Made stupid mistake reloading 223's

[PhilMc]

I was at the range today with my AR enjoying the nice weather shooting. Range called a cease fire so I dropped my mag and tried to pull the charging handle back to clear the chambered round. To my surprise it was very hard to pull back.

After the cease fire I popped the mag back in to chamber another round and found that the gun was not going fully into battery. Tried the forward assist but felt like something was wrong. Got that round out and ended my range session with that gun and ammo right away.

When I got home I slid the offending round into a case gauge and found that the "bottle" was too long. Checked all my 223 rounds that I had made up and found 105 that didn't fit properly into the gauge. Pulled the bullets and recovered the powder on the bad rounds.

I checked my AR with my dummy round and found that it chambered perfectly. Also checked my case gauge with a factory round and found that the gauge was good.

Somewhere I got lazy in my quality control checks while prepping brass. Turns out that my resizing die was out of adjustment. I should have caught these cases long before primer and powder!

Will soak the bad cases to kill the primers and fix them.

Was a good lesson for me to never let my guard down while reloading.

 

[jwrowland77]

Soak the cases in water won't kill the primers, the primer compound is made with water.

To resize the brass again, take the decapping pin off and resize the brass like you normally would. Then it's just a matter of trimming if need be, powder and bullet.

 

[Coffeeguy]

Why not just remove your decapper rod and run the cases thru your sizing die again? Yeah, with 105 cases it only amounts to $4 worth of primers, but these days it's good to conserve whatever we can.

I definitely feel ya, though...My neighbor frequently uses my press setup, and he ran into an issue with his 9mm not going into battery...I looked at some of his ammo and actually saw a slight bottleneck; he was new to reloading and was only running the cases up into the sizing die til the primers popped out; thankfully he had loaded only 100 but had sized about 500 cases his last session and had to do them over again.

 

[PhilMc]

I will take out the decap pin and give it a try.

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

A gentle hand with the decapping pin allows a person to recover the primers. If you're not comfortable with it, I understand, but I haven't ever had an issue. Safety glasses and earplugs are highly suggested as precautions, of course.

 

[witchhunter]

We have all done something like this, don't worry, just resize and decap very slowly. Save those primers and reprime. You will be good to go.

 

[Steve2md]

yep, pop em out gently. I've never actually had one go off on me before when using either a universal decapper, or a sizing die. I'd suggest the uni though, since if you DO detonate one, you won't have a sizing die to scrub the gunk out of...

 

[jwrowland77]

There's no need to take the primers out.....all he has to do is resize the brass with the pin out. Then there's no need to reprime the brass.

I recently had to do this with some rounds for my daughters .243. Worked out great and I never had to take primer out.

Did the same thing with some .308 brass when I changed rifles and had neck sized the old brass. I simply took pin out and FL resized without removing the primer.

 

[vongh]

Another question along with this is. If he full length sizes the case again will the case stretch to the point of trimming again? I was just thinking and did'nt know the answer. If the case did stretch than wouldn't they need to be deprimed?

 

[Sport45]

If he full length sizes the case again will the case stretch to the point of trimming again?

No, there's not that much sizing going on (only the base) and he's not pulling a sizing button back up through the neck.

I don't think the case stuck out of the gauge because it was too long, I think it was too big because it hadn't been sized to the base.

 

[rcmodel]

and he's not pulling a sizing button back up through the neck.

He better be.

He needs to take the de-capping pin out, but leave the expander button on the rod.

No, there will be no further need for trimming.
Unless they were too long to start with.

rc

 

[PhilMc]

Thanks for all the idea's, I will try a few after work tonight.

 

[Potatohead]

He better be.

He needs to take the de-capping pin out, but leave the expander button on the rod.

No, there will be no further need for trimming.
Unless they were too long to start with.

rc

I may be resorting back to the days of my stupid questions era, but how do you take the pin out but leave the expander on the rod? I thought the expander was on the pin..?

Dont know if Ive ever really inspected closely, I have Lee pistol and rcbs 223 dies...Im off to inspect now, hopefully I can answer my own question...

 

[jwrowland77]

I know on the Hornady and RCBS, if you take the spindle out, there's a part that unscrews from the rest of it, leaving the expander on it. Then you just screw the spindle with expander on it back into the die where it normally sits, and go to work.

 

[Potatohead]

Oh K, I think I see, I guess you can separate the two by turning the nut or the little grippy, knurled thingy ma jig...(more likely the little, grippy knurled thingy ma jig?)




Thanks Jwrow. I think we posted at the same time...

 

[Walkalong]

Some you can, some you can't. he can always size normally, and then re-prime with the same primers.

 

[tyeo098]

If you have a LEE set you'll need to do it in 2 steps.

1st with pin remove to FL size the case.
2nd with pin inserted but only lower the ram so that the expander expands the neck. Go down too far and you'll knock the primer out.

 

[PhilMc]

Decided to completely redo all the brass, decapped and destroyed the primers. Not worth it to me to try and save a couple dollars worth of primers.
I will completely resize the brass and add it to my collection that is ready for reloading.

Going to write it off as a learning experience!

 

[Potatohead]

Aww man, you coulda used those primers. It is Amerrcka last time I checked though so it's your thing.You're right though-not a huge loss.

 

[Coffeeguy]

Nothing wrong at all with playing it safe. Yeah, we've all been there, and your situation was a lot better than something like a low or double charge where you only find out AFTER a round has been fired.

 

[BruceB]

The CARTRIDGE gauge is a wonderful device , helping greatly with a handloader's peace of mind.

I'm no newbie at this, coming up on fifty years of handloading, and one of my most-important routines is this:

EVERY SINGLE ROUND, for any of my autoloading firearms, goes through a cartridge gauge as its final "acceptance check".

This spans the field from .223 up to the .45 ACP, and involves another half-dozen cartridges between those extremes. An extra twenty bucks per caliber for a cartridge gauge is very inexpensive insurance.

EVERY ROUND is gauged, and if any one round fails the 'gauge check', that round is immediately junked by crushing unless a a fast check reveals a minor burr that caused the problem.

I don't have the time (or desire) to mess with trying to correct a single cartridge.

 

[RussellC]

I've removed primers plenty of times with never an incident. The first time I heard you could do this I was surprised. The first time I did it I was way worried, now I do it without a second thought, BUT always be careful just as you should be installing them. Just press them out. Then reinstall.

Russellc

 

[RussellC]

The CARTRIDGE gauge is a wonderful device , helping greatly with a handloader's peace of mind.

I'm no newbie at this, coming up on fifty years of handloading, and one of my most-important routines is this:

EVERY SINGLE ROUND, for any of my autoloading firearms, goes through a cartridge gauge as its final "acceptance check".

This spans the field from .223 up to the .45 ACP, and involves another half-dozen cartridges between those extremes. An extra twenty bucks per caliber for a cartridge gauge is very inexpensive insurance.

EVERY ROUND is gauged, and if any one round fails the 'gauge check', that round is immediately junked by crushing unless a a fast check reveals a minor burr that caused the problem.

I don't have the time (or desire) to mess with trying to correct a single cartridge.

+1

Russellc

 

[PhilMc]

Finished completely resizing and reloading them last night. Taught me a good lesson to never let my guard down.

BruceB from now on every round will go into my case gauges, Thanks!

 

[HisStigness]

I found this mistake when testing out my new barrel a couple months ago. Evidently it had a tighter chamber, and that is why I noticed it. I measured my 300blk and it was the same story. In the end I took apart around 100 loaded rounds, 300 pieces of printed brass, and over 600 unprimed pieces. It turns out I missed the part about the extra 1/4 turn after the die touches the shell holder. Lesson learned, and learned well.