Resizing reloads?

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troutseeker

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I have a buddy who came to me with an interesteing question. He recently purchased an rifle idnetical to the one he used to reload for nad has several hundred rounds he made for the previous rifle. Same caliber, same rifle model.

Of course, the ammo for his first rifle does not chamber in the second (it was neck sized). The case is too tight although length is fine.

He is wondering if he can simply full lenght resize hte loaded ammunition in his full sizing die with the decapper removed.

Kinda weird idea, but I have no idea if it may work or not. Any one here ever done anything like that?
 
troutseeker said:
I have a buddy who came to me with an interesteing question. He recently purchased an rifle idnetical to the one he used to reload for nad has several hundred rounds he made for the previous rifle. Same caliber, same rifle model.

Of course, the ammo for his first rifle does not chamber in the second (it was neck sized). The case is too tight although length is fine.

He is wondering if he can simply full lenght resize hte loaded ammunition in his full sizing die with the decapper removed.

Kinda weird idea, but I have no idea if it may work or not. Any one here ever done anything like that?
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The short answer is no, BUT you did say "anything like that"...........soooooooo


If you happen to have a body die for that caliber, you can lube the ammo and run them through. I doubt that any manfacturer would recomend it, but it will work. Part of reloading is being inventive, so here are some thoughts. A 30-06 die with the guts removed should make a functional body die for a .270 but might be too tight with the bullet seated. A .338-06 would work, or a .30-06 or .270 FL bushing die with bushing removed would work. A .308 die will do the same for a .243. A .300 Mag small base die will put a good base squeeze on a pile on smaller Mags but not touch the shoulder.

What caliber is he dealing with? Buying a die might be an option compared to pulling down several hundred loads.
 
The sizing die will size the case smaller at the case mouth than it can be while the bullet is inside it. So it will try to make the inside of a .308 neck .305 for example and that can't happen while a .308 bullet is still in it. The press/dies won't likely be strong enough to allow the case to enter all the way and swager the bullet down.

Body sizing may work, or take them all apart and start over. (no need to deprime though)

I had been givin some .308 loads by an uncle that I think were neck sized. I pulled the bullets dumped the powder and resized without the decapping rod. Re charged and seated bullets and shot them. I should note I had one dud primer and that is the only reload I ever had a bad primer on.
 
hk33ka1 said:
...So it will try to make the inside of a .308 neck .305 for example and that can't happen while a .308 bullet is still in it. The press/dies won't likely be strong enough to allow the case to enter all the way and swager the bullet down...
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I've tried this (you're not surprised, are you?) on a bottle-necked round, with the 'correct' size-die, it just collapses the shoulder and sometimes a little of the body. in short, it just wrecks the case and marks-up the bullet pretty good too.
The 'body die' suggestion would probably work and the 'larger caliber' die has worked in my experience (IE 6.5-'06 resized in a .30-'06 die)
Srsly, if your buddy can borrow a collet-type bullet puller, and he's not too ham-handed, he can pull-down a couple hundred rounds in an hour and this would also give him an chance to see if his old load is actually going to be a good one in his new rifle.

I've got a puller w/.30 cal collet I'd loan him, if he's local.
 
Assuming we are talking a bottle neck rifle cartridge you can't do it with a standard FL die. The bullet expands the neck way beyond what the die neck will take. There are some specialized body dies that squeeze the body down only. They may work. But it is probably a lot cheaper and more effective to buy a bullet puller and get the bullets and powder out, then size them without the depriming pin.
 
Ron AKA said:
Assuming we are talking a bottle neck rifle cartridge you can't do it with a standard FL die. The bullet expands the neck way beyond what the die neck will take. There are some specialized body dies that squeeze the body down only. They may work. But it is probably a lot cheaper and more effective to buy a bullet puller and get the bullets and powder out, then size them without the depriming pin.
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x2, you will probably just wreck a lot of brass if you try it with the bullets in.
 
I used a RCBS trim die on some 308 rounds that would not chamber properly (couldn't get the bolt closed on them). The difference being that they had been full length sized and not just neck sized.
The trick for me was to use as little lube as possible so as to not dent the cases.
 
troutseeker said:
.223 is the chambering.
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Then the only options I can think of are a .223 body die, or a .223 bushing die with the bushing taken out. I've done this caliber myself when a good and proven load put up for one rifle wouldn't chamber in a minimum chambered match barrel. In that case, I actually used a small base FL Redding bushing die with the bushing and stem removed because a standard FL body die didn't have quite enough squeeze.
I can usually get a body die for about 35 bucks. To me, that's a small price to pay for not haveing to pull down a few hundred rounds a job that I hate, and he'll still have it when he's done. Besides, right or wrong I can't look at pull-down bullets the same way as new ones. I'd make sure the load shot in the new rifle and was worth the trouble. Loading a few with the old load in some sized brass will establish that.
 
"...resize the loaded ammunition..." Nope. Loaded ammo will not fit in the die. He'll have to pull 'em, then he can resize with the decapper pin removed.
 
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