push thru die

[rodsvet]

Does anyone here know anyone who makes a push thru die that is .378 and will allow a 5.56 case to be pushed all the way up and out? After several firings in my AR's the case rim gets nicked and slightly over .379. I can take a 357 die with decapper removed and push the case in 1/4 inch backwards and all is well. But it would be much faster to just cycle all case thru a die that just pushed all the way thru. And I wouldn't have to push them out each time with a wooden dowel. Rod

[Huvius]

Lee Precision will make one any size you like.

http://leeprecision.com/custom-lube-and-size-kit/

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I don't know if a Lee bullet sizer die will hold up.
But since you mentioned a 357mag case size die...I wonder if the 38/357M Lee FCD with the bugle buster kit installed would work ?

[rodsvet]

I thought about getting a Carbide .380 sizer and drilling it out to just above the carbide ring to allow the case to pass through?? I just hate to toss perfectly good brass just because the rim is a few thousandths too large. Primer pockets are still tight and no head separation.

[Wayne Smith]

We have had at least one member who offers roll sizing. How may cases are you talking? Might be worth looking up in the Vendor's section.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I don't understand the problem. I have never rejected a .223 case because of a little nick in the rim.

I can see if it is a big gouge with a huge burr hanging off of it, or a big ding, a but a rim that is a few thou over what the book says is not going to have much effect on any of my guns.

Now if your gun's extractor is trashing all your cases then I would suggest fixing that, instead of looking for a way to fix the results. It would probably be much cheaper to change out your extractor than to find a die that will do what you want, and definitely a lot less work.

You could also take a file to them if there were only a few. If there's a lot of them,,, you've got a different problem.

Randy

[RogerDat]

NOE makes push through sizers bushings in many incremental sizes. You buy a die that takes different inserts that do the sizing,
Link to the die body. http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/index.php?cPath=104
Page that has the .378 bushing http://noebulletmolds.com/NV/index.php?cPath=104&sort=2a&page=8
Won't save any money over the lee sizers but it does give you the versatility to get the bushings in finer increments of size that can be useful. Think mil-surp rifle that needs a slightly larger sizing than "stock" or possibly your need to size the bases.

[rodsvet]

Some of the brass has been full auto several times. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the 7 AR's that I shoot and they all do it. I think I will go the .380 sizer way and just drill it out to allow pass thru. Thanks for the replies, Rod

[W.R.Buchanan]

Can we see a picture of the case rims. Then we can see what is going on.

Randy

[lightload]

I can't visualize pushing a tapered rifle case through a carbide size and still accomplish much. The thick base will certainly be hard to reduce with a carbide insert and would likely knock it loose from its cemented position in the die.

[Pardini]

Magma Engineering, Case Master Jr Die.

[rodsvet]

Lightload, actually the entire 5.56 case will pass thru the die and will only touch the head and rim and only to maybe size it 2-3 thousandths. After I size all my brass, I run it thru an Evolution case checker and every 15-20 I get one that is tight and won't fall out when inverted. That's all I'm trying to cure. Most of the brass is FBI once fired and was fired full auto. I just want to eliminate any possibility of a round not chambering. Pardini, thank you. I will check out Magma. Buchanan, I guess I was not clear in that it is not my weapons that cause the slight enlargement but the FBI weapons. Rod

[runfiverun]

since the 357 die works.
a little hacksaw modification.
and a push stem from a lee size die should take care of the rest of the parts needed.

[marlinman93]

My concern with running cases through a sizer to make the rims uniform would be where the metal from the little nicks, and damage goes? I would guess whether the case was pushed base first, or mouth first, it will either move the metal below the rim creating a headspace issue, or above the rim creating an ejector issue. I'd just touch up the nicks with a file myself.

[W.R.Buchanan]

When I first started de-bulging .40 S&W cases I bought a 40 S&W sizing die thinking that I would just push the cases thru that die and not have to F/L size it afterwards. The error of this thinking was exposed on the very first case I tried to shove thru that die. The Die was .418 and the case head was .421 and it was having nothing to do with it! Swaging Brass is a considerably different task than sizing lead, and sizing .003 was simply not going to happen. You don't have enough mechanical advantage with a preloading press to compress a case head. Maybe a hydraulic press could do it but it would probably split the carbide ring in the die when it happened.

The Lee FCD is about .422-423 and the normal case heads will go thru and the bulge above the case head is squished out. The case still has to be F/L sized before loading but that would be part of the deal anyway so there is nothing lost.

Actually the Case Pro Roll Sizer would be your best bet here as it rolls the case between two plates(dies) that are set at a specific distance apart. That machine will in fact true up rims on cases, and without a doubt they are the fastest way to do the job.

Morris showed his automated machine in an earlier post. They normally are hand operated. http://www.casepro100.com/index.ydev

Randy

[ammohead]

Does anyone here know anyone who makes a push thru die that is .378 and will allow a 5.56 case to be pushed all the way up and out? After several firings in my AR's the case rim gets nicked and slightly over .379. I can take a 357 die with decapper removed and push the case in 1/4 inch backwards and all is well. But it would be much faster to just cycle all case thru a die that just pushed all the way thru. And I wouldn't have to push them out each time with a wooden dowel. Rod

Rod,

I made myself an adapter that fits in my rcbs rockchucker that will take any lyman/rcbs sizing die and use it as a pass thru sizer. I make a pusher for each diameter that fits in the shell holder slot and the die goes upside down into the bottom of the adapter. Put the boolit on the pusher and raise the press till it comes out the top (bottom) of the die, viola. Works with any size die you have.

Feel free to pm me.

[Rick459]

Does anyone here know anyone who makes a push thru die that is .378 and will allow a 5.56 case to be pushed all the way up and out? After several firings in my AR's the case rim gets nicked and slightly over .379. I can take a 357 die with decapper removed and push the case in 1/4 inch backwards and all is well. But it would be much faster to just cycle all case thru a die that just pushed all the way thru. And I wouldn't have to push them out each time with a wooden dowel. Rod

are you using metal mags?

[rodsvet]

Yes USGI mags. Bushmaster and Colt. This brass is mostly once fired machine gun brass.

[salfter]

When I first started de-bulging .40 S&W cases I bought a 40 S&W sizing die thinking that I would just push the cases thru that die and not have to F/L size it afterwards. The error of this thinking was exposed on the very first case I tried to shove thru that die. The Die was .418 and the case head was .421 and it was having nothing to do with it! Swaging Brass is a considerably different task than sizing lead, and sizing .003 was simply not going to happen. You don't have enough mechanical advantage with a preloading press to compress a case head. Maybe a hydraulic press could do it but it would probably split the carbide ring in the die when it happened.

The Lee FCD is about .422-423 and the normal case heads will go thru and the bulge above the case head is squished out. The case still has to be F/L sized before loading but that would be part of the deal anyway so there is nothing lost.


I almost bought the Bulge Buster yesterday, but a bit of reading indicated that I already had the components I needed: a .40 S&W factory-crimp die and a .401 boolit sizing die. Remove the knob and crimping insert from the crimp die, put the pusher from the sizing-die kit on the ram, and start forcing your brass though.

Some of the shells went through fairly easily...probably weren't fired in a Glock. Others took a bit more work. There were a few where I started worrying that I'd rip the press (a Lee Challenger) off my bench if I put much more force into the handle. FWIW, these all had the same head stamp: CBC.

Most of the way through my first run of 100 (bought 2000 at the gun show this past weekend), I readjusted the die so that it wasn't screwed as far into the press: raise the ram (with the pin in it), screw in the die until it touches the wider part of the pusher, then back off a turn and lock into place. With the handle getting closer to using its full range of motion, deGlocking the rest of the batch was easier. Even the few CBCs that remained, while still harder, weren't as obnoxiously difficult: apply firm, even pressure and wait for it to pop through.

I almost posted here yesterday if it'd still be necessary to run the brass through the resizing die afterward, but then I remembered that it also fixes out-of-round case mouths (of which I had a few), so I ran them all through that die and the expander die. Next step is to cast more boolits, as I don't have enough already made up. :-)

(Hopefully deGlocking will, like removing military crimps, be a one-time thing for incoming brass from unknown sources. I shoot .40 in a Glock 23, but it now has a Lone Wolf barrel.)

[mold maker]

More than a year before LEE came out with the bulge buster dies, I tried to get them to just make a bullet sizing die for the purpose. They'd have no part of it, so I had a member here make one at .423.
Just get the next size smaller and enlarge it to the Max allowable case head size. Thus not working the brass excessively and requiring less force.
I've used mine for many thousands of range pickups.

[Rick459]

Yes USGI mags. Bushmaster and Colt. This brass is mostly once fired machine gun brass.
i have found that the metal feed lips on a metal magazine will cut into the rim of the .223 causing burrs that make them stick in my .223 case gauge. that"s why i swiched over to polymer mags. before i switched over to the polymer mags i would just chuck the damaged into my drill press and run sand paper around the rims..
Rick

[W.R.Buchanan]

Salfter: if you spray some Dillon Case lube on your cases before you run them thru the Bulge Buster it makes it much easier.

Also set the die up to where the case head is just starting to go thru the die when the press cams over center at the bottom of it's travel. That is where there is the most resistance and where the press has the highest mechanical advantage.

These two things will help you a lot.

Randy

[Don Fischer]

Boy am I lost! Is the head bulging or the rim getting nicked? I've never heard of this problem before and I don't use any cases fired through a full auto weapon either. Generally speaking, most case's are to inexpensive for me to have to re-size a case itself?

[W.R.Buchanan]

Don there is a bulge created just in front of the web of the case where it thins out. This is caused by firing in a looser or "Unsupported Chamber."

All Auto Pistols have an Unsupported Chamber to some degree, they have to in order to have a place for the extractor to engage the rim of the case.. Only a revolver chamber completely supports the cartridge.

That all there is to it.

Randy