First of all, I had two sets of .223 dies, Lee and RCBS.
1. About two years ago I broke the expander on the RCBS die. So I've been using the Lee.
2. For the past year or so I've been having problems off and on, with brass thats been sized, having to loose a neck, and allowing the bullet to almost fall in or be able to be pushed in by my finger. I just passed it off as work hardened brass and tossed them.
3. So tonight I'm loading up some .223 with the Tac powder, this brass has only been shot once 'cause I cut the crimps out of them Wednesday night.
4. I ran into 6 pieces of brass, out of 300, that are too loose to grip the bullets properly. Well, because it?s once fired brass there is no way in hell its work hardened.
6. I thought maybe there was a problem with the expander in the Lee die, so I removed it and ran the brass back through. Same problem, the brass would not size down.
5 I dug out my RCBS die, and ran the brass through it and presto, nice and tight fitting necks.
Have to admit I'm a bit disappointed in Lee. I've always assumed, and my experience has borne this out, that regular RCBS and Lee dies, being on the lower end of the scale were pretty much comparable. This has definitely changed *that* opinion.
Damn I wish I'd taken a closer look at the problem sooner. Would have saved me some brass!!