Reloading mass quantities, II

Got case lube? Check.
Got spare decapping die pins? Check.
Got spare resizing die decapping rod assembly? Check.
Got spare resizing die decapping pins? Check.
Got spare resizing die bushing? Check.
Got crimped primer pocket swager? On order.
Got stuck case remover? Uhhhhhh…?

The one problem with saving up brass until you have a lot of it to do at once so you can batch process it is that you get all the problems you might experience all at once, too. So a bent decapping rod or pin or assembly I have spares on hand, but I had a piece of brass jump above the shellplate and get jammed WAY up into the resizing die (the press has pretty good leverage on the last part of the power-stroke), and no easy way to get it under the shellplate to pull to back out. There is such a thing as the “RCBS Stuck Case Remover”  but I did not have one on hand, and shipping at this time of year may not be lighting fast. After some fiddling about I managed to goober something together to extract the case without breaking anything too badly. But I realize I really need a proper garage workbench with a vice on it. Oh, well.

More than 2k pieces of brass resized, decapped, and trimmed to length so far, and quite a pile of brass shavings and used primers to show for it. More to go, yet, though. Then I get to sort it into piles, be interesting to see if I get a similar distribution to this spreadsheet.

4 thoughts on “Reloading mass quantities, II

  1. One of the reasons I quit using the sizing die, decapping pins was that in some military brass I found that the flash hole was not always centered. To the point of breaking pins. And that way it allowed me to run the expander ball back away from the bottom of the case. Placing the handle of the press in a more leveraged position.
    Also, if you use Dillon dies. Their made so that you can use the expander ball to remove a stuck case. Another thoughtful gift from St. Mikey! The patron saint of reloaders everywhere!

    1. No idea how I’d use the expander ball to remove a case jammed WAY to far into the resizing die, but then I mostly have Redding or Lee dies for rifle reloading; several Dillon dies for straight-walled pistol cartridges. Might have to look into that, not that I really need any more dies at this point.

      Yes, some of the military brass has the primers REALLY staked in very solidly, and I’ve been getting better at feeling what the “normal” resistance on the press handle from removing a primer and what an “excessive” force is and stopping before I bend / break anything. I’ve tossed a number of mil brass cases aside without decapping them after hitting that “TOO MUCH!” point in time.

      The sort of funny part is I’m pretty sure I still have another 2k or so pieces of brass around here somewhere that I just can’t find after my office-cleaning and re-organization I did this year during the Wuhan Flu lock-down, so I’m working with the more mixed brass from various sources an not the stuff collected from years of boomershooting and target shooting.

      1. I think for Dillon it was just straight walled cases that you could just wrench turn the expander ball down and push the case out of the die.
        I love my Dillon Super-swag. But in flush years I get lazy and just buy re-manufactured military brass from, Top Brass, out of Colorado.
        Comes cleaned, trimmed, butt-reamed, sized, and ready to load. They might have some left. They still had some blackout the other day.

  2. One thing I found with the super swag is that once you have it adjusted. You will find that some cases have burrs inside the flash hole. (from when it’s punched into existence). That keeps a case from dropping far enough onto the guide rod, so that it can be positioned for swaging. I keep a small plastic mallet handy. (like a bullet puller type hammer)
    If it won’t drop into place. I give it a sharp rap on the case head just hard enough to flatten those burrs enough to align the case.
    It’s hard to get the swag adjusted properly. As those burrs are all different lengths. And will give you a false swag, that you won’t realize until you start pressing primers.
    Hope it helps.

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