Lessons relearned

[Dirtlaw]

I have a freind in the component business. Since components are hard to come by he's gone to breaking down rounds and selling the components. Made sense to me on several levels and why not give it a try. So I took the primered case and added the correct charge for the projectile. However, something wasn't quite right. The round did not go into my bolt action smoothly. Sure, I could probably cam it down, but did I feel lucky? Lesson, you can't necessarily rely on someone else's work. A waste of some money? Perhaps. On the other hand ... I still have both of mine.

[JagerDog]

Pulling the Bullets may have tugged on the shoulder.

[Dirtlaw]

Pulling the Bullets may have tugged on the shoulder.

Interesting point. I kind of thrive on all of the variables in what we do. For an ancient geek its my form of excitement.

[JackEllis]

I've had two instances where cases from reputable sources did not chamber in my Tikka in .243. One was once-fired brass purchased from a used brass dealer. The other was ammunition from Prvi Partizan that appeared to use once-fired cases. Not saying what happened to me is what happened to you, but it's certainly a possibility.

Did the components come from factory ammunition or someone's reloads?

[Dirtlaw]

Interesting indeed. The brass was Prvi Partizan.

[stevec223]

Pull the bullets you lose all the neck tension too...
Need to resize after pulling bullets,, just take out your decapping pin to save the primers.. He could have tugged the shoulder pulling the bullet or just sized them to his chamber... Which is probably different than yours...
Cheers..

[Divernhunter]

You do NOT need to remove the decap pin. All you need to do is move the decap stem assembly up in the die so it does not punch out the primer. The pin fits a slotted/threaded stem and without the pin in it you will not be able to tighten the expander ball correctly and will often ruin the stem.

[bhilliker@comcast.net]

Good thread. 1---I always resize if I pull or get brass from someone who has already processed. 2--what I normally do is pull the decap pin but what I am hearing this is not the correct way. I made the mistake of not separate mixed 308 brass which caused issues during seat and crimp----the non LC brass wouldn't fit the sizing block due to being a hair longer so the crimp caused an issue. I pulled those bullets and resized but pulled the decap pin. Am I understanding from this thread that this is not a good option? TIA!

[stevec223]

You do NOT need to remove the decap pin. All you need to do is move the decap stem assembly up in the die so it does not punch out the primer. The pin fits a slotted/threaded stem and without the pin in it you will not be able to tighten the expander ball correctly and will often ruin the stem.

[divingin]

You do NOT need to remove the decap pin. All you need to do is move the decap stem assembly up in the die so it does not punch out the primer. The pin fits a slotted/threaded stem and without the pin in it you will not be able to tighten the expander ball correctly and will often ruin the stem.

To add to the confusion, do you need to resize and re-expand if pulling a bullet and reseating? Springback of the neck will still occur when the bullet is removed, allowing for some amount of neck tension. Assuming the brass was processed the same prior to the load being pulled down, it should all be the same after pulling the bullet.

Unless you have a valid need for more tension, why resize/re-expand?

If you're tweaking the neck when pulling the bullet, try seating the bullet 5 or 10 thousandths deeper before pulling. It will break the bullet loose in the case prior to yanking it out and make any dimensional change less likely.