Lee K31 Dies

[jh45gun]

As I said before all my brass has been resized and primed so I cannot measure a fired case. 

[acloco]

As I said before all my brass has been resized and primed so I cannot measure a fired case. 

Measure a case that has been resized and post the results.

[jh45gun]

It measures .457 just behind the shoulder. One thing Parashooter said about neck sizing is that you have to keep the CUP below 40,000. Which is what I have been saying all along moderate loadings should chamber fine. I would suppose you could neck size cast loads all day long and never have a problem. So it really depends on your load also.

[jerkface11]

Raysendero the problem with the lee dies is that they are cut for the k11 chamber not the k31 chamber. Which in the case of the 3 k31's i have experience with means resizing is extremely difficult since the brass is being overworked. Whereas the redding dies are cut for the k31 chamber.

You are overstating it as the brass is not hard to size at all with Lee dies nothing difficult about it and I use a hand press and I have no problems sizing the brass nor did I have any problems sizing the 284 brass using the hand press. If the Swiss would have figured there was a problem they would have changed the ammo for the K31 size chamber yet they left it alone. Yea I know they did not plan on reloading but then no milsurp rifle was made for reloading. Yet folks reload for all of them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nothing wrong with what your doing Ray and if your getting good reloads no problem I just posted about the new dies as Lee does realize now that there are two different chambers yet the old dies will work as you well know.

 How many firings do you have on your brass? My forster coax is barely enough press to resize even new cases with a lee die. The once fired ones are almost impossible. If you're using .284 brass maybe the sizing was easy because they aren't fully fire formed.

[jh45gun]

I would think it would only take one fireing to fireform a case. My first  loads were cast and about 1800 FPS still that should be enough to fire form the case. When I shoot some condom loads I will check it again.

[acloco]

I would think it would only take one fireing to fireform a case. My first  loads were cast and about 1800 FPS still that should be enough to fire form the case. When I shoot some condom loads I will check it again.

I don't think that is enough chamber pressure to fireform.  The 284 Win brass has fairly sharp shoulders when formed with moderate to almost max loads.  Anything less than moderate loads, results in round, not sharp, corners at the shoulder.

[jerkface11]

 A fire forming load actually needs to be fairly warm. I believe you've stated your loads are on the lower end of the power scale.

[jh45gun]

Just looked my shoulders do not look any different than the sized ones in the pictures that Parashooter posted that was reposted here.

[acloco]

I will check, but I don't think I have any 284 cases that are new/unfired.  Will check later in the week.

[jack19512]

I took a pic of three .284 Winchester cases.  It's the best I can do.  I don't have a camera that will take good closeups.  The case on the left is a new unsized .284 case.  The middle is a sized .284 unfired case.  The one on the right is a sized once fired .284 case.

If you look closely you can see that the new case on the left and the once fired case on the right have a tapered shoulder while the sized case in the middle doesn't have a tapered shoulder but has a slight rounded shoulder.

I assume this is what the debate is all about.  I can see how this would work the brass but I have no idea exactly what effect it will have on the number of reloadings you will get or any safety issues this might cause.  I will have to leave this up to those that know more than I do about reloading.   

[jh45gun]

Jack thanks for the pic my cases look like the ones on the right.