Alright, so I got a new digital calipher (sp?) for Christmas and went through just doublechecking the c.o.l of some of my already loaded stuff. I found they were a tad too long and began to seat the bullets deeper. Winchester brass with 45 grains of H380 and a 65 grain Hornady V-Max bullet. When I was done and double checked the length of the cartridges I noticed a rather large variation. Well, low and behold, the brass looks like is was completely scrunched up at the neck. Here are some pictures included, with the red high lighting what happend. Some are worse than others. I have never had this happened before and dont know what the problem is. Thanks guys.
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Aggie, It appears that you may have lowered you bullet seating die farther into your press instead of just lowering your bullet seating plug???
This would crush your cases. It does decrease your OAL but sure makes chambering difficult and accuracy would suck. A bit of sarcasm there. Don't try to chamber or fire these rounds. Pull the bullets, dump the powder and throw the brass away. There is no way you can bring these cases back to normal.
Ok here's what to do. With the proper shell holder in your press, and the ram in its highest position, run your sizing die into the press until it contacts the ram. Lower your ram and turn your die in 1/4 turn.
After you have a properly sized case, put it in ur press and run it up to its highest position.Back out your seating plug and screw your die into the press until you feel it contactingthe case mouth and back it off a little.
Now, slide a bullet of your choice into the case mouth and run it into your press/bullet seating die. Keep screwing in your seatin plug (not the die) until you have the OAL you desire and lock everything in.
BTW, if your initial OAL chambered easily into your rifle and fit into your magazine, why did you want to change it?
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Yeah, I definetly wont be firing these dont worry. Im pretty sure they wont even fit in the chamber. The die must have been moved lower, I didnt test it before I ran the cartridges. I dont know if the initial OAL fit, cause I havent used a 65 grain bullet before, so I was going with the recommended length. Sucks, cause now I have to throw away about 30 cases, Im just gonna get rid of the batch to be careful. Thanks for the help, obviously just a dumb newbie mistake, I need to be more careful. I can only imagine what would happen if I had tried to fire these.[:@]
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Why don't you measure the actual OAL of that bullet in your rifle? Simplyclose the bolt, insert a cleaning rod down the muzzle until it bottoms out on the bolt face. Put a mark on the rod. Open the bolt or remove it. Put the bullet you wish to load in the chamber and push it in with a pencil until it is against the lands, and hold it there. re-insert the rod intil it touches the tip of the bullet, mark rod again. The difference between the marks on the rod is the max oal for your gun with that bullet . You may not be able to load a bullet this long as if there is a lot of freebore the loaded cartridge may not work through the magazine.In such cases come back 20-30 thou off the lands.
A good way to set up quickly next time you load this same bullet is to make a dummy round and label it with a marker as to bullet weight and style.Then when you want to load this same bullet you back your seating stem off several turns and then back your main die body off a few turns also. Place your dummy round into the shell holder and lower the handle on your press all the way to the bottom, then gently screw the die bodt dowm until you feel slight contact. Lock your die and gently screw your seating stem down until it also contacts the bullet ,lock it and remove your dummy shell and save it until next time. This way when you change bullet types you can use the correct dummy round to set up quickly, and know you'll be right. By the way a dummy is just a shell without primer or powder.
You ain't the only one that has put your seater die to deep. I have done it in the past. You get busy setting up your FL dies to cam over then forget to put your seater die down until it touches the mouth and then back it out one turn. I usually catch it on the first bullet.
Thanks, I got a bullet puller today, and have put it to use alot already, too bad I have to scrap about 30 casings. Time to go collect some at the range again.
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What happend here?
