Lapua .357 Mag ejecting poorly from the LNL EZ Ject

[IMtheNRA]

I've been pretty happy with the EZ Ject retrofit on my LNL AP, and it has done a good job ejecting about 700-900 mixed .357 brass cases that I reloaded. It works better with nickel plated cases, and jams about once in 50 unplated brass cases, bringing the system to a complete stop. Much better than the wire ejection it used to have.

Yesterday, I reloaded 100 brand new Lapua .357 mag cases and the ejection system jammed on at least a third of them!

Do you have any idea what is different about this brass that causes the EZ Ject ejection system to choke on it? I'd love to resolve this issue if I can, because this is really beatiful brass...

 

[ReloaderFred]

In .357 brass, there is great variation in rim thickness between manufacturers, and even in extractor groove width. I've even seen some .357 brass that didn't have an extractor groove cut at all. Headspace is affected to some degree by this, but most firearms will handle the small differences.

If you'll take some measurements of the different brands of brass, you'll find a wide disparity in diameters of rims and bases. That's where your ejecting problem is coming from, not from the press itself.

You can polish the individual shell slots on the shell plate, and that will help. I like to use Flitz Metal Polish for this, but if you have some J-B Bore Cleaner, that will also work just fine. I like to use a bullet shaped felt polishing bit in my Dremel tool for this job.

Hope this helps.

Fred

 

[Walkalong]

Most case hang ups are from sharp/rough edges on the shell plate. When the brass tilts a little it wants to hang on the 90 degree edge as pictured below. It has a tendency to have burrs on it as received. That is the most critical edge to fix. It needs to be deburred, slightly rounded, and polished. The two flats surfaces where the case rides against the shell plate also benefit from polishing, but that sharp 90 degree edge is the most critical.

The 9MM shell plate is the worst plate to get to work on the old Projectors and wire eject LNL's. This fixed my 9MM plate and it was 100% dependable after that on my Projector and then the wire eject LNL. I went through two shell plates getting it right. That is how I figured out which edge was the most critical.

Shell plates that are too loose will also be more prone to case ejection hang ups.

I also did some polishing on the ejector stub. I barely knocked off the 90 degree edge on the top the brass would contact, and polished the edge that pushes on the brass. I also polished the sub plate where the case slides off. Just very light work with 600 grit and polishing with a felt bob with compound.

 

[Walkalong]

.44 Spl / Mag Shell Plate # 30.

Converted to EZ-Ject by Hornady. You can see tiny chips along the edges from where they machined the hard plate.