Hi all,

I have loaded about 10000 rounds of 9mm over the past year and a half. Lately, I am experiencing an occasional case getting stuck in my sizing/decapping die. It is very difficult to remove it once it happens. I have to remove the die and remove the decapping pin, place the die in a vice and use a hammer and a punch from the top to get the stuck case out. I have since used a dremel and some flitz to polish the inside of the sizing die and put some case lube along the inner walls, which seems to have helped, but does anyone have any ideas why this is occurring all of a sudden and what else I can do?

Thanks

is it a standard die or carbide, ialways use some hornady one shot case lube on my brass regardless of the type die.

The dies are Titanium Carbide, Redding Competition Pro Series. Like I said, I have never used case lube and never experienced this in 10000 rounds. It all of a sudden is occurring about every 6-10th case, even with case lube and after polishing the inside of the die.

No clue why this might happen. Buy a new sizing die. I have never had any issues with carbide dies; mostly Lee brand. Brass clean and free from grit?

Talk to Redding. Most likely they will be helpful.

Can you see where the case is hanging up? Some of the pistols with unsupported chambers cause bulges above the extractor groove and if you pick these up on the range they can cause issues, particulalrly if they have been loaded a few times. I think Redding makes a push through die to address this on the parallel sided designs with the same size case head. A friend made me one for a .40. Worked like a charm but was more trouble than just tossing the bad cases.

Brass should never stick in a carbide die no matter how bulged it is.

When they are sticking, do you mean the rims are pulling off? Is it a new batch of brass, is the shellholder worn, or (cough cough) have you checked to make sure it is the proper one?

I like using a spray case lube even with carbide dies, requiring less work to resize means there is less wear happening with everything associated. Just a small shot, doesn't have to be much but makes a measureable difference.

Mark, I'm with you. For my progressives I just wet my finger tips on one hand with baby oil and run them through the cases. Some guys use lanolin (I think it's the basis for some of the spray lubes). As you say the spray lubes work great too. It makes a progressive run a lot slicker.

Mine did this the first time or 2 that I tried 9mm. Heed the suggestion of checking your shell holder. I use a co- ax press, & it turned out that I needed to switch the shell holder jaws to a smaller size than my other handgun loads (.38/.357) required. The standard jaws would not grip the 9mm rim enough to keep them from occasionally being pulled out by the die - the smaller jaws solved the problem.