What the heck am i doing wrong!?!

[Matt1911]

I have a dillion 550,and have only loaded 45 acp's on it so far.
I just bought everything for 223's,and set up for them.
The bullets are not tight in the throat of the brass.Snug,but a little pressure and they move.
I've been using win.'s powder and specs.
The crimp die is all the way down to the shell plate,with half a turn off,and still, they are not tight!

 

[Dave P]

Sounds like a problem when the neck is being sized (not enough). The bullets should be firm in the neck after being seated. crimping normally is not done for precision ammo.

Are you full length sizing or just neck sizing?

 

[Steve Smith]

Assuming that your sizig die is down far enough, I'd say that its:

You're expanding the brass to much. Should just be a "tad" belled.

Your bullets are undersized. Measure to see! Shouldn't be smaller than .451"

Your sizer die is made incorrectly. Try someone else's die?

 

[Matt1911]

Thanks guys,
I still do not know what the problem was,but i took every thing apart and started over,and now it is producing perfect rounds.
There's a lesson here somewhere,if i had the brains of a empty hull,i'd know what it was.......

 

[blades67]

Maybe your sizing/decapping die wasn't adjusted correctly.

As long as everything is okay now, don't change anything!

 

[yankytrash]

I'd be willin to bet it's too much neck expanding.

I'll get a brainfart every once in awhile and do the exact same thing, and everytime it is just as mysterious as the last. I'll do the same thing - tear it down and start over, and I catch myself dropping the expander ball too far during decapping. Got a universal decapper now - that cured that.

Funny thing - it always happened with 223. Wierd. Got rid of that too.

 

[tex_n_cal]

you have "over-expanding-itis"

for some odd reason, our reloading die makers insist on selling expander dies that are only a little smaller than bullet diameter.

Take your expander plug out, measure it - you'll probably find it is only .001 - .002" smaller than the .451 diameter bullets.

find a machinist, or just chuck the expander in a drill press, and file or turn it down to a diameter of .445" or less. Your bullets will now fit tight, and your accuracy will be better, too.

This is one of my pet peeves for all dies sold today, even the expensive ones.

 

[Paul "Fitz" Jones]

223 problems

A 223 is a military caliber designed for military weapons using GI MILSPEC brass. If you reload GI brass you should not have that problem.

Civilian brass is usually always thinner and particlarly R-P brass is is really bad in military calibers as it is made to sell cheap and comes on sale the most often and is the thinnest brass on the American market.

Just my 2 cents worth

John Paul

 

[Nero Steptoe]

Some of youse guys don't read so good! He never said anything about having any problems with .45 ACP...only .223.

My Lee .223 dies don't have an expander ball, so "overexpanding" the neck isn't a problem for me.

 

[Matt1911]

It was really buggin' me,so i "duplicated " the problem.You have to set the de-capping pin so it is JUST able to push out the spent primer,any more(a 1/16th or so),and over expansion occurs.Could i have a short pin,or is this normal?
No biggie,i've got it workin' now,and fired a hundered of "my" loads yesterday.

 

[tex_n_cal]

Well, I went back and re-read it, and he's a little unclear as to whether it's the .223, .45 , or both that he's having trouble with.

In any case, straight or bottleneck, if the case is resized and the bullets are loose, it's a over-size expander problem. It's been years since I loaded for .223, but I'd likely drop the expander down to .220", or a little less, to make sure the bullets are tight.