Problem loading new Federal primed nickle 45 acp cases

I have a Dillon 55B and encountered a problem when loading some new Federal primed nickle 45 acp cases. The problem is at the bell/powder charge station. The case gets stuck very tight on the bell tube and requires significant force to unstick and complete the arm cycle. Upon further inspection, I found that the inside rim of the cases had a black finish about 1/8" wide around the rim. It looks like someone took a black marker and marked it around the inside of the case. Could this be a lubricant of some type that has dried out or what? I am new at reloading but have reloaded about 1,000 of the same new Federal primed cases in plain brass without any problem. I have loaded all of the plain brass cases so I can't look inside of one. Thanks for any information or suggestions. I have about 1,000 of these nickle cases.

I never purchase new Federal primed nickel plated cases but I have loaded plenty of once fired Federal nickel plated cases without any issue.
I do remeber that Starline at one time offered a fix for the Dillon expander since the normal expander caused the Starline cases to stick during the belling step - that was several years ago.

Even though they are new, did you size them first? (remove the de prime pin)

Did you chamfer/ream the case mouths?

How much are you "belling" them. Should be just enough to start the bullet, if over flared you can encounter problems and weaken the brass.

You might want to try spaying them with a bit of spray case lube. Even with carbide dies it makes things easier and smoother.

Rule3 said:

Even though they are new, did you size them first? (remove the de prime pin)

Did you chamfer/ream the case mouths?

How much are you "belling" them. Should be just enough to start the bullet, if over flared you can encounter problems and weaken the brass.

You might want to try spaying them with a bit of spray case lube. Even with carbide dies it makes things easier and smoother.

Click to expand...

No, they were not sized and the case mouths were not reamed. They were belled the same as the brass cases as this stage has not been re-adjusted.

I've messed around with electroplating ... what you describe sounds like it might be a case of "burnt metal" which I had seen a good bit of at the edges of some of these projects. I think it has to do with how electricity tends to flow from a point and to a flat while refusing to do the opposite

RedCardinal said:

No, they were not sized and the case mouths were not reamed. They were belled the same as the brass cases as this stage has not been re-adjusted.

Click to expand...

Well it was just a suggestion that might solve your dilemma.

The nickle plating will add a slight thickness to the brass compared to non plated.

Carry on then.

It sounds like you may have gotten some factory ammo that has been broken down. Might be some pretty old stuff. In years past some of the factories (especially those loading military-contract ball ammo) used an asphaltic sealer to keep the bullets from shortening when they hit the feed ramp. A friend tried to break the ammo down to salvage the components, but said his inertia-hammer wasn't working too well. I suggested he try seating the bullets deeper first, to break the seal, and it worked just fine.

What is the source of the brass?

If u have a tumbler add a small amount of liquid car wax for 1/2 hour. 45 brass lasts forever. I dont chunk mine untill it cracks. It needs a small bell. Mix the wax in for a short while & add the brass. PRESTO-ALLA KAZAM.

RedCardinal,

What I love is seeing how many different answers you can get to a simple question when the posters do not READ the original question!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Forget Nickel and primed, these have nothing at all to do with what you are experiencing, only the fact that the brass is NEW.

Very few shooters seem to understand that the expander ball needs to be lubricated when sizing breas, not just the outside of the case. A Carbide insert takes care of the outside librication problem, but most dies still have a plain steel expander ball. With once, or more, fired brass the lubrication is taken care of by residual powder fouling, some of which is Graphite, an excellent dry lubricant. When you start with new cases they have nothing on them for lubrication, they are absolutely clean and they gall on the expander which makes it hard to pull them off the expander, exactly what you are describing!

How do you solve the galling problem? Simple, lubricate the inside of the case very lightly. You can manually do this with a bore mop with a little case lube on it, or do what 4barrel suggested, this is an excellent bit of information! Unfortunately it shouldn't with new primed brass because of contamination problems. Another way would be to use the Lee "Universal Expander Die" which isn't an expander, but simply a belling tool. If all you are doing is belling by bumping the case mouth with an undersized expander then lubrication isn't needed. Using a .40 or .44 expander die would accomplish the same thing. All you need is a small bevel and make sure the case mouth is round.

The reason you didn't have problems with the plain brass cases is because they had very slightly different dimensions and didn't drag on the expander. This was NOT because of the Nickel plating! The Nickel is only a few microns thick, too little to measure with a micrometer, and not enough to change dimensions.

These cases may have been some intended for a military specification run of ammunition which would explain the black material inside the case mouth (I think that was what you were trying to say!). This would have been a bitumastic sealer that is commonly used in military ammunition as a sealer.

Before doing anything else, take your expander die apart and polish the expander button to remove whatever galling there already is on it.

I have yet to lube the first straight walled pistol case and certainly NOT when i am using carbide dies and new nickel brass!
Really?
And, in most setups, there is no expander button in the sizing of a straight walled pistol case.

There is a belling die, and if that is a powder through die, and you lube it, DUDE, you are only going to cause more trouble than you can handle when you drop powder through it.

All new brass has to be sized, if it is new to you brass, size it, period. Remove the pin as Rule 3 has told you and do it. Then, you know that the brass will fit in the rest of your dies. Not all dies are created equal but the set you have should work well together.

smh

RedCardinal said:

No, they were not sized and the case mouths were not reamed. They were belled the same as the brass cases as this stage has not been re-adjusted.

Click to expand...

Just for the info, I'd be inclined to chamfer/deburr a few and run them through to see if it helps.

Can't argue with the size all new brass folks though - doesn't seem too likely that the mouths of bulk shipped brass will be as consistenly round as they ought to be.

Chamfer the inside of the case with a chamfering tool as the previous post suggested. This will break that sharp edge that factory new cases have and reduce the case grabbing the expander plug.

Alk8944 has got it right, its new brass galling/sticking to the expander. A small amount of lube will ease the problem greatly and not cause any issues with powder dropping through.

I've done it plenty with new Starline brass and a standard Lee powder through die.....

Add me to the list that suggests lightly lubing the case mouth. When I run into this problem, I run a finger over case lube and run that lubed finger across the mouth of the case. You won't have to lube every case - just every third or fourth case should do it.

Dale53

Thanks to all. I will begin applying some of the suggestions on a few cases and observe the results. When I finish with the experimenting, I will post my results.