Since all my priceless Norma 6.5 Swede brass is loaded with J-words, I decided to form more brass from 30-06 for cast lead shooting. Easy as pie, right? Just lube that baby up and shove it home, trim and you got cher self a Swede case, right?
Uh, no. I first tried some Imperial sizing wax and pushed the case into my Lee die. Next, since the expander was stuck tight in the neck, I cut off the bottom of the case and drove the expander out. Rats!
Next I left out the expander, lubed up again and rammed another one home. This time my case came out with a beautiful Swede neck......the base of which was shoved down into the shoulder. Looked like an accordion. Rats! At this point I grabbed a .308 die and used that first. Aha! The shoulder was moved back smoothly to the right position and I had a nice, long .30 caliber neck. Pushed it into the 6.5 die and collapsed the neck into the shoulder again. Rats! Rats!
I finally dragged out BOTH my books on cartridge case modifications. George Nonte's book mentions nothing about removing the expander, while the other book insists on it PLUS annealing the case first. Of course! This much forming calls for a bit softer brass so it will "flow"!
I annealed two more cases, lubed them up and ran them through the .308 die. No problems. I then switched to the 6.5 die and shoved the neck right into the shoulder again. Rats! Rats! Rats!
I'm not entirely sure, but I think I might be doing something wrong here. Anyone have any advice...........please?
Update........Update: I got it! There was a third "mystery" die in my original two die set, with a marking of "Lee 6.5x55 B". It wasn't in the set when I bought it years ago and I may have loaned it to someone who left it in there. In any case, out of sheer frustration, I lubed up my last case and shove it home. Out came a perfectly formed Swedish case with a long, easily trimmed neck. To my knowledge, Lee doesn't make forming dies, so I have no idea what this thing is, but it works. Now to process some brass!
Thanks for reading my rant.