FL Size w/ Primer?

rkaine

rkaine

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
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Location
Hamilton, Ontario
Hi - I normally neck size my brass for my 223, and have had no issues to date - then today, as I was loading, the case neck would not grip the bullet when I seated it. These cases were decapped and neck sized, cleaned, and then primed and charged.

They have been fired 3 times (plus original when new).

Questions?

1) should I have full length sized after the 4 firings?
2) now that I have messed up, can I full length size safely by taking the decapping pin out of my die - and will that correct my issue.

Sage advice welcome, I feel foolish enough as it is!:) :) :)
 
To answer your last question: Yes you can FL resize by removing your decapping pin. Make sure you tighten the expander button so it does not come off inside a FL sized case. Sounds like your Neck sizer is not quite small enough to properly size the brass you are using. Regards, Eagleye.
 
You could try turning in the neck sizing die another 1/8 of a turn or more until it sizes properly. I always check bullet fit while sizing with the collet dies to avoid this very problem.
With the Lee FL dies, the decapper rod is also the expander, if you remove it, the neck might be sized too small for the bullet to fit.
Brass will harden over numerous firings and annealing might be necessary to get some elasticty back in the neck. I haven't run into this yet and have neck sized with the collet dies over 10 times with good bullet tension.
The first thing I would try though is adjusting the collet die in a but more and check with a bullet for fit.
 
You may need to set up your collet die properly. No need to full length size. It might have come out of adjustment or siezed up. The lee collet die is not the best quality but can be polished to work extremely well.
Or...
Your brass may have become case hardened where the neck of the brass becomes too hard to size properly. Then you need to anneal your brass to soften up the necks.
 
I have had the same problem. I removed the neck mandrill and cleaned it and that helped. I also think that the brass should be anealed after 4 or 5 reloads.
As zedex suggested I will be trying that before the next time I reload some brass that has been fired 5 times.
257 Roberts
 
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