WestKentucky
Member
Last night I was running through some .308 once fired brass. It was all R-P stamped commercial brass, and it was going well, using actual case lube for once as well... Then I had a stuck case. I have stuck cases before, but never like this. It ripped the rim off about 80% of the case when I finally got the ram to move. I could not get the decapper rod assembly back out the top and shattered the expander ball and decapper pine in the process. Once that was destroyed I finally got the die flipped so I could tap it and pull the case with a bolt...stripped the bolt out and had to go bigger. It was 1/4-20 by the time I got done, and it still wouldn't budge, I was lifting my entire bench off the ground trying to move it, and that is probably 175 or 200 pounds between tools and the bench itself. So I pulled the wooden ball off of the classic cast arm, hooked in a ratchet strap and hooked the other end around the back of the press, and put enough tension to flex the rod. Dug around and found another 1/4-20 bolt about 6 inches long and used it as a punch to hammer on the casehead. It finally came loose after an hour of fighting it. I already called RCBS and replacement parts are on the way. Is there anything I missed in frustration that would have helped?
To clarify...I tried pulling the case with a deep well socket and bolt but it was taking a lot of pressure and showed no sign of movement. I also had a 1/4-20 carriage bolt handy and it slipped right into the shell holder slot on the ram when I went back to the top to pound on it. That let me hold a lot of downward pressure and shock it with the hammer.
To clarify...I tried pulling the case with a deep well socket and bolt but it was taking a lot of pressure and showed no sign of movement. I also had a 1/4-20 carriage bolt handy and it slipped right into the shell holder slot on the ram when I went back to the top to pound on it. That let me hold a lot of downward pressure and shock it with the hammer.