Very informative. Good to know brass can last that long.
Thanks. Some old timers already knew this. But could not put a number on it and most people I talked with really thought the necks would split unless I annealed them.. But no annealing and no split necks. Accuracy stayed pretty good .
Hah! No joke? Good troubleshooting. Never really thought about a warm sizer die having grown so much it throws off the bump, but it sure would. Now I'd be lying if I said I wasn't wondering if you could do this on purpose to control bump in a FL sizer without custom shellplates!
The way i found out it was the die.
The day i was not able to bump the shoulder back it was a bit sunny outside and i was doing it in the sun..
The next day i checked if it was bumping the shoulder back and it was.. but it(press and die) spent the night inside the house.
Thought it was the press.
I heated my press in the oven and sized a round..It sized just fine ..I could bump the shoulder back.
Then i let it cool and heated the die in the oven..AAAHHHHAAAAAA! I found the culprit.
This may not happen with a factory die though.
My Lee die used to resize the case body .002" to .004" depending on where you measure it.
I honed and polished the Full Length Sizer die so that my case is not sized more than .001" anywhere.
Funny The die Jeddabug has is also a Lee same one but his only minimally sizes the case when i checked it..and would not bump the shoulder back .008" like mine did in factory condition.
His barely bumps the shoulder back.. Like he got the cream of the crop.
I had another .308 lee die that i honed a tad too far..Trying to make a die that sized my case with NO expander plug.
Missed it by .002",,May work well for large cast bullets..I do not mind messing one up though.
Fun stuff
The day i was not able to bump the shoulder back it was a bit sunny outside and i was doing it in the sun..
The next day i checked if it was bumping the shoulder back and it was.. but it(press and die) spent the night inside the house.
Thought it was the press.
I heated my press in the oven and sized a round..It sized just fine ..I could bump the shoulder back.
Then i let it cool and heated the die in the oven..AAAHHHHAAAAAA! I found the culprit.
This may not happen with a factory die though.
My Lee die used to resize the case body .002" to .004" depending on where you measure it.
I honed and polished the Full Length Sizer die so that my case is not sized more than .001" anywhere.
Funny The die Jeddabug has is also a Lee same one but his only minimally sizes the case when i checked it..and would not bump the shoulder back .008" like mine did in factory condition.
His barely bumps the shoulder back.. Like he got the cream of the crop.
I had another .308 lee die that i honed a tad too far..Trying to make a die that sized my case with NO expander plug.
Missed it by .002",,May work well for large cast bullets..I do not mind messing one up though.
Fun stuff
I have a Lee .223 sizer too. I paired it with an RCBS shellplate. I will not part with them because that combo is exactly matched for my gun. What was originally unlucky (the shellplate was 0.002" too shallow, causing too much bump), turned into much luck when I swapped the shellplates. Now I can just let it bottom out and it will always bump right at 0.001" or less.
I do want a bushing sizer, though, but I don't want to mess with it since it works so well now.
