Belted .30 Carbine case?

This is quite common. Measure your fired cases. None should be over .3596 diameter measured .200 up from case rim.

A SIZED case measured the same location should be a max size of .3548 and up to .008" smaller diameter (.3468").

My guess is your cases were fired in a big chamber.

Generally it is very hard to get dies that will take a case down to new unfired dimensions.

You can also take a inside mic and measure the inside dimension of you die. I personally strive to not size cases more than .002" below their fired condition assuming my rifle has a min dimension.

For instance fired factory 30.06 cases can be .471 to a little over .473 but I have seen rifles give birth to cases as large as .475. As I have walked around flea markets over the years and spotted dies for sale at very good prices I bought extra sets. Thus I have 30.06 dies that size cases to .466, .468 and .470. The .470 die I polished out to make cases last longer in factory chambers. The .466 die is for my .467 chambers and the .468 is for my .469 chambers.

Look at the inside of your die, it appears from you pic the case is in danger of being scored and if that happens you have brass residue imbedded in your die. (Been there, done that, got the T Shirts and the ball cap)
It will need to be polished out or your all your brass is going to have the scoring.

If your fired cases are oversize and you have a bunch of them I would try and find a used set of dies for carbine and run them in those first. I like to use Grease Auto and Artillery GAA (mil surp if you can find it) for case lube. A gallon bucket of it will last you about 35 years ! ! ! ! Imperial Sizing Die Wax is also good.

I have never seen this. A couple of questions. Has the brass ever been fired? Have you used other dies and had good results with this brass? It is possible that there is something wrong with the carbide insert causing the issue. Just because I haven't seen it means little as most of my experience is with rifle ammo. Hummer states the it is common, so, the large chamber idea would probably be worth pursuing. Measuring fired brass could reveal a lot of useful information.

You stated you lubed your brass. Won't hurt anything, but, with a carbide die it is not needed. You may already know this. Wouldn't cause the swaged on belt issue.

Oversized fired brass. I ran into this one time with .357 mag being sized in Dillon SD. It was producing a bell type case bottom that became increasingly hard to chamber on future reloads.Never sure quite why?
But I bought a used set of 357 dies (non carbide), drilled the decap rod hole out to accept a large punch and resized the belled cases all the way to the case rim (no shell holder). Then tapped them out with the large flat faced punch. Took sometime but I got-er-dun. Now cases happily back in production.
Hey, it worked for me!

Walkalong is exactly correct. I have had to "adjust" carbide sleeves and opening up the bottom and I do it with a Dremel tool with a grinding mandrell while it is being turned in a lathe.
A lathe is almost critical to guys that do lots of loading as you can customize tooling.
For instance I have about 55 sets of dies and I have had to trim the bottoms off about 1/4th of them as they will not bump the shoulder back on the cases I size.

I also rarely use a expander rod in my dies. I prefer to decap with a Lee Universal Decap die, size with a FL or Neck Die and expand with a expander I make and harden myself secured in a collet bullet puller. Takes long but far less problems.

Dillon doesn't make their own dies in a lot of cases, and you may have gotten one that is out of spec. It happens, and I've got a couple of them to prove it. I've even got one that is marked "Dillion" in .38 Super.

I'd send the die back to Dillon, and go back to using the RCBS sizing die.

And yes, .30 Carbine brass must be lubed, as per the instructions included with the dies. People who have never sized .30 Carbine think that just because it says Carbide on the die, that no lube is required, which is false.

Hope this helps.

Fred

Everyone makes a mistake now and then. The carbide sizer ring might be in upside down when made. Good thing you had another die on hand to verify problems. If I was a new reloader and this was my first die--what a headache it could be,

Yes everyone in a production situation is "not one of us" and all they are looking for is a pay check. The guy that trained me told me early on that any idea one might have that every worker in a gun plant is a direct blood descendant of John M. Browning, Sam Colt, Hiram Maxim etc is not reality.

jski wrote:
...may I remind all that even after I've run a case thru my RCBS carbide resizing die, followed by the Dillon resizing die, I still end up with a belted .30 Carbine case.

Click to expand...

No need to remind us of what's in the photograph.

What you need to understand is that the walls of the case - from the mouth to the head - were pushed out farther than they should have been. This could have been from an unusually loose chamber or a round that was fired significantly over pressure which distended the case head. In either case, the portion of the case within the shell holder could not be resized by either the RCBS die or the Dillon die and so left a clear line at the point below which the die could not reach.

Or, the Dillon die is out of spec. and is ruining the brass, which otherwise fits in the chambers of the OP's firearms.

Fred

That's a very sharp edge on the "belt." My vote is that the guys saying the die is out of whack have it right. If it was just that the sizing ring couldn't take out all of the bulge, I'd expect the top of the "belt" to match the curve of the sizing ring.

That's progress. Sounds like you did indeed have a defective die, and now you're just dealing with some over-expanded brass.

Operating assumption: The web of the brass is blown out and the die can't get to all of it.

Question: Why some and not others?

Possible answers: 1) the problem brass is all from one gun with an oversized chamber/inadequate case support.

2) different brands of brass with problems limited to one kind.

3) inconsistent load levels with some danger-hot rounds expanding case heads beyond the brass's tolerance.

Suggested investigational steps: Mark 3 different sample sets of brass - enamel paint fill in headstamps is ideal and won't tumble off. Carefully load up some rounds, making SURE EVERY ROUND is within published load data. Shoot one batch of brass through one gun, the second batch through a second gun, and third batch through the third gun. Make sure to make notes of which brass goes with which gun! Resize fired brass.

If all problems are coming in one marked batch of brass, it's probably the gun. If problems arise across batches but only one brass headstamp, probably a bad batch/brand of brass. If problems go away, it was probably because of some hot loads that need to be tossed/destroyed.

Proceed at your own risk, of course. I'm not an expert, just engaging in a thought experiment.

If this were me, which it's not, I'd send the second Dillon Carbide Die back to them and ask for a refund. Then I'd just keep using the RCBS die that works, and not be bothered by this any longer..... Life is just simpler that way.

It's pretty obvious that the RCBS Carbide die has the proper taper machined into it, and the Dillon Carbide die does not. You'll never live long enough to wear out the RCBS Carbide die, so be done with the one that's causing all this grief.

Hope this helps.

Fred