Holy cow.. I just broke an RCII Swaging 9's into 40's....

[sargenv]

As the title says... I just finished seating cores on my Dillon and started to swage the seated cores into bullets and I got to the point of about a dozen or so bullets when I hear this "POP!"... That's not good I say to myself.. I remove the bullet from the die and make a quick inspection.. and sure enough.. there is a crack on the frame.. I guess this is a good time to see how good the RCBS warrantee service is.. I have a spare RCII so maybe this rainy weekend I'll swap this one out or maybe even just replace this one with the Herter's press I picked up a few years ago.. that one is a serious press.. Anyway.. oops.. This RCII was purchased in 1987 and has swaged thousands of 9-40's..

[ReloaderFred]

They will replace it, but they may want you to send that one in to them. They replaced a Rockchucker that I wore out. They also sent me a new ram for my present RC II when I mashed the shellholder slot swaging bullets.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Cane_man]

how did you anneal the cases?

[sargenv]

I've had the ram replaced by them also.. and I picked up a swage ram that BT cut a slot and made up a tapped 40 cal punch for...

I didn't anneal the brass at all.. I'd annealed the brass in the past and then on a whim tried un-annealed brass and could not feel any difference in pressure needed.. I've probably made 10,000 jacketed bullets since getting the original die from Brian (the original one made from the CH die)... I am going to replace it, in the interim, with a Herter's press I picked up some time back to see if that one affords a better swage job.. we'll see.

[tbj555]

I did the same to mine, They replaced it. The Lee classic cast seems to hold up better.

[Rhino77]

I broke a linkage arm on my RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme while swaging. RCBS was very good about sending me out a replacement.

[Sasquatch-1]

+1 to Rhino77. I broke a linkage on my supreme within a month of getting it. Called RCBS and the rep was astonished. Asked if it had been dropped. Found out my young Granddaughter had knocked it off a table before I got it. Had a new link within a week.

I have since purchased a Dave Corbin "S" press and dies and have not looked back. The "S" press can be used as a loading press also, so you can still use your loading press style dies. I do still use the RC with a single step die to reform cast.

[Cane_man]

just curious if you flame annealed to cherry red or orange, or was there no color change in the brass and you used another annealing method

[anotherred]

Cane_man, I've also produced 1000's of 9 to 40 bullets without annealing them.

[Rhino77]

just curious if you flame annealed to cherry red or orange, or was there no color change in the brass and you used another annealing method

I have been annealing mine with a clean Lee lead pot that has never melted lead. The brass is cherry red before I remove it and quench it. I also have a thermometer that I use to get up to temperature. I have had no problems since. The greatest pressure came from de-rimming .22 long rifle brass, but now I do that on my Walnut Hill press from Richard Corbin. It is very nice for de-rimming.

[sargenv]

Cane Man: Another method... BBQ cranked to max...