has pretty much the same result as the way I've been doing it; and I can confirm that as long as your cases are the right length then it should not cause a crimp...

...however, as you know .308 Win cases should usually be trimmed to 2.005", with the maximum being 2.015" - The tolerances of setting the seating die as per the instruction don't leave a massive margin for error, and a combination of backing it off less than a full turn and a case being over maximum length could cause a crimp.

We still need the critical measurement of the expander to answer your question (or not...) - You only have to unscrew the rod with the ball-expander on it...takes less than a minute.

Btw: I'm with Bradaz on the 'Lee quick trim' and ditched it in favor of a decent bench-mounted one.

[phaedra1106]

The trick with the Quick Trim is to apply a constant even downward pressure while turning it (not always as easy as it sounds) but it should always leave cases trimmed within SAAMI spec at min & max adjustment of its settings. I usually use a CTS case trimmer which is pretty similar to the WFT trimmer and it is very consistent and cuts extremely cleanly. The Lee hand held trimmers are as said almost completely idiot proof and I've not seen one yet that cut outside of SAAMI spec if used properly.

Whatever you use check your case lengths for consistency, repeatability/consistency is the key to reloading.

[Dougan]

...have you had a chance to measure the expander-ball yet?...no pressure; but I'm still curious.

[tarantulaman]

Not yet, I should be able to try this weekend though.

[tarantulaman]

Hi everyone,

At last I have had time to try and work out the size of the die, sorry it has taken so long.

Ok, so onto the neck sizing die, I cannot disassemble it any further than removing the de-capping rod assembly.

Here are some pictures of the neck sizing die, the full length resize die is assembled in the same way.

I am not sure, but I assume that the highlighted part of the de-capping rod is the part I need to measure? If so then it is approx. .3084 inches

Dave

[Dougan]

Ah! - Nice one T-Man...that explains your problem...the expander ball is over-sized and is opening up the case necks to the same measurement as the bullets; giving no real tension to hold them in place.

I'd be interested to know the measurement of the one in the full-length sizing die...as I said, I had the same problem with the same type of dies, but found that the ball in the FL die measured OK, and when I swapped it into the neck-sizing die it cured the problem.

[tarantulaman]

Thanks Dougan,

Unfortunately both are the same diameter.

I guess my only option is to send them back to Redding, annoying as it took about 2 months to get them in the first place.

[Dougan]

Before sending them back, just double check that it is the right die set for 7.5 x 55 Swiss Schmidt Rubin...I know this is obvious, so apologies for pointing it out...

...that aside, I reckon you've found the cause - I don't have a K31, but from what I've read people generally use a .308 bullet, with some factory ammo being less at .306...so if the expander ball is measuring more than .308 then it can't be right.

It'll be interesting to see what Redding say, and if they agree with our measurements - I'm going to send my one back too, and I'll let you know what response I get.

[tarantulaman]

Yes, I checked they are definitely 7.5 * 55.

Thanks for the help Dougan, and everyone else.

It is great to have found the cause of the issue at last. I can now contact Redding and hopefully get this resolved quickly.

[Dougan]

Your welcome T-Man - I've had loads of reloading help and advice on the forum so it's nice to be able to return the favor...

...I know it'll probably take a while to get a reply from Redding, but please let us know what they say when you do (and I'll do the same).