[Unclenick]

Ekshuntsdale,

Are you sure you bought small base dies? I notice you listed a Lee small base die, but AFAIK, they don't catalog one. Just the standard sizing die.

You do best with a very rigid press with the long cases. It is a little like forming a wildcat, and you want to be sure the pressure ring hasn't been so badly stretched that they are in danger of head separation. At that point it might just be as easy to toss those. Annealing the neck and shoulder also can make it easier to set the shoulder back.

Take one of the tough-to-resize cases and find a 0.002" feeler gauge you can slip under the case head in the shell holder to raise it up. You'll have to take the decapper out, since the decapping pin won't go through the feeler gauge. Lube the case and run it all the way up. Count to five to let the metal relax a little, then lower the ram, count to five and rotate the case 180 degrees, then run it back up into the die and count to five again. I can usually get several thousandths of additional shortening that way.

Once the shoulder is where it should be, if the total length of the case is too great, it needs trimming. A case that is extra long after extraction will typically "squirt" up into die neck longer. With those long cases you also need to watch out for premature formation of the "dreaded donut" forming at the inside of the neck where it meets the shoulder. An inside neck reamer is normally used to cut those out.