I did it again!

[VinceU1]

Just so everybody knows, I'm not complaining about my Hornady .223 Rem sizing die. More just another instance of if its going to break, I'll be the guy to break it!!!

So I'm down in the reloading room resizing a bunch of 5.56 brass for reloading later this winter and get this really old piece of LC brass stuck. So cussing and swearing I pull the die and the RCBS stuck brass kit, run them out to the garage and extract the offensive part. As I'm cleaning the die of all the little bits of brass that get made, I noticed something really odd about the expander button. Not to put too fine a point on it, there's a chunk of it missing! Pulling out my magnifying glass, I also see 5 or 6 cracks in the button at the upper edge!

Sigh, if it's gonna happen it'll always happen to me. Like I said, I'm not complaining about the die, I've put something like 35k pieces of brass through it, just that it always happens when I really don't want it to!

 

[billybob44]

I KNOW what you mean...

I "Played" the stuck case game for awhile using RCBS FL size dies + various lubes.

The cure for me was Redding FL size die with the add on carbide expander ball option.
I have good luck with Hornady One Shot in the .223 process--NOT so much with other calibers..Bill.

 

[Fullmag]

Your not the first and your not going to the last. Bottled necked, hard crimped stuff is a re-loaders nightmare.

 

[Yote7mmSlayer]

I've had rcbs and Hornsby dies in various calibers and and have never had good luck with their FL dies, I've used different lubes different techniques etc... I've probably thrown away $200 with of them.. Now I use lee FL dies and haven't had a problem... My father and a neighbor also have problems with RCBS .

 

[Broom_jm]

Just so everybody knows, I'm not complaining about my Hornady .223 Rem sizing die. More just another instance of if its going to break, I'll be the guy to break it!!!

So I'm down in the reloading room resizing a bunch of 5.56 brass for reloading later this winter and get this really old piece of LC brass stuck. So cussing and swearing I pull the die and the RCBS stuck brass kit, run them out to the garage and extract the offensive part. As I'm cleaning the die of all the little bits of brass that get made, I noticed something really odd about the expander button. Not to put too fine a point on it, there's a chunk of it missing! Pulling out my magnifying glass, I also see 5 or 6 cracks in the button at the upper edge!

Sigh, if it's gonna happen it'll always happen to me. Like I said, I'm not complaining about the die, I've put something like 35k pieces of brass through it, just that it always happens when I really don't want it to!

35,000 pieces of brass and all that's wrong is the expander button is damaged? Call Hornady and I bet they send you a new piece for free, or close to it. There are worse things that could happen.