Hi guys,

I wonder if anyone else has experienced this problem with Hirtenberg, or any other mil surplus brass for reloading?

I've got a supply of this, and as it's once-fired, I'm full length sizing it this time round with a view to neck sizing once I've fired it through my Tikka .308.

I've come up against two problems with using the Lee .308 f/l die. Firstly the decapping pin is greater in diameter than the flash hole in the brass and secondly, such a huge amount of leverage is required to push the brass up the die that at first I thought I'd got a berdan primed case. Other makes of non-military .308 brass has run through the die woth no problem and no more leverage than normal.

Lee don't advertise a 7.62 x 51 die set and I didn't think there was any fundamental difference in dimensions between the civilian .308 and its' military forebear.

Though I've turned down the decapping pin to suit, I'm not keen on turning down the die and have no intention of so doing. Equally I'm not keen on the amount of leverage I'm going to put through my gear to f/l size the remaining 320 cases!

Short of selling the ramaining brass, any ideas guys?

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tikka 3 barrels

I run this stuff through my Redding FL die
on a regular basis & never had a problem.
Don't know about Lee dies though. But the Hirtenburg is good stuff.

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NRA Life member

I use lee dies and and lee hand caping tool, with norma brass and never had any problems. Have you used an other brand of brass?

Bear Claw, your comments confirm the suggestion that I should keep this brass rather than replace it.

Kimmo E, yes, I've run lots of Sako, Federal and Norma brass through it and the effort was just the same as any other calibre I've loaded.

I wonder, anyone in the UK with a .308 die willing to run one or two through your die for me please?

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tikka 3 barrels

Can you get ahold of a tin of Imperial Sizing Die Wax? It might do the trick for you, also look inside the dies are they nice and shiny? If not you may want to polish with jewelers rouge.

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I'd just stripped and cleaned the die before I started this batch!