Re-sizeing brass.

[Art in Colorado]

Just got finished re-sizeing 140 pieces of 44 Special brass on my single stage press. My 75 year old hands were starting to bark at me. I have a die some place down in the basement that will just de-cap most any brass with out re-sizeing . Has any one not re-sized brass for reloading? And if so are the results the same. Just wondering about helping my hands.

[Norske]

I've neck sized bottle necked rifle brass, but my straight cases get full-length resized. I even have a Ruger SBH that requires an extra trip through the resizing die (without decapping rod) to accept reloaded ammo easily. My seating/crimping die leaves a tiny bulge below the bullet. The other SBH and my Marlin 1894 don't have such tight chambers.

[lar45]

Unsized brass will probably not give enough tension to hold the bullet in place, even with a heavy crimp.
You might try just neck sizing the top 1/2" of the case, then use your decapper and load as normal. That might save some wear and tear on your hands.
Are you using a carbide sizing die, or steel dies?
If they are steel dies, you might try some Imperial Sizing Die Wax. It always makes things easier when I'm doing some heavy case forming.

[Winger Ed.]

If the fired cases go in & out your chamber or cylinder easily,
I'd run the de-cap pin down farther and only size about 1/2" of the case.

That should hold the boolit just fine.
Compared to the sizing process, the effort to de-prime is negligible.

[country gent]

Depending on your press a new handle slightly longer may give you a little more comfort for your hands. Also a slightly bigger handle or ball shaped handle may help. 3" will make a big difference in the force and a ball shaped handle will fit in your palm spreading the force more evenly.

You didnt say if they were steel or carbide dies. steel dies require lube ans a light coat in carbide eases the force some also.

Decapping in a separate operation will also remove that force at the bottom of the stroke.

You need to at least size the case neck down as far as the bullet seats to maintain neck tension, and after several loading will need to full length size to easily chamber and then it will be even harder than it was.

A light neck annealing might lower sizing force also.

[Mk42gunner]

Art,

Even if your dies are carbide, a light coat of lube on the case will ease the effort tremendously. Otherwise, like others have suggested, try partially sizing the case to the depth of your bullet.

Hope this helps,

Robert

[JM7.7x58]

If you shoot these cases in the same gun, then most likely you can “neck size“ only about 1/3 the length of the case. I have tried this with my 357, it works just fine.
JM

[megasupermagnum]

I'll also say only partially sizing can be a good method. If used in the same gun, you only need to size as deep as the bullet goes. One extra tip is that even though carbide works fine, lubing the cases still makes things easier. As for not sizing, no it won't work. Most of the time a bullet can be pushed into a fired case easily by a finger, sometimes they fall right in under gravity!

[ReloaderFred]

Like several have mentioned, a light lubing will make the sizing chore extremely easy, even with carbide sizing dies. Any spray lube will work, but if you only have a lube pad, then lube about every fifth case and you'll be amazed at how easy the sizing chore becomes. To remove the lube, just tumble in ground corn cob for about 20 minutes and all traces of the lube will be removed.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[dimaprok]

I used to size my 9mm dry but I was having a real problem with NOE neck expander getting brass particle buildup and scoring inside the brass plus it was getting noticeably harder on up stroke. I decided to lube the brass with a spray and boy o boy did that make everything go a lot smoother and easier!

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[Bazoo]

Hornady spray lube really cuts down force needed.

[Cosmic_Charlie]

Throw your cases in a small plastic tub and spray them down with Hornady's One Shot case lube. Really cuts down on the force needed to resize. And you don't need to wipe it off either. Works on boolits before sizing those as well.

[dragon813gt]

I use Dillon case lube w/ pistol brass. It’s not needed but it does make sizing easier.

[alamogunr]

I sized and decapped a ton of .45 auto brass with a carbide die. I sprayed a bunch with a mix of alcohol/lanolin and mixed in one of the lubed cases about every 4th to 5th case. That made it very easy to fully size the short .45 case.

I would expect just sizing the .44 cases the top ½" would be comparable.

[JimB..]

Just because it hasn’t been mentioned yet, try putting a little lube on the cases.

[ascast]

you did not get specific with your press. A Lyman Tru-Line is a single stage press. A RCBS has a boatload more leverage. If the lube and neck size don't solve the issue, maybe we can find you something bigger with more uumph.

[9.3X62AL]

^^^ this! ^^^

[Moleman-]

What press are you using? Currently for single stage I've been using a RCBS JR press which doesn't have as much leverage as many designs that are out there. Some of the older presses have even less. Longer handle and lube might help get you where you want to be. Been thinking about going to a rock chucker because I've been case forming more the past 12 years.

[The_Eccentric]

A forster Co-Ax press has tremendous leverage and would make resizing much easier. Just another option....

[Silver Jack Hammer]

I neck re-size .45 Colt brass, full length resize .44 Special. You need neck tension to seat so you need to resize brass.

You could load black powder which would seat the boolit on the top of the powder, and then you wouldn’t need to resize. I’ve never tried this in the .44 Special but it works in the .45-70.