@CoalCrackerAl - I’ll hand you yet another “I’m kinda doing this wrong to make it right” technique for your bag of tricks:
When small base sizing, it’s pretty common that the SB die necks are extremely tight also, which can create a problem when seating bullets, or even when mandrel expanding - bulging or even collapsing the shoulder. This can happen both when we anneal, because the neck is too tight and the shoulder is softened, but ALSO when we don’t anneal because the neck is too tight and the neck is hard (so the shoulder relatively softer), and when we try to push something into the neck, we bulge the shoulder. We solve the web expansion problem, but we create an undersized neck problem, which can propagate to a bulged shoulder problem…
So a reloader can set their small base die in the press, chase that with an undersized mandrel expander, hit the case again with a standard sizing die to tighten up any shoulder bulge which might have presented, then chase finally with the proper mandrel for their desired neck tension. It’s a lot of extra work, and a lot of extra work hardening of the necks, but it’s less scary than doing it the RIGHT way…
The RIGHT way is really to open the neck of the small base die to eliminate the potential to make a problem for yourself. Just the same as was mentioned above - when we small base size, we almost always push back the shoulder too far, which creates an unintended problem for ourselves by creating excessive headspace which yields excessive case body stretch, which can lead to case head separations. But reloaders small base size all the way the shellholder all of the time, pushing their shoulders WAY too far back, and making their necks WAY too small, so they punt and fix the secondary problems they created instead (in the case of excessive headspace, that “fix” is allowing the excessive headspace at least one firing before reverting to their standard die, until they need to SB again).
So it is much better to modify your SB die to either appropriate headspace, OR create a simple SB body die, then bump the shoulder and size the neck with your standard die. That’s what I did for my 6 creed SB die which I use to SB when changing brass from one barrel to the next - I cut away the neck and shoulder entirely from an RCBS small base die. Works like a charm.
Even better still - get a die made to match your chamber. But obviously much, much more expensive.
And to your original issue - hard small base sizing and stuck cases, cutting out the neck and shoulder of the SB die would likely solve this issue, OR, simply better lube. It’s 223, it’s not that difficult to size, and shouldn’t be getting stuck. If you’re sticking 223/5.56, you’re more likely under sizing the entire case, and/or not offering sufficient lube - so again, the trick you devised is in that category of “kinda doing the wrong things to make it right.”
