.223 Reloading- found a weird casing

[crazy_frank]

Hey guys, I'm fairly new to reloading, but have loaded quite a bit of .223. This last batch I found 2 casings in my final inspection that caught my eye. Can't say for sure they weren't like this during case prep but. The shoulder got crushed down. Check it out:




What causes this? The rifle it was shot in? Or at some point during prep/loading?

[Enfield47]

Looks like the shoulders got pushed back too far when resizing. Will the round fit into the chamber? If so, it should fire form back to normal.

[devster55]

That or over crimped

[M1NM]

How many times have they been shot? Might be time for a trim. They were longer than where you set the crimp and just got pushed down. If they'll chamber go ahead and shoot them - it'll fireform the brass back to normal.

[gemini1]

Looks like during the loading. Are you seating and crimping at the same time?
Try to back up the die up, as well as the bullet seating stem. Place an empty case on the shell holder and pull the handle up, screw in the die till it touches the brass, tighten the lock ring. Now try to seat a bullet, adjusting the seating stem to your desired COAL. Then adjust the die in about 1/4 or so, to apply crimp. Dont forget to back the seating stem up for now, so it does not push the bullet deeper. Once you get the crimp you want, put the seated bullet back up and adjust the seating stem till it touches the bullet. If your satisfied with this round, then you can seat and crimp the next round in one stroke.
But for me, I prefer to do the seating and crimping separately.

[ironhorse1]

That is a severe case of over crimping. Do you trim your cases to a uniform length?

Does the bullet even have a cannelure?

Crimping is not needed unless there is a cannelure.

You now have a cartridge which may not fully chamber or have excessive head space.

Best to start over. The .223 needs a very light touch when seating. If it takes more force then you get cases which look a lot like the ones you posted.

Lesson learned and that is a good example of how not to reload.

irh

[kouye]

Look how much longer the neck is on the crushed case. Definitely needs a trimming.

[FromTheGrave]

Another thing to keep in mind is if you ARE using a seating/crimping die combo, trim length becomes even more important.

If you setup the die on a case that is trimmed to 1.745 to crimp properly, if you apply the same setup to a case trimmed to 1.755 you could begin crimping before the bullet is completely seated, and far too much. In turn it buckles the shoulder like that round you showed.

[mxrick55555]

I had a problem like that with my Lee factory crimp die for 223, I was loading 223 on my Dillon 650 and when I was done I noticed some were bulged at the same spot as yours the factory crimp die got stuck in the crimp position so every time a round went up to get crimped the brass was actually squished down causing the bulge, it ended up being the last 50 rounds or so of the 500 round batch I was loading since this was the second time this happened to me with the second Lee die (bought a new one the first time it happened) it went straight into the trash can I no longer crimp my rounds and haven't had a problem.

[J-cat]

Yup, too much crimp.

[ptmn]

Either way too much case lube or sizing die adjusted too far down

[Divernhunter]

That is not from sizing. If you run it thru the sizing die it will fix it.

It comes from trying for too much crimp and a miss-adjusted seating die.

It has happened to me before.
Also check length after sizing so you will know if brass is too long and needs trimming. A long brass can cause this when trying for a good crimp.

Just do not crimp and you will be ok. I do not crimp any of mine even for semi-auto and have no problems.

[CSACANNONEER]

The crimp is grabbing the bullet before it is completely seated.

[Mr1650]

Need to trim and debuts your cases to the same length this looks like case is too long or maybe a burr kept bullet from seating until shoulder partially collapsed

[Braddah Jay]

It could also be crushing your case from your powder drop being out of adjustment.