Rookie .243 question

[Mantan]

I just primed, charged and loaded a small batch of once fired .243 brass with the 85 grain Barnes TSX bullets. I have found that the bullets, once seated to the recommended depth, sit loose enough in the case mouth to actually spin with finger pressure.

Is this a sign that I didn't have the resizing die set up properly?

The cartridges chamber properly in my rifle. Would it be dangerous to fire them?

 

[jwrowland77]

You would be correct in that your resizing die was/is not setup correctly. You should not be able to spin the bullet with your fingers.

No, do not fire them.

Take decapping pin off the expander ball or out of die. Pull the bullets, dump powder in a clean bowl (you'll dump all the powder from the cases in there), run the case back through the resizing die (without decapping pin and after you've made sure it resizes correctly), trim case again, chamfer, deburr, put correct powder charge back in, reseat bullet, and you should be good to go.

 

[Mantan]

Thanks, JW

That brass is precious. I was hoping I didn't have to chuck it.

It would make me nervous running the primed cartridges back through the die, even without the recapping pin.

Would there be any danger in simply pulling the bullets, dumping the powder, then chambering the cartridge and firing the primer in order to start from scratch?

 

[rcmodel]

Don't worry about the primer!

Nothing touches it while resizing if you take the de-priming pin out of the die.

Just do as jwrowland77 said and you will be fine.

rc

 

[Mantan]

OK. Thanks for the replies, guys.

 

[witchhunter]

Use a sharpie and make a stripe from the mouth to the body of the case and resize. You should be able to see exactly how far you are sizing the neck.

 

[gamestalker]

it sounds as though your seating die is applying a crimp, so yes, you might have it adjusted incorrectly.

To properly adjust the seating die, place an empty piece of brass in the shell holder, run the ram to full extension, then start threading the seating die in until you feel it make contact with the case mouth. Once it makes contact, back it out 1 - to 1-1/2 turns. Then back the seating stem out most of thee way, it's located on top of the die. Then begin by seating and adjusting the stem down until you've achieved the depth desired.

BTW, it's unnecessary to crimp bottle neck cartridges, exceptions being tubular magazines and machine guns.

GS

 

[Mantan]

Great tips. I'm glad I asked.

 

[Mantan]

Gamestalker, it was the sizing die I had adjusted improperly. I had it far too high and made the mistake of stopping the stroke where the handle hit my loading table. Thus I only resized the top 1/3 of the neck. I rechecked the proper setup procedure, and believe I'm good to go.

I effectively produced a few hundred rounds of .223, and I just needed to go back to basics moving to a new cartridge.

 

[gamestalker]

Good job diagnosing that Sir.

I actually didn't consider that as the likely problem, but I can sure see how that could happen. I remember some years back when I was having problems of a similar nature, and it turned out that the linkage was binding / stopping against a wooden table leg support.

But good catch, and glad things are going a bit smoother for ya.

GS