Hi Folks,

Well, I began my maiden voyage in reloading tonight and it ain't starting out so good. I'm trying prep some Virgin Winchester brass (.375 Win.). I have a bag of 50 and quite a few of the case mouths are bent/dented right out of the bag.

I lubbed them all and ran them thru my Lee Full Legnth Sizing Die and they are still dented/ out of round. Is this normal? Am I missing something here?

This is my first attempt at reloading but I thought the sizing die would round them out. I installed the die in my Lee Classic 4 hole Turret Press according to their directions. I deactivated the auto indexing feature and am using the press as a single stage for the time being.

Can anyone offer some guidence on what I'm doing wrong, or, how to correct the problem?

Thanks in advance.

Y.B.

Am I missing something here?

The expander ball on the decapping pin should iron out any out of roundness.

Is there an expander ball on your decapping pin in the sizing die?.

The decapping pin should unscrew out of the top of the die. Or you have to remove the lock nut and unscrew it out the bottom of the die.

Measure the expander ball (or plug) and make sure that it is .375" in diameter. When you screw it back in make sure the decapping pin protrudes from the bottom of the die enough to go through the case and will push the old primer out the bottom. Don't screw it down so far that the expander ball hits the bottom of the case though.

It's not uncommon for new brass to be dented at the case mouth. I use an old brass plumb bob to work out the dent, then run it through the sizing die. Jimmy

Not only should the die smooth out the dents, but seating the bullet and fireforming the case in your chamber will removed them as well. These dents are quite normal and will not be a problem unless very excessive. Good luck!

Thanks for the input guy's.

I hadn't ran them thru the Expander die yet when I posted this, but that solved the problem.

I don't know what I was thinking the Expander die was for, but I was just assuming that the sizer die would round out the case mouth.

Thanks again for all the input, it's much appreciated.

Y.B.

When I have brass like that, I actually remove the decapping pin and the expander ball...

I resize them, and there is nothing for the dent to hang up on and destroy the brass...

then I resize them again with the expander ball back in to set the neck diameter to the correct settings...

cheers
seafire

The .375 Win is a 3-die set. I'd just use the expander on new cases. If they are primed, I'd remove the decapping pin first.
Bagged cases can't prevent mouth dents, but they are harmless usually.

quote:

Originally posted by Ewin:
The .375 Win is a 3-die set. I'd just use the expander on new cases. If they are primed, I'd remove the decapping pin first.
Bagged cases can't prevent mouth dents, but they are harmless usually.

I forgot that that was a three die set for straight cases!

I always resize sll new cases. Full length!

I've found this is getting to be a regular thing with Winchester brass. I have since switched to Remington and have had far fewer problems. My last batch of Winchester brass was in .25-06 and I had to toss 6 cases out of 100 because I couldn't even get the expander ball thru them. 6% scrap to me isn't acceptable in new brass because of poor material handling. Remington boxes their brass instead of useing poly bags like Winchester. This eliminates a lot of the problem. Bill T.