Need advice; buggering up cases trying to convert .223 to .300

[amafrank]

I've been using an RCBS junior press for the full length sizing and decapping so I don't think leverage is the problem. There isn't really much effort required to work on this conversion of .223 to 300-221 since the amount of change to the brass is so slight. The location of the expander ball sounds like the biggest issue in your case. If the neck has entered the sizing portion of the die before the expander does then you are definitely going to have problems. There is just not enough clearance between the die wall and the expander with the case wall in between, especially with the military brass. The part of the case we are using tends to be thicker than a normal neck and will jam up the die or break the case as you've been doing. The only time I've even crumpled a neck is trying to expand a .221 case after annealling it. I have never even wrinkled a Lake City case...... Adjust the expander ball until it bottoms out on the case with the ram fully up and cammed over. You will have to do that with the decapping pin removed or with the primer already out. Once it makes contact with the case back it out a turn or two. You want to make sure you don't bottom out on the cases in practice and there is some variation in the web thickness. This will insure that the expander hits the neck at a point where the die is not supporting and wedging it. That allows the case to expand around the ball. It will then enter the portion of the die that squeezes it down to the proper dimension and then the ball will slip through the case neck from the inside and expand it to the correct finished diameter. As with not enough guns I've run many cases through the program with no lube on the expander and had no problems. It takes a bit more effort on the press handle but not much. I do normally lube because it helps avoid stretching the case necks and putting scratches in them.

Your shell holder should contact the die base and the handle should cam over somewhat. This insures that the die and press springback don't prevent the case from being pushed all the way into the die. You will find that the instructions from most if not all the die and press manufacturers are pretty basic. They assume you know something about what you are doing. I don't know if they are covering their asses for liability reasons or just figureing you should have some idea what you are doing already. In any case thats what boards like this excel in...help for all of us when we are a bit lost. Someone somewhere has had the problems before and figured it out.....

Last suggestion here is to get rid of the south african brass. You can't really use it and with the thicker case walls it has there is a possibility that its bending or otherwise screwing with your dies. There is a large variation in wall thickness between different manufacturers of military brass and that thickness can create big problems. I've had some brass that even neck turning wouldn't save. Bottom line is that if you can't use it get rid of it. The lake city stuff should be fine. I've use LC brass from the early 70's all the way to 06 headstamped brass and had no problems with any of it. If you are having problems with the LC than there is something wrong in your setup and you can use the lake city brass for a control. Its cheap enough and available enough that you can afford to destroy a few cases to get things setup right. Once you get that figured than you can start fiddling with the more expensive commercial brass like Federal or Winchester and not worry about killing cases.....be glad you aren't working with .221 fireball brass, it cost more than twice as much.

Frank