I recently started reloading and am very green and made a stupid mistake. I had the FL sizing die set too low and bulged the shoulder on about ten cases for my 300wsm. They will chamber but the bolt is very tight. Can I pull them apart and just resize again or is the brass junk now? Any help or tips would be appreciated. Thanks in advance
Shoulder bulge
- Thread starter bordr69
- Start date
You could just fire them and they should return to normal,you said they will chamber, but pulling the bullets and discarding the brass is probably the best way to go if you are nervous about firing them. Chalk it up to experience.
cdnredneck_t3
Regular
It could be that your seating die is too low. A FL can touch the shell holder. If your seater is too low it will hit the case shoulder and deform it.
"When I size the brass with the die touching the shell holder they are very tough to close the bolt and this is before I have seated a bullet."
This does not sound right. When the FL die hits the shell holder, the case is full length sized. Should chamber real easy.
is the case too long and needs trimming?
This does not sound right. When the FL die hits the shell holder, the case is full length sized. Should chamber real easy.
is the case too long and needs trimming?
it needs to hit the shell holder and then some, if its set to just touching when you try to to resize there may be enough flex in the ram/hinges/press to not fully push the shoulder back. sounds like a neck sizer or crimping problem. How can the shoulder bulge when the resizing die is right there squeezing from all outside directions. Ive set the crimp die too deep and done what is described, but I dont think you can with a full length sizing die. Just pull the decapping pin and resize, ive even done it on a couple complete bullets that I screwed up.
You cannot "bulge" the shoulder of a case with a properly set FL resizing die. The seating die is the likely culprit. I always place a Nickel on top of my shellholder, raise the ram right to the top, and then screw the seating die down till it touches the nickel, then lock the ring in place. Only if I intend to crimp, do I adjust the seating die lower [30-30, 38-55] FWIW, I have seen some factory 300 WSM chambers so short that a FL die adjusted properly still does not quite size the fired case enough for easy chambering. Regards, Eagleye.
Thanks for the quick replys. I changed the shell holder on the advice of a friend and then set up the FL die as per instructions and it works great now. Also he walked me through the seating die set up and that was the culprit for the shoulder bulge. Thanks again for the advice and info. Also he said I should deprime and resize all the cases that are bulged but the primers are live........should this be done. I really dont want them to go bang in my face.
You can safely decap all those live primers. Just go slow, and wear eye protection [should wear this anytime you are at the reloading bench anyway] I have decapped hundreds of live primers, with nary a one ever going bang. The other solution is to resize your cases with the decapping pin removed, but with the expander button in place. This leaves the primers in the case as normal, and you can load and shoot. Eagleye.
Or just fire the primers and start over.
