Pull and redo all these rounds?

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Rusty_Rivers_911

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Hello all.

I've got a question regarding some rounds I recently loaded.

Been handloading for about almost two years, and recently had a bright idea to take apart my .308 dies to clean them up. When I reassembled, I didnt adjust the sizing dies correctly.

This was one of those mistakes I made, and learned from!

After I loaded about 400 rounds I went out to the range with my AR10 and none of the loads would feed. Tried to chamber in another ar10 and had the same problem, I had to use a hammer and piece of wood to pull the charging handle back to unchamber the rounds.

I adjusted and made about 250 more rounds the next day and they all shot great, no problems at all.

My question is in regards to the 400 that are loaded and not sized correctly.

The best thing to do would probably be to pull them, resize the brass and then load again.

Could I save time by removing the depriming pin/neck sizer from the sizing die, and run the loaded rounds through the sizing dies to correctly shape them while their loaded? My initial worry is that sizing a loaded round could put additional pressure and squeeze the neck tighter around the bullets (which are not crimped in).

If this sounds stupid, please let me know. I taught myself to reload and have done tens of thousands of rounds without significant problems until this. I live in a rural area without anyone to ask reloading questions to.

Thanks in advance!

Rusty
 
If it simply needs the shoulder bumped back a bit, you could progressively bump the shoulder back on the loaded rounds using a body die, until your AR10's bolt closes easily.
 
Your chamber is the best guage. The fact that after you sized the following brass a bit more, successfully, means that the shoulder, and possibly the body was sized more, and functioned correctly. The body die will allow you to replicate that sizing, with the bullet already seated. BTW, I edited my post, because I don't believe the bump die will allow you to use loaded rounds.
 
Also, body dies are nice to have. I use them, in conjunction with bushing neck sizing, to assemble my most accurate loads. The two-step sizing process seems to create less runout as the one step method (for me).
 
As Fatelvis, a body die will help you out and use your chamber to figure out when they'll fit. I know it doesn't need to be said but I will, just make sure to keep your finger off the bang switch.

Like Fatelvis, I get my most accurate rounds using a body die and Lee collet neck die. That's what I use for my match loads.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
You mentioned "squeezing" the neck, that's not your problem. When reloads won't allow the bolt to close its usually the shoulder that is not pushed back enough. I did say usually...
 
A body die in conjunction with a drop in type case gauge will allow you to make sure your rounds will chamber and feed. Also using the case gauge to adjust your sizing die from the outset will eliminate the problem. You can also use the gauge to measure the amount of shoulder bump the body die imparts on the case. They also have a youtube video on how to do this.

Please follow all safe reloading practices.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr
 
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Welcome to THR
lots of great people here.

Don't know what sizer decap you are using but you should be able to pull the decap pin and resize them.
A case guage comes in handy so you can spot check while you loading to make sure everything is ok.
I adjust the sizer then spot check maybe every 20-30th round just to make sure things haven't gotten out of whack.


I seem to recall doing this once with no issues but others are advising against it, so you might want to try one or two rounds to see if everything is ok after resize.
I will do some tomorrow if I have a chance and measure the results.
 
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Im seeing several suggestions by others here. If your shoulder needs bumped back, you gotta pull em all. If it is just that the body needs sized, then a body die will do the job. DO NOT just take the decap/expander ball out of your full length die and send the rounds through. You will ruin your bullets and kill your neck tension.

It may just be easier to buy a rcbs collet puller die and collet to just pull them all and start over. Or if your bullets have any cannelure exposed, you can just get a pair of cutters to grip in the cannelure and pull the bullet on your press. I pulled a 300blk with a buckled shoulder that way just last night!
 
If your shoulder needs bumped back, you gotta pull em all.
Click to expand...
I disagree. A body die will bump back the shoulder and size the body without touching the neck or seated bullet whatsoever.
 
Fatelvis said:
I disagree. A body die will bump back the shoulder and size the body without touching the neck or seated bullet whatsoever.
Click to expand...
I'll admit, I've never owned a body die and had to google it before my previous reply. I understand the concept and use of the die but cant find any exact specs or a cutaway of the die. How does the die push back the shoulder without contacting the neck any? I would think that malleable brass would leave an edge where the shoulder of the die does not make full contact with the neck.

Doesn't empty brass need to be neck sized before being pushed into a body die? If the tolerances between where the shoulder part of the die opens up for the neck are very close, sure that would work but what happens when you have a bullet in there opening up the neck another .003-.004"?

Can someone educate me?
 
Some people use a bushing neck die, and then when needed use the body die to size the brass back down a little. I use a FL bushing style die. It is cut to let the neck stick through without sizing, but has the shoulder cut into it so as it seizes the body it can bump the shoulder as well. Kind of like a FL die with the neck honed out.
 
Walkalong said:
Some people use a bushing neck die, and then when needed use the body die to size the brass back down a little. I use a FL bushing style die. It is cut to let the neck stick through without sizing, but has the shoulder cut into it so as it seizes the body it can bump the shoulder as well. Kind of like a FL die with the neck honed out.
Click to expand...
I guess what I was asking is how can the die fully push back all of the shoulder, specifically the small area of the should that is revealed in the "honed out neck" area? Maybe I'm just overthinking this? probably so.
 
Rustyrivers911:

Look carefully at your reloads to see if here is a slight bulge where the shoulder starts. Your problem may not be the SIZING die but the seating die attempting to crimp the bullet as it is seating it to length. This a common problem when crimping while seating. Crimping should always be done as a separate step, even if the bullets have a crimp groove as it is very easy to buckle the shoulder on a bottle-necked case. If this is the problem, you will need to pull the bullets and resize the brass. Adjust your seating die with a resized case to contact the crimp portion then back off a full turn to seat bullets to correct length. If you need to crimp, back off on the bullet seating screw (or even remove it altogether) then re-adjust the seating die to perform the crimping operation.
 
Reefinmike said:
Im seeing several suggestions by others here. If your shoulder needs bumped back, you gotta pull em all. If it is just that the body needs sized, then a body die will do the job. DO NOT just take the decap/expander ball out of your full length die and send the rounds through. You will ruin your bullets and kill your neck tension.

It may just be easier to buy a rcbs collet puller die and collet to just pull them all and start over. Or if your bullets have any cannelure exposed, you can just get a pair of cutters to grip in the cannelure and pull the bullet on your press. I pulled a 300blk with a buckled shoulder that way just last night!
Click to expand...
This is a great thread and the advice given made me do some serious googling!

When it comes to reloading I tend to take the cautious approach or high road (pun intnded!)

Fatelvis, I think I am going to invest in a body die moving forward but for these loads I think I am going to take this advice and invest in a press designed bullet puller and start fresh with resizing full length. 400+ rounds is way too much hammer bullet pulling to keep my sanity lol.

Once again, I am very grateful for the help and will absolutely pay it forward. THR is awesome, glad I joined.
 
I agree, it is an awesome website, and becomes addictive reading after awhile! LOL Welcome aboard, and good shooting!
 
I believe I would pull the bullets and resize, sans decapping stem. I wouldn't try to resize a completed round as others have mentioned components can be ruined. I figger you're full length sizing for your semi-autos anyway, so you're already set up to do that and nothing else to buy. (and I don't shortcut any reloading task). You did get a lot of good info on case sizes/resizing though...;)

There's only one way to eat an elephant, that's one bite at a time. Pull as many as you feel comfortable doing at one sitting (one bite). Resize as many as you wanna at one sitting (another bite). You'll finish the project without making the process a "drudge"... :D
 
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