Help! Weird wrinkling on brass

[Tall Shadow]

Hi all!,
I've reloaded before, but always straight walled pistol cases. I've never done bottle necked rifle cases before.

I'm heading out west soon, and I'm starting the reloading process to develop the rounds I'm taking out there with me.

..But there is trouble in paradise!

I finally have everything to begin (Don't even get me started about the prices!)....and set up my press with the FL resizing die for .223rem.......just to see...to get a feel of how things were going to work and all.....

Well the first few cases I ran through the die were (for want of a better way to describe it) wrinkled, or (almost) fluted just above the shoulder..

(I will include a picture ASAP)

I removed the die, disassembled it (again) and cleaned it (again) to make sure It wasn't grease, oil, gunk, Etc. inside...but it (and the patches/swabs I used) looked pretty clean...I'm not sure what else it might be.

I'm pretty sure I set them up correctly.

I cleaned them inside and out when I got them.
I screwed the die into the press, with the correct shell holder in the ram.
I ran the ram up to it's highest point.
I then screwed the die down until it just bottomed out on the shell holder, and locked it down...lightly for now.
I set the deprimer to just be down far enough to pop the old primer out, without bottoming out on the case bottom.

Lube the cases, insert and pull the handle.

Am I missing something, or doing something wrong with the above set up?


I'm just trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong..

Thanks Guys!

Tall Shadow