My .308 bullets wont seat?

[harbinger_j]

I have been reloading .40SW and .357 but now that I am starting on the .308 I am running into a problem.
I bought 100 Remington PSP bullets and have about 80 cases to load. I put my brass though the resize/deprime die and now the case neck is too small for me to set the bullet.
The bottom of my bullets are flat so the seating die doesn't push them in. Would boat tail bullets solve this?
Is there any way to have the case belled like the straight walled cases?
My Dies are the Lee and I am using the bullets in a bolt action rifle if it matters.

 

[rcmodel]

All you need to do is chamfer the insides of the case necks to get rid of the sharp edge. They sell chamfering tools to do this correctly, or you can do a passable job with a sharp pocket-knife.

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=143728&t=11082005

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=389104&t=11082005

There is no way, or no need, to bell the case mouths on bottle-neck rifle cases.

The sized case neck needs to be slightly smaller then the bullet to provide proper case-neck tension.

Flat base bullets will seat just fine if you chamfer the cases first.


rcmodel

 

[Galil5.56]

Might want to make sure you have chamfered the case mouth enough to get the bullet started. You could buy a lee Universal Case Expanding Die, but if the cases are chamfered properly, you might investigate the expander button. It is possible that it's too small, and not expanding the neck enough.

Lastly, make sure the bullet diameter is OK, as your rifle will use jacketed bullets with a nominal .308" diameter. I personally like a lot of "bullet pull" within reason, and hope you get to the bottom of your situation with minimal fuss.

 

[harbinger_j]

Thank you,

I also don't have a case trimmer is that necessary every reload?
What is the tolerance of length on the .308 case?

 

[W.E.G.]

It won't hurt any to put a slight flare on the case mouth in order to prevent the base of the bullet from being damaged during seating.

Boat-tail bullets obviously don't have this problem.

Flat-based bullets are more accurate in some guns. Most people cannot shoot well enough, or their guns are not accurate enough, to notice the difference.

You can use a taper punch to flare the case mouth slightly. Be sure to put a very light crimp on the loaded round to mash the flare flush up against the side of the bullet.

As for trimming brass, your #1 concern is that the brass is not so long that it extends to the area of the chamber where the inside dimension of the chamber starts to narrow. If you allow this to happen, you will be mashing the brass into the leade of the chamber, and causing the neck tension on the bullet to be grossly excessive. This means higher pressures.

Measure your brass to make sure its right. Especially after the first firing. After that, it probably won't grow at a rapid rate if fired in a bolt gun. Full-length resizing will stretch your brass more than firing. That's why "neck-sizing" dies are popular with the bolt-gun crowd.

 

[rcmodel]

Do you have a reloading manual?

That might be a wise next purchase, as it has trim-to-length measurements for every caliber.

For .308, trim too is 2.005".
Max case length is 2.015".

It won't hurt any to put a slight flare on the case mouth

How do you propose he do that?
A standard rifle die set won't do it, and a Lyman M-die is an unnecessary added expense & added step for reloading jacketed bullets.


rcmodel

 

[Jim Watson]

A Lyman M-die is the best thing I have found for rifle reloads.
It puts a very slight step, not a conical flare, in the case neck. It doesn't have to be very deep, .030" or 1/32" would probably do.
It does add a step to the process, but I don't get in a big rush loading rifle ammo. Actually, I mostly load boattails now and a chamfer is enough, as said.

 

[kennedy]

I use sierra boat tails in .308 for my remm 700 and no problems

 

[jenrob]

expirement. when I load FB bullets it takes a little more pressure to get the bullet started. If you crush a piece of brass then I would try other options. But do the chmfer and debur and make sure the brass is trimmed to length.