New to rifle reloading after having experimented with a few thousand rounds of .45 acp on a 550b.
1. The expander on my sizing die is broke, yes? Lyman .223 FL die: the expander slides up and down the stem. When the stem is turned all the way down (die touching baseplate of course) the expander limits out and flares the case mouth. That doesn't seem right at all.
2. How much movement/work do you expect to do to your case mouth with a standard FL die in .223 (especially Lee if you happen to know)? I sized a handful of PMC and Lake City 85-87. The brass thickness seems pretty similar, can't find any extra thin or extra thick ( ~0.012" with calipers). Without the expander working, the difference between fired and resized is like O vs o. The average OD went down from 0.255" to 0.235", that's 0.020" reduction. The average ID is now 0.208". Considering that it needs be expanded and worked again, that seems like a heck of a lot smaller than necessary when the end goal is -0.003" or is that just par for the course?
All this makes a Lee collet die and redding body die look ideal, even for an autoloader, just to have the precision and control. I could even get a friend to make some different diameter mandrels for the collet die if I run into some extra thin or thick brass. Either way, this die bothers me and I'm sitting here thinking I'll be more pleased with a Lee pacesetter set just to get going.
1. The expander on my sizing die is broke, yes? Lyman .223 FL die: the expander slides up and down the stem. When the stem is turned all the way down (die touching baseplate of course) the expander limits out and flares the case mouth. That doesn't seem right at all.
2. How much movement/work do you expect to do to your case mouth with a standard FL die in .223 (especially Lee if you happen to know)? I sized a handful of PMC and Lake City 85-87. The brass thickness seems pretty similar, can't find any extra thin or extra thick ( ~0.012" with calipers). Without the expander working, the difference between fired and resized is like O vs o. The average OD went down from 0.255" to 0.235", that's 0.020" reduction. The average ID is now 0.208". Considering that it needs be expanded and worked again, that seems like a heck of a lot smaller than necessary when the end goal is -0.003" or is that just par for the course?
All this makes a Lee collet die and redding body die look ideal, even for an autoloader, just to have the precision and control. I could even get a friend to make some different diameter mandrels for the collet die if I run into some extra thin or thick brass. Either way, this die bothers me and I'm sitting here thinking I'll be more pleased with a Lee pacesetter set just to get going.