Dmps lr-308

[badbob85037]

I just started reloading the .308 for this weapon. I've reloaded about 80 rounds but living in Phoenix I have yet to test fire any of the rounds. But this weekend I'm expecting our two weeks of Fall to start and I'm looking forward to shooting. I was told Varget was a good powder for the round and I have been using it behind a 147 grain SPBT.
Has anyone had once fired military brass so hard it took an act of God to get it through a de-cap and sizing die? I even had a couple rip out of the shell holder. I think I solved the problem the same way one makes his pistol brass last longer by heating the case mouth only I put heat to the whole case. I have never in 30 years had this problem before even with larger cases. Am I alone or has anyone else had this problem and could I have created a bigger problem by heating the whole case? I really don't want to fire any of these reloads until I have a solid answer. Can anyone shed a little light on this

[Hickory]

The neck & shoulder are the only parts of the cartridge case that should be heated or annealed. The rest of the case needs to be hard to contain pressure and not expand so that the case will extract easily.
If you have heated the whole case to where it has lost its temper then the case is ruined and needs to be discarded.

[OS OK]

From: http://www.lasc.us/CartridgeCaseAnnealing.htm . . . 'annealing'

Any annealing whatsoever of the cartridge base is over annealing and is dangerous. This area of the brass must retain the properties it had when it left the factory. If it is made the least bit softer, let alone "dead" soft, the stage is set for another shooter's nightmare. At the very least, you may get a whiff of hot gas directed toward your face. At the worst, you can be seriously injured as your gun behaves more like a hand grenade than a firearm.

I once heard a tale of a gentleman who placed his brass on a cookie tray and placed the whole batch in an oven at 650 degrees for over an hour. He wasn't hurt -- at least seriously. His attitude toward annealing is very negative.

Cartridge brass which has been annealed over it's entire length will exhibit signs of excessive pressure even with moderate and reduced loads. Indeed, cases in this condition are subjected to excessive pressures. Any pressure is excessive. Head separation, incipient head separation , stuck or sticky cases, blown primers, swollen cases, swollen case heads, enlarged primer pockets) I mean R-E-A-L-L-Y enlarged) and just about every other sign of excessive pressure imaginable can occur with cases which have been annealed over their entire length.


I would take those rounds apart, save/reuse the innards...flatten the cases and start over.

[Moleman-]

What kind of case lube are you using?

[slim1836]

Do us a favor and report back that you will not use these casings for our peace of mind. Best to ruin a few casings than loose an eye or worse.

Then read up on annealing before venturing out and hurting yourself.

There are many here that can give sound advice on any topic you may have, just have to ask beforehand.

Slim

[popper]

Decap separately. LC stuff is tough. Anneal the neck only - toss those cases you did wrong. Good case lube, run part way into the die, rotate and run again, then run all the way - maybe twice. Get a case gauge and check every case for proper shoulder position. Run several dummies in the chamber to make sure they fit, adjusting your die to get correct H.S. - pogoing isn't fun. Get the Hornady lock rings and LOCK that die down good when you get the H.S. right. Get the Lee FCD for crimp. RCBS X or small base die may be needed. Varget, ARcomp, 4895, 335 all are good. I use the 168 Amax, good for target & hunting. Got the rifle and carbine - really good rifles. You might want to get rid of the carbine stock.

[308Jeff]

I've been reloading for my DPMS LR-308 for a while now. Almost exclusively with LC brass.

Here's what works well for me:

RCBS Small Base Die - Most DMPS 308's have a pretty tight chamber. A Hornady comparator or an RCBS Precision Mic will quickly tell you where your headspace is at using a fired case from your rifle.

Lanolin Based Lube - Berry's, Dillon, home made, etc. A lot of it. Just not so much that you're dimpling your shoulders.

Heavy Bullets - For me, and others, the DMPS (1:10 twist) doesn't like mid-weight bullets. The best I've done with 147's or Hornady 150's is about 2 MOA. My particular rifle loves 168gr Nosler CC's. Even more so than 168gr A-Max's.

Powder Selection - VARGET worked okay for me, but I got better results with TAC, AA2520, and BL-C(2). TAC is my powder of choice for this rifle.

My final "Bulk Match" load - LC Brass, CCI BR-2 primer, 38 grains of TAC, Nosler 168gr CC seated to 2.805" OAL with a very light crimp from the Lee FCD.

[Hamish]

Personal experience compared to what the OP reports: decap pin too big for the flash hole it's being pushed, and most especially, pulled back through. *Hard* primer crimp. Lack of lube on the neck sizing mandrel.

Aggravating for sure,,,,,

[badbob85037]

I'm getting my boolit puller out now. Yes it was a stupid question. But it saved me a lot of trouble, an eye, and my newest rifle. I have never seen brass this hard. I'm using Dillon lube it's environment friendly but would probably still give you cancer in California. A big thanks to all you guys for your fast response. And don't worry McCain will not be re-elected.

[woodbutcher]

One question that has`nt been asked.Were those fired in an MG or rifle?If MG fired that might be the problem with the hard resizing.Generous chambers in MG`s.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[sqlbullet]

I have some experience with both Lake City and SBS surplus brass:



I have never encountered this issue.

I wet tumble them with stainless media, then dry. I lube with RCBS Case Slick lube, though early on I used imperial sizing wax. Volume dictates that I can't take that time with each case.

Once lubed they go for a ride through my Super 1050. I started out working these on single stage, but that was way too slow, especially the primer crimp. As I process every 10th case gets a check in a wilson case gauge, and about every 100 or so I verify the primer pocket crimp removal by seating a primer. Primed cases I keep, the rest get another trip to the stainless pin tumbler and are sorted by headstamp. So far I have processed about 10-12K rounds out of the 40-50K I have. I have sold about 15K unprocessed locally.

I can say that most of this was fired from a machine gun, and requires significant sizing. But, again, with good lube, they size up just fine.

[M-Tecs]

With the volume you have die wear will become an issue. The Dillon carbide solves this. I basically do the same but I much prefer RCBS case mikes. For crimp inspection I use https://ballistictools.com/store/three-gage-pack

I tolerance check when I start loading, each time I fill the case feeder and the last rounds of the press.

For MG brass I use two size dies. The first is set about .004" longer headspace than the second. I get much more consistent headspace due to spring back.

[Lloyd Smale]

I'm in agreement with this post. My dpms was loaded with small base dies lanolin lube and 165s for the most part although 150 sierra fb spizters shot moa in my gun too.. Never had a function issue with brass that was small base sized and in the 40 years ive been loading never saw enough of a need for annealing that I even bothered to learn how.

I've been reloading for my DPMS LR-308 for a while now. Almost exclusively with LC brass.

Here's what works well for me:

RCBS Small Base Die - Most DMPS 308's have a pretty tight chamber. A Hornady comparator or an RCBS Precision Mic will quickly tell you where your headspace is at using a fired case from your rifle.

Lanolin Based Lube - Berry's, Dillon, home made, etc. A lot of it. Just not so much that you're dimpling your shoulders.

Heavy Bullets - For me, and others, the DMPS (1:10 twist) doesn't like mid-weight bullets. The best I've done with 147's or Hornady 150's is about 2 MOA. My particular rifle loves 168gr Nosler CC's. Even more so than 168gr A-Max's.

Powder Selection - VARGET worked okay for me, but I got better results with TAC, AA2520, and BL-C(2). TAC is my powder of choice for this rifle.

My final "Bulk Match" load - LC Brass, CCI BR-2 primer, 38 grains of TAC, Nosler 168gr CC seated to 2.805" OAL with a very light crimp from the Lee FCD.

[osteodoc08]

Use lanolin based case lube. I decap separately. Toss 50 pieces of brass in a gallon zip lock. Give it 10 squirts of Dillon case lube or similar lanolin based lube. Shack rattle and roll the case around. Dump in cardboard box and repeat. I put a fan on them and toss them like you would something in the skillet to get them dry and coated. Run them through the SB sizing die with a pause on the up stroke at the top. Clean up and case gauge them. I'm cheap and just kiss the primer pocket with my chamfer tool to get rid of the crimp.

My go to has been 168gr Amax with 42.5gr IMR 8208 XBR.

[308Jeff]

My go to has been 168gr Amax with 42.5gr IMR 8208 XBR.

I just picked up a pound of 8208 XBR. Was gonna try that with the A-Max's I have. I couldn't get them to shoot less than about .9 MOA with VARGET, TAC, AA2520 or BL-C(2). Thank you!

[popper]

XBR works fine as does ARcomp. Both are less temp sensitive.

[Geezer in NH]

DE-cap the crimped primers in a de-capping only die first. Then resize