Ring around bottom of brass only with Lee dies.

[CoalCrackerAl]

My son and i are getting rings the ones that look like case head separation. In rifle brass. The calibers we load with RCBS,Lyman and Hornady dies does not do it. Pictured is my 30.06 brass. I bought a set of RCBS dies for the 06. And they pushed the ring flat again. This has me stumped.

 

[Demi-human]

If it is not in fact incipient case head separation, then it’s just where the Lee dies stop sizing the case. The RCBS may go farther down the case.
Do they not chamber with the Lee dies?

 

[Scooter22]

What are you shooting them in?

 

[Varminterror]

That’s where your die contact is stopping.

If you’re worried about incipient separation, use a paperclip as a feeler.

 

[Highland Lofts]

Give the lee dies away and stick with the better quality dies.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

The 30.06 slowly got hard to chamber. And to extract. The other ones were 7.62x54r and my sons 243.I shoot the 30.06 often. Yeah i did check with a paper clip and bore light to be safe. The Lee dies are a little rounded on the bottom. VS the other dies are more squared off. My Lee 223 dies work great. They too are a different design than the others. I am going to upgrade then rest to RCBS.

 

[Bcwitt]

Take one case & slice it laterally. There will be no doubt about it.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

What are you shooting them in?

The 30.06 i shoot in a Remington 770 and 760. The 7.62x54r from my Mosin Nagant 91/30. The 243 are in a savage axis. Good idea to cut a case.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

I cut one that had the heaviest ring around it.

 

[bullseye308]

Looks like the dies are not sizing the very bottom of the case. As long as they chamber you should be good. If they don’t chamber easily I’d contact lee and send them the pics and dies and they will fix or replace the dies.

 

[edwardware]

I cut one that had the heaviest ring around it.

Pity that, wasted a case.

A bent paperclip feeler is an essential, and perfectly reliable, bit of kit for detecting incipient head separations.

And the ring you observe is the end of the sizing contact in the die. It's normal. . . carry on.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

It was and wasn't a wasted case. It gave me peace of mind. I'll contact lee then too. Maybe they upgraded their design since i bought the others. The .223 dies were the latest i bought from Lee. They are designed much better.

 

[Varminterror]

Give the lee dies away and stick with the better quality dies.

Forster and Redding dies, as well as mid tier dies like Hornady and RCBS also leave this kind of witness mark. It has nothing to do with Lee dies.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

My new RCBS dies smoothed out the rings for me.

 

[Varminterror]

No dies, except push through bulge busters, make contact clear through the bottom of the case wall. The witness mark ring is inconsequential.

 

[Scooter22]

The 30.06 i shoot in a Remington 770 and 760. The 7.62x54r from my Mosin Nagant 91/30. The 243 are in a savage axis. Good idea to cut a case.

Gotcha. I thought they may have been from a Garand or other semi auto. Sometimes you get that and "small base dies" were used to iron out the bottoms.

 

[243winxb]

The 30.06 slowly got hard to chamber.

760

Seen a Rem 760 pump gun in 30-06 with an oval chamber. A small base RCBS fl die was then used so fired brass would chamber.

Keep brass separate for each 06 rifle. If the line on the brass bothers you, polish the die with
3M Product Number 413Q on a wood dowel. Dont overdo it. Clean die well after polishing.

I just polished a new Fl die. https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40071165/

 

[Lennyjoe]

Give the lee dies away and stick with the better quality dies.

There’s always one…..

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

The line started to inter fear with cambering and extracting. I think it ''grew'' over time. The RCBS dies do size closer to the case head. I'll see how that goes. Last outing when i zeroed in the new scope it all chambered and extracted fine. Yeah on the 760 i didn't use the brass with the line. It was getting to the point where i had to use a mallet on the bolt handle sometimes. I don't want to damage the fore grip/ pump on the 760.

 

[CoalCrackerAl]

243winxb ill polish the Lee ones. They do have a rough finish on the inside. 3m is good stuff. I use a lot their products. I'll fine polish then with Mothers polish.