Well, the day is starting out in a nasty fashion. My son is coming for a visit this weekend, wants to take his new Springfield XD 45 to the range so I started to load up a hundred shells. I'm using an old Pacific 3 die set and got the hundred resized with no trouble. Then I started with the second die which decaps and expands the case mouth. I used this same 3 die set last year with no problems. On attempting to decap and expand, only about half the cases would decap and when they did, the handle bound up on the up stroke. The ones that wouldn't decap, it was like the decapping pin was hitting to one side or the other of the flash hole. There are no marks inside the case at the flash hole. In either case, decap or not, the handle binds up at the bottom of the stroke and releases with a bang and the whole bench shakes. I thought about just going in to the shop and getting a new set of RCBS, but will run this by and see if anyone has any ideas. The press is a Lyman which has never given any problems.
Any guesses?
- Thread starter jondar
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The Bushmaster
Member
Berdan cases? Cases with missaligned flash holes? Bent decapping pin?
I would check all of the above for the primers and for the handle sticking and bouncing it could be that the expander is dirty and sticking in the case, I would make sure it is clean, see how dirty the cases are inside and maby try a little case lube on the inside and see if that helps
another tought does the primer punch have a burr on it that might be sticking in the flash hole
another tought does the primer punch have a burr on it that might be sticking in the flash hole
The Bushmaster
Member
That sounds like a case binding, for some reason, in the die. I realize that you may have already checked this, but are you resizing with the right die calibre ? 
Yes. the above posters are correct. The decapping pin was OK, but while I had the die apart I took a bronze brush with some Hoppes #9 on it and cleaned the whole die thoroughly, then went back and took the cases which I couldn't decap before, tried them and they went thru like a greased pig. No more binding. Thanks for the help.
dmftoy1
Member
If you're loading for that XD 45 and you've been loading light target loads for say a 1911 previously you might want to increase the power factor. On my XD it can get a bit finicky on the loads I use for my 1911. (16 1/2 pound recoil spring . . . .4.7 grains bullseye, 200LSWC). If I bump up the speed on these rounds and tweak the COL to be a bit longer then they feed great. FWIW.
Have a good one,
Dave
Have a good one,
Dave
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