Curious problem that I thought I would get some other ideas on. A long post coming, but I'm sharing all the things I've tried and thought about, to see if anyone has any ideas.
I'm a 30+ year reloader, rifle and pistol calibers, so I'm not brand new to this. I know what I'm doing, or think I do by this point. But loading some 30/30 for the first time, my son and I are going to load up a bunch of plinking loads for a 30/30 Winchester trapper we've been having fun with lately.
My step-father gave me an old set of Lyman dies, along with about 100 once fired, polished brass( fired in his Marlin). I've also got about 200 once fired brass from the trapper.
I CANNOT get a full length resize. Cases will not even go all the way in and are stuck, about 2/3 to 3/4 in the die. I've pulled the rim off a few, and had to knock them out with a metal rod from the top. I'm pretty sure at this point I just need to just buy a new set of dies, but I can't help but wonder what could make these not work at all.
Here's a few things I've tried already.
1) Removed the neck expander, primer punch, and tried resizing without that in there at all. No difference.
2) Thoroughly cleaned the die with brake cleaner and a brush and gave it a shot of lube. It looks ok as far as I can tell.
3) I've changed the dies in the press to 30/06 and 444 marlin and resized some of those calibers once fired and had absolutely no problem. It's not my press or lube.
4) I checked about 20 times that I was in fact using a 30/30 die, that is how it's marked.
5) As a last resort, I even pulled the bullet on a brand new Winchester 30/30 round, and tried to run that unfired case through the die, it stuck and I pulled the rim off with the press! SO I can't resize brass shot from two different guns, or even unfired brass.
I'm using Lyman one shot, but that's not it, I've run thousands of 30/06, 7mm, 444, 338 using the same, and proved it's ok today with a couple other calibers this evening.
Press is a very old Herters single stage, about as heavy duty as anything, mounted well and will rip the rim right off any of these cases, so it's not the problem.
What could be causing this? Any thoughts or anyone seen a problem this bad? I'm about certain I'll just buy new dies, unless someone has a fix.
Thanks for reading this long post!
I'm a 30+ year reloader, rifle and pistol calibers, so I'm not brand new to this. I know what I'm doing, or think I do by this point. But loading some 30/30 for the first time, my son and I are going to load up a bunch of plinking loads for a 30/30 Winchester trapper we've been having fun with lately.
My step-father gave me an old set of Lyman dies, along with about 100 once fired, polished brass( fired in his Marlin). I've also got about 200 once fired brass from the trapper.
I CANNOT get a full length resize. Cases will not even go all the way in and are stuck, about 2/3 to 3/4 in the die. I've pulled the rim off a few, and had to knock them out with a metal rod from the top. I'm pretty sure at this point I just need to just buy a new set of dies, but I can't help but wonder what could make these not work at all.
Here's a few things I've tried already.
1) Removed the neck expander, primer punch, and tried resizing without that in there at all. No difference.
2) Thoroughly cleaned the die with brake cleaner and a brush and gave it a shot of lube. It looks ok as far as I can tell.
3) I've changed the dies in the press to 30/06 and 444 marlin and resized some of those calibers once fired and had absolutely no problem. It's not my press or lube.
4) I checked about 20 times that I was in fact using a 30/30 die, that is how it's marked.
5) As a last resort, I even pulled the bullet on a brand new Winchester 30/30 round, and tried to run that unfired case through the die, it stuck and I pulled the rim off with the press! SO I can't resize brass shot from two different guns, or even unfired brass.
I'm using Lyman one shot, but that's not it, I've run thousands of 30/06, 7mm, 444, 338 using the same, and proved it's ok today with a couple other calibers this evening.
Press is a very old Herters single stage, about as heavy duty as anything, mounted well and will rip the rim right off any of these cases, so it's not the problem.
What could be causing this? Any thoughts or anyone seen a problem this bad? I'm about certain I'll just buy new dies, unless someone has a fix.
Thanks for reading this long post!