News:

Want Appleseed to grow and fill our firing lines?  We need help with advertising, social media, graphics design, and administrative tasks.  An hour of time spent at this level can have a huge impact.  You can make a difference!  Send a Personal Message to Cleveland.

Main Menu

Cases breaking in sizing die

Started by AllMovingParts, January 25, 2013, 11:37:19 PM

Previous topic - Next topic
Print
Go Down Pages1
User actions

AllMovingParts

January 25, 2013, 11:37:19 PM
I have been having some trouble lately with 9mm cases breaking in my sizing die. The die is a Lee full length carbide die. The cases have been cleaned. I never had trouble with this in the past, having put probably 3-4000 cases through it but have had three cases break in this batch of a few hundred. I never lubed with carbide dies in an caliber.

What is going on here? Is the die wearing out?

2 clicks low

#1
January 25, 2013, 11:47:26 PM
I have never heard of a carbide die wearing out. Especialy with only 3-4 k rounds. I know people who do that in a day.

How many times has the brass be reloaded? I suspect the problem may be the brass has reached it's life expectency.

2cl
"Semper Fritos" 1st. Chicago Chairborne

ItsanSKS

#2
January 26, 2013, 12:07:49 AM
A picture of a broken case would be greatly beneficial in our endeavor to diagnose the problem. 

That said, I would agree with 2cl that wearing out a carbide die is unheard of, especially on 9mm brass. 

Are you familiar with the provenance of the brass you are using?  IE: do you know how many times it's been reloaded, what firearm it was used in, etc?  Or is it 'range pickup'?
"Those who would trade an ounce of liberty for an ounce of safety deserve neither."

"To save us both time in the future... how about you give me the combo to your safe and I'll give you the pin number to my bank account..."

AllMovingParts

#3
January 26, 2013, 12:44:31 AM
I'll try to get a picture tomorrow. The brass had the end with the primer pop off. It looks like it was fused at the factory and the union broke. I have know idea if that is how cases are actually made, but that is was it looks like.

The brass is range pick up. The three cases were all different brands; I think the last one was NATO brass. I am using a cheap Lee single stage for the size/decap, in the past I used a Lee Load Master progressive for the sizing. I have used this single stage for .380 acp in the past for about 3-500 rounds and didn't have any problem.

It doesn't seem like I am having to push excessively hard on cases, and these three didn't feel any different and they all popped off with the case fully inserted, I think they broke just as I was starting to pull the case out.

GEmanuel

#4
January 26, 2013, 07:09:57 AM
Was there any commonality in the head stamp of the cases which separated?
There is likely no way of knowing with range brass exactly what you have there as far as how many, if any, times it has been reloaded.
Its too late now to look at primers for pressure signs, but do you notice the case being a bit extra shinny in the area where it separated?
Could be fatigued brass or excess pressure or a combination of the two.
If the head stamps are the same on the cases which separated, stop using those, especially if they are oddballs.
"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." — George Washington

"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." --Mark Twain (1835-1910)

"A constitution is not the act of a government, but of a people constituting a government; and government without a constitution is power without a right. All power exercised over a nation, must have some beginning. It must be either delegated, or assumed. There are not other sources. All delegated power is trust, and all assumed power is usurpation. Time does not alter the nature and quality of either." ~ Thomas Paine

Pitmaster

#5
January 26, 2013, 07:58:25 AM
Check the interior of the die to see if there is an obstruction and clean the die.
Pitmaster

Captain Noah Cook a Revolutionary War Veteran was my great, great, great,...great grandfather. Noah Cook enlisted in the militia on April 21, 1775 at age 18 upon learning of the Battles of Lexington and Concord that morning. His company left on that day for Concord arriving April 24, 1775.*

*History of Northampton, Massachusetts: from its settlement ..., Volume 2, Part 2, Chapter 25, Page 359


"The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home." Antonin Scalia

�The test of a democracy is not whether the people vote, but whether the people rule.� G.K. Chesterton

NRA Endowment Member

Mark Davis

#6
January 26, 2013, 06:23:31 PM
Probably not your issue but a carbide die will wear out sizing steel cases and even faster sizing dirty cases.

DEH

#7
January 28, 2013, 08:20:20 PM
I have had this problem in R-P rifle brass before.  My conclusion, was that it was just soft brass.
-Appleseed: '08-IBC, '09-Red Hat, '09-FT Stewart, '10-RBC, '24,'26 IBC

KD '09, '10, '11, '14, '15, '16, '22, "25. RFKD '25. Pistoleer '24.

-2Cor10:4-5. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, & bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

-Eph6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this moral darkness and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Print
Go Up Pages1
User actions