FL Die question

Hey everyone, if I'm at the table, I've got questions. I received a Case Master for Christmas this year and it has a lot to say. At the present time i'm resizing a new batch of .204 brass to replace the mushroomed brass wreck I had a couple of weeks ago. When I roll the brass on the Case Master, I get within .002 on almost every fired case. After I resize the case, I roll anywhere from a .002 to a .006. I didn't feel that to be so good. Well as clumbsy would have it, on the way back from the tumbler in the garage, I dropped one of the finished brass and put a small dent in the case mouth. I felt it was large enough that the bullet would not start, so I resized it again. I then checked it on the Case Master and noticed it rolled barely over .001. This made me curious, so I checked another finished brass which was .004, resized it, and it moved within .0015. This was the same story for a couple more brass. On the fifth one, I moved it only from .006 to .003, I rotated the brass in the die , resized it again, and got it within .002. I quit here until I figure something out.

Here is my question, whats going on?

Can I resize multiple times without creating a negative in the cases, an why can I improve the concentricity by resizing multiple times? Is my die less than perfect? Thanks guys. Larry.

Good morning
I have never sized .204 brass... BUT some brass does get longer due to the reshaping it goes through. One thing you want to be sure of is that you are not moving the shoulder towards the base as you resize. Take a fired case NOT resized .. will it chamber easily or with slight resistence to close the bolt (is this a bolt gun)..
If there is no tough resistence I would be sizing the NECK only and being sure the risizing die does NOT touch the shoulder. I resize all my bolt gun brass this way and it minimizes case "Growth".
But again maybe 204 is peculiar ???
God Bless you

I know that when neck sizing it is a popular technique to run the case into the die, then rotate it 180*, and run it through again. It ought to work just fine with a FL die as long as the case is properly lubed, I have just never heard of anyone trying it. I don't think I'd try it with a spray lube without relubing, though. With a pad lube or Imperial Sizing Die Wax I would not hesitate.

BTW, if you have a dented neck, all you have to do is to run the expander ball in and out of the neck - the case does not have to go all the way into the die and does not need to be lubed. It happens fairly often.

As to tumbling brass, I don't use one, never have, and never will. If you take proper care of your brass and keep it clean there is absolutely no need for one. The dust tumblers produce is the single highest source of airborne particulate lead that a handloader (or a bullet caster) and his family is exposed to. If I absolutely had to clean cases, it would probably be ultrasonically as that method will not put anything into the air that I should not be breathing. I figure that in 35 years of loading I have probably cranked out close to 500,000 rounds, and that is a conservative estimate. I also cast between 5-10,000 bullets in an average year. The lead levels in my blood barely register (just breathing city air will put more lead into someone than my blood tests show). But some people have to have everything look pretty. If there are young children in the house, they will be paying for it the rest of their lives. Even low blood levels of lead in a growing mammal has a profound effect upon nerve and brain development, can effect intelligence level, and impair the ability to learn and reason. These effects are permanent. In adults where there is no active growth of nerve tissue, the effects are not as severe, but there still is damage done to brain, liver, and kidney cells. It is too high a price to pay just to turn out shiny ammo. This is an issue seldom addresssed, and when it is, no one wants to hear about it. And it's a dead certainty that no one in the industry is even remotely interested in funding any long term studies into it due to legal implications. But, it is clearly observable that handloaders who operate tumblers, especially in enclosed spaces (like buildings - homes, basements), have measurably higher lead levels in their blood than those who do not, and if young children live and play in those enclosed spaces they will suffer most.

I've not loaded for the .204 but I can tell you that all brass is different and will "work" differently in the dies. Even brass from the same manuf. if its from a different batch will feel different as you work it through the dies, and as a result you will get some variation(s) in the end result.
I totally agree with what has been said about neck sizing. If your brass feeds easily without full length neck sizing then I think it would be worth your while to neck size only. There are several advantages to neck sizing: less working of the brass itself, and more uniform chamber pressure when fired. Back your die off about 1/4 of a turn, this should keep it from working the full case but it will size the neck properly.

One note of caution: Some guns, in particular lever actions, won't accept brass unless it has been full length resized. I have a 308 Savage which won't take a reload unless it has been FL sized, and with a small base die at that !!....So, test a couple before you go into production mode.

part of your run out is also caused by brass that is not the same thickness.
and after you pull it over your neck expander [from sizing] you are pushing these inconsistencies to the outside of the brass.
which you are now able to measure.
you wanna actually "see" the run out measured on your loaded case.
not on the neck but on the loaded bullet.
all you have been doing is measuring brass thickness differences.
what you may hear about run out is that each amount of run out will give you a bigger group,but if you wanna find out load and sort into groups and shoot and compare.
you may see a difference between .001-3 group and a .020 group.
but i bet it isn't 3".
if you wanna get picky about run-out, sort and save the batches, and re-measure after each loading to see if it really changes.
[bet it don't] an uneven case will always be so.