Re-sizing after loaded

T

timglayn

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Ok, I know it sounds crazy but has anyone had any results from re-sizing without the de-primer pin in after the cartridge is loaded?
Does it squash the bullet?
Have a bunch of old reloads that won't chamber and don't have a bullet puller.
Tks!
Tim
 
I'm not sure about your "exact" situation. However, when I reload for myself, the last die in the turret is the factory crimp die. It resizes/crimps after the cartridge is loaded.

If you have enough ammo, a Lee factory crimp die might work. But I am no expert. Do so at your own risk.

Everyone else is rooting for the bullet puller, so please disregard my post.
 
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Pull Em

A redding should bump die might get them back into shape for you, but rather then risk it buy a bullet puller and start from scratch. I wonder why they don't include a bullet puller in the basic reloading packages offered??? Seams like the most important tool for most reloaders. Don't take offense but I refuse to chamber somebody elses reloads in any of my rifles, you just never know what the recipe is that someone else used.
 
Buy a Redding body die for the caliber you need, less than $30 from Sinclair.
I run a few .308 target rifles and ammo neck sized for one rifle may not fit into another. You can run your loaded ammo into the Redding body die without danger.
 
put your rounds back in the press ( in the shell holder) and use a pair of pliers to pull the bullet. if you are good it wont damage the brass.
If you arent so good, at least you will get your powder back.
 
hoochie said:
put your rounds back in the press ( in the shell holder) and use a pair of pliers to pull the bullet. if you are good it wont damage the brass.
If you arent so good, at least you will get your powder back.
Click to expand...

hence,the reason most of us have a bullet puller-cheap insurance
 
hoochie said:
put your rounds back in the press ( in the shell holder) and use a pair of pliers to pull the bullet. if you are good it wont damage the brass.
If you arent so good, at least you will get your powder back.
Click to expand...

I use a heavy half inch washer to protect the threads on the press and a pair of vice grips to grasp the bullet. If you're careful you'll find that the bullets can be reloaded and will shoot about as well as before they were marked by the pliers. You might have to squeeze them too hard to re-use successfully if they had a heavy crimp, but I haven't been there yet.
Good luck.

T-star, I have an inertia bullet puller and find it a pita compared with the press method. Haven't lost any brass yet.
 
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timglayn said:
Tks guys, what I'd like to know is if it squishes the bullet or brass?
Click to expand...

It would have to squish the bullet in order to size the brass!
Remember when you FLS, your reducing the neck dia of the case quite a bit, it's then opened up again as the decapping pin is pulled back up thru it!

I seriously doubt you could force a loaded bullet back into a FLS die....
I take that back, maybe with a chunk of pipe on your press arm :runaway:
 
Buy an inertial puller - you'd be surprised how often you need one. And don't bother with the BS aluminum split ring things with the O-ring holding it together - use the right shellholder you'd put in your press. Works slick - I keep a clean chunk of birch firewood close by for a post. Stand it on end and let it bounce - doesn't take a lot of smack - and you'll get everything back intact and unharmed.
 
There are dies intended to size loaded pistol rounds, to guarantee feeding, and as Maynard has stated there are body dies that can be used on rifle ammunition.
However, running a loaded round into a conventional FL die is a bad idea. It is going to squash the bullet when the neck is sized down. Much better idea to pull the bullet and start over.
 
RCBS makes, or at least did make, a trim die designed to push the cartridge case in and file off what sticks out. The top of the die is glassy hard, so it won't hurt the file, or the die.
The neck size on it is designed to take a loaded cartridge. I had one in 243 that I used a lot. If I thought I may have pushed the shoulder a bit, or otherwise did anything wrong in bullet seating, I would just resize the loaded cartridge in the trim die.
It was designed to do that, and worked great.
I think an inertia puller is a PITA, in capital letters. I much prefer the pliers in the press method.
 
senior said:
It would have to squish the bullet in order to size the brass!
Remember when you FLS, your reducing the neck dia of the case quite a bit, it's then opened up again as the decapping pin is pulled back up thru it!
Click to expand...

Absolutely; the FL die sizes down the exterior of the neck "more than it has to", so that the expander ball can then increase the size of the neck from the inside to be bullet diameter minus a few thou (for neck tension).

I seriously doubt you could force a loaded bullet back into a FLS die....
I take that back, maybe with a chunk of pipe on your press arm :runaway:
Click to expand...

You certainly can, though somewhat more effort will be required because you are swaging the bullet (i.e. ruining it permanently).

If you happen to have a "body die" (a full-length die that does not touch the neck, nor have a decapping pin or expander ball) as Maynard mentions, you can use it. It would be a good idea to confirm, before you use it, that the neck of the loaded round freely enters the neck area of the die. To use a body die to fix up your loaded rounds, you'll have to lube the round, size it, then clean the lube off.
 
There are some interesting, and creative :), suggestions here, but over the years I have come to feel some apprehension when getting out the extender bars. Personally, there are now very few situations in which I don't sigh and get out my collette die, chuck the appropriate sized collette, pull bullets, check OAL and trim as necessary and so on. I buy a new collette each time I get a new caliber. Doesn't set me back much. The colette die is slow but its advantage is that it squeezes the bullet more uniformly than a vice grip and sometimes you can save the bullet for load testing, e.g. pressure, and so on, I wouldn't use them for accuracy issues. The vice grip method works and it is my fallback method for really, really stuck bullets. My hat is off to any guy who can use the vice grip method and save the bullet. Even in instances where the bullet is only very lightly seated I usually overtighten the grip, because it slips off if it isn't tight enough. Screwed again :(, I'll never get it right! The kinetic hammer is something I used for years before I gave it up. It's quick, but you have to go to some lengths to protect the nose of the bullets when they come out, at least in the hammers I had you did. Don't know about modern ones. I just started to hate banging a loaded bullet with the force I sometimes found necessary to dislodge the bullet. I know, I know, they are supposed to be safe...but...:redface: my $0.02 fred
 
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