Pulled Bullets and Neck Tension

[hunter24605]

I had a bunch of rounds worked up for my old pet load and when I found a new pet load I decided to take down some of the old loads and reload with the new charge. After taking them down I sized the cases and re-seated the bullets that I pulled. Now I have very little neck tension. A gentle push with my finger tip and they will fall into the case. At first I thought it may be my die, so I ordered and installed a new decapper/expander pin, but same results. The bullets are accubonds and Im wondering if they maybe had some material shaved off when they were pulled using an impact type puller. These are 7mm and when I mic them at the seating depth I'm getting around .281-.282. I don't crimp, so that can't be the cause of them being smaller...Thanks, I'm still learning.

 

[TackDriver284]

Are you using a full sizing die? Non bushing?

 

[hunter24605]

Yes, full length sizer non bushing

 

[TackDriver284]

That is weird, has the brass ever been neck turned? I would measure the ID of a sized case mouth and measure the OD of the bullet and see what the measurements are.

 

[hunter24605]

No, never been turned. New brass. I should mention that before I pulled them, the neck tension was good. Ok I'll measure some and report back.

Measured resized. neck ID's run .279 to .280..Just for giggles I seated a few .015 shorter than before and the tension is good again. My dies are Lee, but are not the ones with the built in crimp.

 

[waveslayer]

The decapping pins/expander only straighten the necks, the die does all the resizing. I remove all of mine. Keeps the brass life, and I don't crimp any brass unless it's going into a semi auto.

Are the bullets shaved down from pulling them? Did you make sure to resize the pulled brass again after you pulled all the bullets? You mentioned you did,but did you remove the decapping pin? If not, did you remove live primers when you were resizing the brass?

My wife thinks I only have 3 guns

 

[hunter24605]

The decapping pins/expander only straighten the necks, the die does all the resizing. I remove all of mine. Keeps the brass life, and I don't crimp any brass unless it's going into a semi auto.

Are the bullets shaved down from pulling them? Did you make sure to resize the pulled brass again after you pulled all the bullets? You mentioned you did,but did you remove the decapping pin? If not, did you remove live primers when you were resizing the brass?

My wife thinks I only have 3 guns

My guess is maybe the bullets did get shaved from pulling...I did resize all the brass after pulling the bullets. The primers were not live. A while back I had a post about a certain sleeve of primers having several duds and these were some with the suspect primers, so after I pulled the bullets and dumped the charge, I chambered them and popped the primers before resizing. Good thing because 3 of the 20 didn't go off. But I noticed something this morning. I used to be able to hear the floating stem rattle when I shook the die but now I can't. Maybe it's not free floating and something is misaligned and the bullet is getting pressed in while canted or something and stretching the neck? I'm going to clean it good with brake cleaner and see if it breakes loose and try some more.

 

[waveslayer]

Are you using VLD bullets? Do you have the proper seating stem installed for VLD bullets. Are you using Lee dies correct? There shouldn't be any movement.

That's why some dies have a small sleeve to keep the bullets seated straight. Also, try this trick.

When seating bullets, start to seat the bullet, just slightly, back the round out, spin it a 1/4 turn, seat it a little more, back out the round, spin it a 1/4 turn, then repeat until you have spun the round around 4 times and the bullet is complete seated. This will help reduce round out and what you're suspecting.

My wife thinks I only have 3 guns

 

[kraky1]

If my feeble memory is right I used to have neck tension troubles on bullets pulled with a hammer type puller too. Once I got a collet puller for some reason it seems like the neck tension stays in place better. Here's where having a Lee collet neck die comes into play real nice.... you can pull the mandrel out and squeeze the neck down to proper dimensions using just the collet even with the case full of powder... it takes a little bit of careful set up but pretty easy to do.

 

[hunter24605]

Are you using VLD bullets? Do you have the proper seating stem installed for VLD bullets. Are you using Lee dies correct? There shouldn't be any movement.

That's why some dies have a small sleeve to keep the bullets seated straight. Also, try this trick.

When seating bullets, start to seat the bullet, just slightly, back the round out, spin it a 1/4 turn, seat it a little more, back out the round, spin it a 1/4 turn, then repeat until you have spun the round around 4 times and the bullet is complete seated. This will help reduce round out and what you're suspecting.

My wife thinks I only have 3 guns

No, they are AccuBond bullets..All 3 of the newer Lee dies I have have the floating stem and they all "rattle" a little..I took it apart and cleaned it with brake cleaner and stem has the "rattle" back when I shake it..I seated some new bullets and the neck tension is back where it was.. The most logical answer I can come up with is the inertia puller shaved some material from the bullets..I'll look into a collet puller. I've been using the 1/4 turn deal since I saw and Old Timer doing it that way on a video.

 

[waveslayer]

Glad you figured it out. That would have driven me mad!

My wife thinks I only have 3 guns