30-30 die abnormality???

okiefarmer · December 10, 2011, 11:34 AM

I just bought a new LEE three die set for the 30-30 Winchester. If some recall, I had that older CH sizing die that I got in a set of reloading stuff from another reloader yeas ago, but lacked the rest of the die set, and it is missing the neck resizer. Got started sizing some brass, and noticed most all cases were getting a little scar on them at the base of the bottleneck. Tried cleaning it out, but to no avail. Looked up in there with a bore light, and there is a tiny little burr where a weep hole is bored through on LEE dies to prevent those dimples when overlubing brass. I am confident LEE will fix or replace, but this is the first bottle neck LEE die I have purchased in a while, and I was not aware of that little hole. It normaally hides itself under the lock ring.

I sized 30 or 40 pieces of brass trying to figure out the anomoly, and went back and forth with the CH die (sans neck sizer, I'll have to run them back through the LEE), but I noticed how much harder the ram worked with the CH with similar lube than the LEE. It was also very difficult to avoid the "dimple" with only a minimum of lube on the die. The LEE weep hole is the bees knees for that problem, I must say.

On another note, I noticed the bottle neck angle didn't seem quite the same as an unfired 30-30 factory round I keep for reference. The CH and LEE both differed slightly in neck angle and I don't really have a way of measuring that angle accurately. I don't currently have a case length/headspace guage, the kind that you push the case into to see if it slides in and out easily. LEE claims their trimmers are also case length guages, and I suppse they are, but need I worry about this shoulder angle being a bit off from factory? I have never noticed this difference on my other bottleneck cartridges.

jaguarxk120 · December 10, 2011, 02:33 PM

Take/send it back to who you bought it from and request a replacement/refund. This set escape quality control and was shipped with out checking if the dies were right.

December 10, 2011, 11:34 AM	#1
okiefarmer Senior Member Join Date: February 20, 2006 Location: Oklahoma Posts: 381	30-30 die abnormality??? I just bought a new LEE three die set for the 30-30 Winchester. If some recall, I had that older CH sizing die that I got in a set of reloading stuff from another reloader yeas ago, but lacked the rest of the die set, and it is missing the neck resizer. Got started sizing some brass, and noticed most all cases were getting a little scar on them at the base of the bottleneck. Tried cleaning it out, but to no avail. Looked up in there with a bore light, and there is a tiny little burr where a weep hole is bored through on LEE dies to prevent those dimples when overlubing brass. I am confident LEE will fix or replace, but this is the first bottle neck LEE die I have purchased in a while, and I was not aware of that little hole. It normaally hides itself under the lock ring. I sized 30 or 40 pieces of brass trying to figure out the anomoly, and went back and forth with the CH die (sans neck sizer, I'll have to run them back through the LEE), but I noticed how much harder the ram worked with the CH with similar lube than the LEE. It was also very difficult to avoid the "dimple" with only a minimum of lube on the die. The LEE weep hole is the bees knees for that problem, I must say. On another note, I noticed the bottle neck angle didn't seem quite the same as an unfired 30-30 factory round I keep for reference. The CH and LEE both differed slightly in neck angle and I don't really have a way of measuring that angle accurately. I don't currently have a case length/headspace guage, the kind that you push the case into to see if it slides in and out easily. LEE claims their trimmers are also case length guages, and I suppse they are, but need I worry about this shoulder angle being a bit off from factory? I have never noticed this difference on my other bottleneck cartridges.

December 10, 2011, 02:33 PM	#2
jaguarxk120 Senior Member Join Date: February 28, 2008 Location: Michigan Posts: 2,620	Take/send it back to who you bought it from and request a replacement/refund. This set escape quality control and was shipped with out checking if the dies were right.