I'm slowly working my way through 200 new Starline brass cases in my efforts to feed a couple of Marlin 1895 rifles. I'm currently using Remington's 405gr JSP bullet and I have a question or two. The Starline brass comes full-length sized so the case mouth just needs to be expanded a little in order to get the bullet started. The Remington bullet has a flat base so it needs all the help it can get. The OD of the case mouth (new brass) is 0.475", the case wall thickness is 0.012" so the case mouth ID is 0.451". The OD of the bullet is 0.458" resulting in 0.007" of case neck tension ... maybe excessive but reasonable.
So now on to the problem. I'm using Redding full-length, expander and competition seater dies along with a Lee roll crimp die. The Redding full-length die is adjusted to approximately 0.070" off the shell holder. After resizing a fired case, the OD of the case mouth is 0.468" (0.444" ID). This seems like a significant and unnecessary reduction particularly since the ID of the expander "shaft" that enters the case mouth BEFORE belling the case mouth is 0.457". In other words, the full-length die reduces the ID to 0.444" only to have a 0.457" rod rammed into it. After expanding the case mouth a little, the OD of the case mouth is 0.475", back to the new specs. I feel that this unnecessary overworking of the brass will reduce case life. How do I prevent the FL die from reducing the case mouth an unnecessary amount? It seems that my only option is to ream the inside of the die i.e. open it up by 0.007". Moving the FL die further away from the shell holder wouldn't help unless I moved it so far back that it didn't touch the case mouth, but then it wouldn't resize the case body.
Thanks for any help.
So now on to the problem. I'm using Redding full-length, expander and competition seater dies along with a Lee roll crimp die. The Redding full-length die is adjusted to approximately 0.070" off the shell holder. After resizing a fired case, the OD of the case mouth is 0.468" (0.444" ID). This seems like a significant and unnecessary reduction particularly since the ID of the expander "shaft" that enters the case mouth BEFORE belling the case mouth is 0.457". In other words, the full-length die reduces the ID to 0.444" only to have a 0.457" rod rammed into it. After expanding the case mouth a little, the OD of the case mouth is 0.475", back to the new specs. I feel that this unnecessary overworking of the brass will reduce case life. How do I prevent the FL die from reducing the case mouth an unnecessary amount? It seems that my only option is to ream the inside of the die i.e. open it up by 0.007". Moving the FL die further away from the shell holder wouldn't help unless I moved it so far back that it didn't touch the case mouth, but then it wouldn't resize the case body.
Thanks for any help.