Handheld Rifle Brass Reloading

Take a tip from your cleaning kit and scrub the inside on the neck, take a q-tip lightly lubed and swipe that inside the neck, lightly lube outside of case. Bam, easy resizing.

A Lee hand press doesn't have enough leverage to resize bottleneck rifle brass.

Unless you are the Incredible Hulk.

I'd use the Dillon.

Even if you stick a case & pull the rim off, that ain't that hard to get out.

All you need to do is drill & tap the primer pocket (#7 drill - 1/4"-20 tap), drop a socket over it, and screw it out with a bolt.

rc

I,too, lube the inside of the case neck on bottle neck cases before resizing. After they're resized I throw them back in the tumbler for 30 minutes to clean the lube out of the case neck.
Dillon presses are built like tanks. You should have no problems resizing.

I use my Lee Hand Press to load 30 06. Just make sure you lube inside the neck in addition to the exterior of the case and it's pretty easy.

I use my hand press to load a few 30-06 when i'm out camping. I only neck size those, though, and leave the FL sizing for the bench press. A dab of lube for the swab inside and outside of the neck, not a problem.
I'll also use it to neck size and deprime while I watch Hell on Wheels.

Havok7416 said:

What is the difference between neck sizing and full length? Do you just insert the brass so far for that?

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2 different dies, one for FL, 1 for neck sizing. The Lee Deluxe rifle die sets include the collet neck sizing die.

A Lee hand press doesn't have enough leverage to resize bottleneck rifle brass.

Unless you are the Incredible Hulk.

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I used a Lee hand press for everything during the year and a half I spent in Detroit. You may not look like the Incredible Hulk when you start, but 18 months later people will notice.

Think of it as weight training.

You ever been around any untrained weights?

They will put a real load on you just cleaning up after them.

Not to mention the obedience thing.

rc

You guys are hi-larry-ess. I have been wanting to get one of those Lee hand presses to seat bullets at the range. I wondered how easy it would be to size with it.

I use one at the range for reloading 7.62x54r. Very easy to us, very little effort needed.

Not exactly a "press", but I load .25-25 Stevens using an old original nickled Ideal No. 3 adjustable tong tool. I also use one in .38 Spec. to crimp .38 long-colt. (no shell holder & die can be threaded down for shorter case).

When it comes to the hand-tool loaders, I've only ever had (and still use occasionally) a Lee whacker.. loads exceptionally accurate rifle rounds. Maybe I'll have to get me one of those Lee hand presses just for the fun of it.

I reload my 30-30 using a Lee handpress. I resize full length, and it works great.

to lube the cases, I put all the cases in a tray mouth up, and use Hornady OneSHot lube all around, and a little bit inside the neck, and haven't had any problems.

I own one 'press'...It is a 20 something year old Lee hand press...

It has done everything I ever asked of it from straight walled 'pistol' calibers, to .30-06...It does .30-30, .35 Remington, and has been used to reform .30-30 into .357 Herrett before fire-forming...

The only 'lube' I am using lately is this:



I touch one finger to the 'lube', coat the outside of the case, and then scrape my finger across the mouth...

I am slow, but consistent...

^
And have smooth glossy lips!

I use "Ed's Red" to lubricate cases -- that's E.C. Harris formula of ATF, Stoddard's solvent, acetone and deodorized kerosene. I mix lanolin with it as well.

I bought a handpress for one of those end of the world scenarios, so I could reload without lugging around bench mounted press. If you're worried about stuck cases stick with the dillon. I've gotten a .280 case stuck in a .270 die (no comment on how that happened) in the handpress and due to the lack of leverage had to clamp the press in a vise and put a pipe over the handle to tear off the case rim.

I've since sold it to a friend who uses it to play around with his 45-70 BP loads at the range.

The lube I use that works great is mink oil shoe polish.

I've since sold it to a friend who uses it to play around with his 45-70 BP loads at the range.

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one of the advantages of the Lee handpress is that you can load right at the range, so it's ideal for developing loads.