This may be a silly question, but I'm looking for someone to confirm or deny a suspicion of mine. I reload in an unheated basement below an addition. It is unheated and poorly insulated, so in the winter it ranges from probably 45 to 50 degrees in there. I understand that the cold shouldn't be a problem, but I wonder if it isn't the culprit with the following problem:
Twice when re-sizing once fired brass in late January or February (when the basement is the coldest) I have found it impossible to size the brass. It is openly with massive force that I can get a case into a die, and when I didn't know enough to stop I broke a decapping stem. I have not had this problem sizing new brass in the winter. I store all my components in the basement. Brass contracts less than iron so, is it possible that the sustained cold has contracted the steel dies just that much more than the brass that it is causing the problem? Under this theory the new brass has not expanded at all and still fits in the contracted die.
So what say you reloaders? Should I go looking for another cause, or should I plan on keeping dies, brass, and bullets in heated space until it's time for use?
Thanks.
Twice when re-sizing once fired brass in late January or February (when the basement is the coldest) I have found it impossible to size the brass. It is openly with massive force that I can get a case into a die, and when I didn't know enough to stop I broke a decapping stem. I have not had this problem sizing new brass in the winter. I store all my components in the basement. Brass contracts less than iron so, is it possible that the sustained cold has contracted the steel dies just that much more than the brass that it is causing the problem? Under this theory the new brass has not expanded at all and still fits in the contracted die.
So what say you reloaders? Should I go looking for another cause, or should I plan on keeping dies, brass, and bullets in heated space until it's time for use?
Thanks.