Pulling bullets

Sumack

Sumack

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I have some 30-06 ammo that I reloaded, now if I were to pull the bullets to change powder . Would you have to resize the neck again; or can you just reseat a new bullet. Any info would be appreciated.
 
Just re-seat and you should be good to go. You'll feel it if you have enough tension when reseating the new one. If it feels loose then I'd resize it. I have done it before without resizing and never had a problem
 
If you can actually feel that there is about 2-3k next tension when seating the bullet the second time, go for it. I myself will resize the neck, if you have a neck die, otherwise resize as normal so you know that the bullet has proper tension and crimp (if required).
 
Just re-seat and you should be good to go. If it feels loose then I'd resize it.
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There are two opposing opinions!
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not like the case was expanded by pressure being fired.
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WTF!
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I myself will resize the neck, if you have a neck die, so you know that the bullet has proper tension.
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Mostly, I load for precision rifle, so that is where I am coming from with this.
On review, better I would have stated ..
There will be .. less .. neck tension if the necks are not resized
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On pulling the bullet, the neck will `spring back`, typically about one thou. of ID dia.. If one reseats without resizing, the neck tension of that reseated round will be around one thou.+-. That will likely be much less than rounds loaded normally.
Neck tension grip affects powder ignition, amonst other things, and is an important factor to both accuracy and consistency.
Those unsized reseats will not likely shoot (p.o.i. or group) the same as otherwise identical reloads that were seated only once.

Then there is the question of whether 1 thou. or less of NT is enough to hold the bullet securely during handling, feeding and recoil.
In my experience .. no.
Two to two and a half thou. NT has proven best in most of my rifles. Accurate, consistent and secure.
Hunting or DG carts., they will get a thou or two more than that.
 
If they are to be hunting rounds that will get rough treatment, resize the necks. If they will be shot at the range and get careful handling, just re-seat. If you want absolute consistency in ALL your rounds for some reason, resize.

The necks will be expanded a bit by the bullet seating process, and will "spring back" when you pull them, but not to the original dimensions of the necks after your initial resizing.
 
I pull over 500 bullets because they wouldn't shoot as well as I wanted at long range.(shot well at 100 and it was the only distance available for testing) Pulled them and reseated new bullets without a problem. No problem with POI change and my elevations were the same as any other regularly loaded rounds, all the way out to 1000 yards.
 
I have made match ammunition by pulling issue ball, recharging powder, and seating match bullets. It was necessary to necksize to get uniform bullet pull. Sometimes a newly seated bullet could be pushed into the case by thumb pressure. The original bullets had been crimped, perhaps that made a difference.
 
rral22 said:
If they are to be hunting rounds that will get rough treatment, resize the necks. If they will be shot at the range and get careful handling, just re-seat. If you want absolute consistency in ALL your rounds for some reason, resize.

The necks will be expanded a bit by the bullet seating process, and will "spring back" when you pull them, but not to the original dimensions of the necks after your initial resizing.
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That has been my experience and there is nothing more frustrating than having a semi-loose bullet being dumped into your action along with the powder charge,what a mess.I had that happen a time or two early on and since then for the bit of extra time it takes I just go ahead and re-do the necks to be on the safe side.
 
I have found that it is not as simple an answer as a lot would think. I have done both many times and I have found the neck tension is inversely relevant to the length of time the round was loaded before pulling. The longer the time the round was loaded the less the secondary neck tension will be. If you load up a batch and go to the range fire them off and have some left and pull them that evening, you can usually get away with just seating new bullets. If I'm doing test loads though I won't because you won't get the true picture. If the rounds have been loaded for a few months or even years and you pull the bullet chances are that you can reseat all the new bullets by hand.
If you anneal cases then reseating is not going to work either as the memory and hardness is mostly removed when you anneal. Consistent neck tension is a large part of cartridge accuracy so it is up to you what you wish to do, they may shoot to the same place and they may not, this is more a product of certain cartridges which are quite forgiving and then there are others which have no forgiveness at all...........204 Ruger comes to mind immediately, totally unforgiving cartridge whereas the 30-06 probably wouldn't even notice the difference in neck tension and still give you a 3/4" group even with the cartridges with different neck tensions mixed in the same group. JME...YMMV
 
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