I'm in a bind and I don't know what to do. Its a long story but basically I started hunting and handloading a year ago. Everything started fine...worked up a few loads for my new tikka t3x in 7mm rem mag. 140gr accubonds, remington brass, R22 using a Lee Breech Lock press and RCBS dies. Loaded about 500 rounds and was very happy with the results I was getting and then out of nowhere I started getting copper shavings around my case mouths after seating bullets. These were .8moa loads at 300yds before and they opened up after the shavings appeared. I've tried everything:
-gave cases an over-exaggerated chamfer to make sure that wasn't it. Tried a VLD chamfer. tried lubing bullets and case mouths. cleaned shell holder and the ram where the shell holder goes in. shell holder is flush all around the ram, so it isn't mis-aligned.
-took dies apart and cleaned them. measured my expander ball to make sure it hadn't been worn down or damaged...which would explain a smaller case mouth and more pressure at the case neck.
-tried with a different box of 140gr ABs. tried with a different type of bullet, hornady eld-x 162gr. tried two different times of brass, remington and norma. bought new remington brass, chamfered it a bit, and loaded dummy rounds. still shavings.
-took my dies to a friend's house and went through a whole round of resizing, trimming, reprimering, chamfering, charging, and seating. all with my dies and his press. no shavings. he prepped 5 cases with my resizing die. I took them home and seated bullets in them. shavings.
So especially with using my friend's press I thought I narrowed it down to my press becoming misaligned somehow. I did go through a period where my seating die was screwed in too far and I was putting a lot of pressure on the press as I cranked on it to try to get consistent seating depths. I sent it back to Lee and they replaced a bunch of parts on it and sent it back. Just installed the press on my bench and loaded some dummy rounds...and still shavings.
I'm desperate. Considering hanging the whole handloading thing up...but I don't want to because I was really enjoying it. Anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do? Maybe just buy a new press? If I do that and there are still shavings I think I'm going to flip.
-gave cases an over-exaggerated chamfer to make sure that wasn't it. Tried a VLD chamfer. tried lubing bullets and case mouths. cleaned shell holder and the ram where the shell holder goes in. shell holder is flush all around the ram, so it isn't mis-aligned.
-took dies apart and cleaned them. measured my expander ball to make sure it hadn't been worn down or damaged...which would explain a smaller case mouth and more pressure at the case neck.
-tried with a different box of 140gr ABs. tried with a different type of bullet, hornady eld-x 162gr. tried two different times of brass, remington and norma. bought new remington brass, chamfered it a bit, and loaded dummy rounds. still shavings.
-took my dies to a friend's house and went through a whole round of resizing, trimming, reprimering, chamfering, charging, and seating. all with my dies and his press. no shavings. he prepped 5 cases with my resizing die. I took them home and seated bullets in them. shavings.
So especially with using my friend's press I thought I narrowed it down to my press becoming misaligned somehow. I did go through a period where my seating die was screwed in too far and I was putting a lot of pressure on the press as I cranked on it to try to get consistent seating depths. I sent it back to Lee and they replaced a bunch of parts on it and sent it back. Just installed the press on my bench and loaded some dummy rounds...and still shavings.
I'm desperate. Considering hanging the whole handloading thing up...but I don't want to because I was really enjoying it. Anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do? Maybe just buy a new press? If I do that and there are still shavings I think I'm going to flip.