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 Resizing .308 brass 
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I've been reloading some .308 lately, and thought I'd just post a couple of observations.

Last week I was resizing a bunch of Winchester-brand .308 brass that I had fired in my bolt-action Remington 700. I used my Hornady LNL, Hornady sizing die, and Hornady One Shot case lube. The press was humming along beautifully, and all of the brass sized easily and quickly. :thumbsup2: It dropped perfectly into my Lyman case gage.

Yesterday I started sizing a batch of Lake City brass that I bought recently; presumably it's from a military range. I've heard horror stories about how hard it is to size some .308 military brass, but this was the first time I've done it myself. I used the same Hornady sizing die, and the same Hornady One Shot lube.

UUGGHH. It was pretty tough to size, I was worried that I was going to stick a case, and when I did get one "successfully" sized it wouldn't drop all the way into the case gage. :angryfire:

I switched to a Lee sizing die, and it was a lot easier to size the cases. They dropped perfectly into the case gage. I did maybe 500 cases, and except for two that were REALLY grungy and corroded, they all sized just fine. One thing I noticed is that it was a lot easier to pull the brass out of the die, so even if one was a little sticky going in, if I just pushed it all the way in then I could easily get it back out. Good to go!

Today I did another 500-ish, but I used my homemade 6.5 Guys Case Lube instead of the Hornady One Shot. As I've seen before, the homemade lube made sizing a little easier . . . this is good stuff. thumbsup I make it exactly as they show in the video, but I spray it on heavier than Ed recommends.

Anyway, my conclusions:

- The Lee sizing die is a lot easier to use than the Hornady die for tough brass, but still sizes the brass within spec.
- The homemade case lube is the shit. :thumbsup2:

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Thu Sep 10, 2015 9:18 pm
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Steve...I gave up on RCBS dies for .308. The Lee dies work very well, never have I stuck a case. The de-priming rod setup is superior, and neck sizing only is a breeze.
I can easily produce sub 1/2 MOA ammo with my archaic and cheap reloading dies and single stage press without bothering with minute details.
It is beyond me why people take it to the levels they do. In MY experience, with MY rifle, it's a waste of time and resources.
I love LC brass. Same headstamp and lot and you are Golden. Winchester brass? Almost as consistant in my experience.
I shoot either and then necksize only. Trim to length, use a BR2 primer and seat an SMK or AMAX a few thousandths of an inch off the lands.
Hell, both bullets are pretty tolerant of jump in my rifle, I quit stressing over that shit.
So love your cheap LEE dies buddy, and lose the stress. (You are a reloading junky, aren't you?)
Now come on over and rub my back again, the misses wants to watch. :wink05:

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Fri Sep 11, 2015 12:05 am
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That lube is all I use any more. All I've used for 308 is Lee dies.
Started using redding for my 6.5 creedmoor need to order the correct bushing for proper neck tension so back to rcbs dies for now.

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Fri Sep 11, 2015 2:54 am
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I was having problems sizing military brass using normal lube and I did a lot of searching online. I discovered someone was using white lithium grease found a Home Depot for use as a lubricant in sizing dies and works great for me. I also use a RCBS small Base sizing die for resizing/depriming.


Fri Sep 11, 2015 4:29 am
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For some reason Hornady dies are a bitch for sizing lots of calibers, not just .308. It may well be in how they polish them and the die itself tends to wipe off all lube.

Lee dies have more of a "cross-hatch" pattern in their finish and it may well hold more lube. I find that Lee Dies are among the best made and the price is tough to beat. Only time I don't use them is when I neck size only (most of the time).


As for cases not fitting all the way into a case gauge, this is often caused by distorted extractor rings and the case web itself.

On cases that won't fit all the way in, try inserting them backward. Distorted rings will show immediately. Distorted webs will require a small base die but you'll usually only encounter this problem with .223/5.56mm or 7.62X51 NATO where they've been through a Full Auto weapon.

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Fri Sep 11, 2015 5:25 am
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Machine gun brass is pretty apparent when you start processing it. That is what you experienced with the LC brass.

My guess is that the Lee die is effectively a small base die. Anything that gets fed into one of my autoloaders goes through a small base die.

Also, all I use in the alcohol/lanolin liquid spray lubes. Stopped using Hornady 1 shot long ago. One tip on the clean-up for the lanolin lube, get a gallon ziplock bag, toss in some brass, a few hundred, then pour in a few ounces of denatured alcohol. Strips the remaining lube right off. Remove the cases from the bag, leaving the alcohol in the bag, then add more brass, and if needed some more alcohol. Place the removed brass on some paper towels to dry out. The alcohol evaporates quickly. From there finish your brass prep and then do a polish tumble, prime and store.

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Fri Sep 11, 2015 8:04 am
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dogfish wrote:
Machine gun brass is pretty apparent when you start processing it. That is what you experienced with the LC brass.

My guess is that the Lee die is effectively a small base die. Anything that gets fed into one of my autoloaders goes through a small base die.

Also, all I use in the alcohol/lanolin liquid spray lubes. Stopped using Hornady 1 shot long ago. One tip on the clean-up for the lanolin lube, get a gallon ziplock bag, toss in some brass, a few hundred, then pour in a few ounces of denatured alcohol. Strips the remaining lube right off. Remove the cases from the bag, leaving the alcohol in the bag, then add more brass, and if needed some more alcohol. Place the removed brass on some paper towels to dry out. The alcohol evaporates quickly. From there finish your brass prep and then do a polish tumble, prime and store.



No need to 'wash' the brass in alcohol if you clean sized brass in SS Pin media. It not only cleans off all the lube but the carbon and crud from inside the case, including primer pockets. Any "dinging" of the case mouth is removed when I trim, chamfer, and de-burr my cases after they're nice and clean.

Unless the cases are absolutely filthy lubing and sizing before cleaning isn't going to damage any dies. If worried about it, just give them a quick "bath" in a 5 gal pail, add some water and Dawn, slosh, rinse and let dry overnight. I usually skip this process and my dies date back into the 70's with no wear or scratches.

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Sat Sep 12, 2015 7:59 am
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I was just getting ready to start in on a large batch of military brass, more than half of it 7.62 NATO. Thanks for the good information.
Is the military 5.56 similarly troublesome? I have loaded that before and don't recall anything way out of the ordinary. Maybe the smaller diameter just makes for an overall easier resize.

Thanks again for the good information. :cheers2:


Sat Sep 12, 2015 8:39 am
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I've got a 5 gal pail of bulk LC brass.
Use RCBS die. If I'm going to be running more than a few through the die I spray them down with a lithium spray, can I've had for years, think it's Zep.
What I've found that once arm strong sized outta the bucket, next time, after I've fired off in my rifle, it's so much easier and just use normal lube and stroke, just as easy as anything else. My only thought is the tolerances in mil rifles that the brass came out of is larger. Dunno an not complaining.


Sat Sep 12, 2015 11:34 am
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because all of my 308 shooting is out of an AR10, and I have to use a small base die.

when I get a new batch of 7.62nato brass, I do the following, and have had very good luck with it.
1. universal deprime
2. SS wet wash the brass
3. lube with homemade lube(1:9 Lanolin:99% rubbing alcohol)
4. size with normal full lenght sizing die.
5. trim to length
6. SS wet wash
7. lube with homemade lube
8. size in RCBS small base die.
9. swage primer pocket
10. trim to length
treat as normal sized and ready to work brass

never have any issues with it after that, once it has be fully preped, i just treat it like normal brass and only clean it once, and only size it once. I think the MG chambers are on the bigger size, so the brass really needs to be worked back down to spec.


Sat Sep 12, 2015 12:44 pm
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dagamore wrote:
because all of my 308 shooting is out of an AR10, and I have to use a small base die.

when I get a new batch of 7.62nato brass, I do the following, and have had very good luck with it.
1. universal deprime
2. SS wet wash the brass
3. lube with homemade lube(1:9 Lanolin:99% rubbing alcohol)
4. size with normal full lenght sizing die.
5. trim to length
6. SS wet wash
7. lube with homemade lube
8. size in RCBS small base die.
9. swage primer pocket
10. trim to length
treat as normal sized and ready to work brass

never have any issues with it after that, once it has be fully preped, i just treat it like normal brass and only clean it once, and only size it once. I think the MG chambers are on the bigger size, so the brass really needs to be worked back down to spec.


That is one hell of a lot of work. icon_eek

Let me just ask:

- Why do the universal deprime step? Why not just deprime with the first full-length sizing die? You have another tumbling step later anyhow, so the primer pockets will still get clean.
- Why trim after the first sizing? Why not just wait until after your final sizing?

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Sat Sep 12, 2015 5:32 pm
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universal depriming gets the primers out so i get the primer pockets cleaned. using a universal die works better on crimped in primers, at least it does for me, and because you are only putting pressure on the primers I feel that I get a lot more feel for what is going on in the press.

I find that brass flows/grows when sizing, and nato brass tends to grow the most, at least for me, but once they are processed, I only have to work them once.

sort of my logic behind the two step sizing, is it allows the brass to move more while working it less.


Sat Sep 12, 2015 5:39 pm
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dagamore wrote:
sort of my logic behind the two step sizing, is it allows the brass to move more while working it less.


Yeah, I understand the two-step sizing . . . basically just doing it a little at a time. However, it seems like you could skip the trimming after the first sizing, and just trim after the second sizing.

Just brainstorming here. thumbsup

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Leave it cleaner than you found it.


Sat Sep 12, 2015 6:03 pm
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I agree the first sizing of LC MG brass is the tough one. Though like Steve i don't understand why you would trim it at that if you are then going to run it through a SB die. It will stretch more at that point and you might as well trim after that 2nd sizing.
It's all good if that works for you, but just seems premature to trim at the 1st sizing. After running through the SB die have you measured if again?

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Sat Sep 12, 2015 6:37 pm
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deadshot2 wrote:

Unless the cases are absolutely filthy lubing and sizing before cleaning isn't going to damage any dies. If worried about it, just give them a quick "bath" in a 5 gal pail, add some water and Dawn, slosh, rinse and let dry overnight. I usually skip this process and my dies date back into the 70's with no wear or scratches.


I need to start just resizing dirty brass. Right now i just do a simple two step process. Tumble in SS for an initial clean, then full length resize, then a final SS tumble.

I just like handling clean brass better. Plus i dont process all that much brass. Shooting suppressed (out of the AR10 and AR15's) makes some dirty brass!


Sat Sep 12, 2015 6:58 pm
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