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Lake City 308 Brass

4325 Views 16 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  Caleb C
I recently purchased 100 rounds of supposedly once fired 308 brass at a gun show. The brass is all marked "LC 06". I sized it all in a Hornady sizing die and trimmed it all to length. Upon trimming the brass I notice that it all seemed a little long for once fired brass. Some of it was up to 25 mils too long. Anywho.........after the cases were all preped I loaded them with the same powder charge (46.5 gr H380) as my previous loads and capped them off with 150gr Hornady SSTs (the same load I've been shooting for months). When I got to the bench I noticed that NONE of the Lake City cases would chamber in my rifle. They seem to go into the chamber well enough but I can't lock the bolt. I've inspected all of the brass by measuring length and diameter but, I can't seem to find any differences between the Lake City and the Frontier brass that I've been using.

Do you have any idea what the problem my be? Have you heard of anyone else having problems with Lake City brass?
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well it was only a 100 rds...there are worse problems to have...

Gun shows sure aint what they used to be...

I hate it when gun folks stick it to gun folks...pi$$es me off
Sounds like its pull the bullet time and start over to me...That's why you only load a few till you get the kinks worked out....Been there done that.... made that mistake...several times

Small Base Sizing

Some firearms will require that fired cases be returned to approximately unfired dimensions. This is the purpose of the so called small base sizing die. In essence, this is nothing more than a standard full length sizing die, which has been reamed to absolute minimum dimensions. Tight chambers, a lack of camming power, or a combination of these may require cases to be sized to these smaller dimensions to assure positive chambering. As we have noted, most conventional full length sizing dies reduce a case’s fired dimensions enough to allow the case to be easily rechambered, without bringing it down to its original, unfired dimensions. In some instances, this will not quite be sufficient to assure positive operation and functioning. This most often occurs in firearms that lack the camming power of a bolt action, such as semi-autos, pumps, and lever actions. Sierra has worked with a large number of these types of firearms that functioned perfectly well with conventional full length dies, and suggest resorting to small base dies only if they prove to be necessary. They do work the brass more, and will usually result in reduced case life.

Die adjustment for a small base sizing die is exactly the same as for a full length sizing die, but special emphasis should be paid to avoid exceeding allowable headspace dimensions. Chamber type case gages, such as those available from L.E. Wilson, or micrometer gages like the RCBS Precision Case Mic are extremely useful in adjusting small base dies.

http://www.exteriorballistics.com/reloadbasics/resize.cfm
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