F
frwillia
Guest
I have a Redding full length die for .223 Remington. I've had good experiences with every Redding die I own except this one. Since I bought it 4 years ago it's had a tendancy to stick cases. I've gotten pretty good at getting them out. All this time I've thought it was me, my fault, the cases were sticking. I trimmed them to minimum length, changed lubes, cleaned the die, used lots of lube, but they would still stick at the rate of at least one in 50, sometimes 2 or 3 in 50.
Yesterday I decided I'd had enough of this. Using a bore light I looked inside and discovered the finish didn't look like anything I'd find acceptable in a chamber. So, figuring I had nothing to lose, I chucked it in the lathe, cranked it up to as fast as it will go, and starting with 400 grit paper dipped in cutting oil, I polished it. It took two 15 second sessions with the 400 grit before it looked "uniform" all over the inside after giving it a spray with degreaser, compressed air, and a chamber mop wrapped in a patch.
Then I went ahead and gave it 15 second applications of cutting oil dipped 600, 800, and 1200 grit paper, thoroughly cleaning between each grit. I oscillated the dowel in and out rapidly when doing the last 5 seconds or so of 1200 grit to give it some cross hatch. When I was done it looked positively shiny inside, and most important, it looked the same all over with no rough patches left.
I took it to the bench, and proceeded to load 150 rounds of FL sized .223Rem with out a single case sticking. I've never been able to do 50 before with out one sticking. The brass slid into the die very smoothly and extracted just as smoothly (except for the expander button of course). The sized brass measures the same as it did before as closely as I can measure it, it no longer has any scratches on it after it's been sized (though there are some bright shiny spots where it contacted the die) so I don't see any downside to it.
This is a real improvement.
An unintended consequence of teaching myself to chamber a rifle barrel last winter was getting my problem sizing die fixed. Who'd a thunk it?
This is huge. I needed some .223 ammo - I've averaged a ground hog a day since the first of June - that CZ American .223 shoots the 40g Nosler BT within +/- 0.5" from line of sight from 40 to 190 yards into dime sized groups at around 3,600 fps and drops ground hogs in their tracks. It's a great walk around GH rifle for here in south central PA.
Fitch
Yesterday I decided I'd had enough of this. Using a bore light I looked inside and discovered the finish didn't look like anything I'd find acceptable in a chamber. So, figuring I had nothing to lose, I chucked it in the lathe, cranked it up to as fast as it will go, and starting with 400 grit paper dipped in cutting oil, I polished it. It took two 15 second sessions with the 400 grit before it looked "uniform" all over the inside after giving it a spray with degreaser, compressed air, and a chamber mop wrapped in a patch.
Then I went ahead and gave it 15 second applications of cutting oil dipped 600, 800, and 1200 grit paper, thoroughly cleaning between each grit. I oscillated the dowel in and out rapidly when doing the last 5 seconds or so of 1200 grit to give it some cross hatch. When I was done it looked positively shiny inside, and most important, it looked the same all over with no rough patches left.
I took it to the bench, and proceeded to load 150 rounds of FL sized .223Rem with out a single case sticking. I've never been able to do 50 before with out one sticking. The brass slid into the die very smoothly and extracted just as smoothly (except for the expander button of course). The sized brass measures the same as it did before as closely as I can measure it, it no longer has any scratches on it after it's been sized (though there are some bright shiny spots where it contacted the die) so I don't see any downside to it.
This is a real improvement.
An unintended consequence of teaching myself to chamber a rifle barrel last winter was getting my problem sizing die fixed. Who'd a thunk it?
This is huge. I needed some .223 ammo - I've averaged a ground hog a day since the first of June - that CZ American .223 shoots the 40g Nosler BT within +/- 0.5" from line of sight from 40 to 190 yards into dime sized groups at around 3,600 fps and drops ground hogs in their tracks. It's a great walk around GH rifle for here in south central PA.
Fitch
