Ammo re-assembly

[Sure Shot Mc Gee]

If you have a FL die where its expander, decaping pin, and its adjusting stem are of one piece construction

I've seen those types of dies. I believe I may even have one or two of them myself.

My thought's towards your comment (quote below) To create a die for the sole purpose of resizing brass with live primers previously installed. Isn't a situation you'll encounter all that much in reloading. But if you feel its necessary to have such a die. By all means do what you think is appropriate.

I decided to break off the decapper tip so I could leave in the primer and ensure proper resizing. I'm sure there will be other times I need to do this.

As far as neck tension concerns. Once a cartridge case as been forced in & out of a complete and working resizer die. The entire shell is resized back to tolerance. Further attempts normally show little change in those tolerances. Believing a cartridge neck is stretched each time it passes over the (neck expanded) is true to degree. But .004 is such a small fraction I hardly think it will have a effect on a bullets seating.

[MtnCreek]

A good investment would be a collet type bullet puller. I like the looks of the Hornady, but the RCBS was on the LGS shelf so that's what I went with...

When I want to change a powder charge in rifle cartridges, I run the bullet into the collet till it stops at the case mouth. Tighten the collet and pull the bullet. Adjust the powder charge and re-seat the bullet with the Bullet Puller. No re-sizing and the bullet is at the same seating depth.

[FiveInADime]

Originally Posted by MtnCreek

A good investment would be a collet type bullet puller. I like the looks of the Hornady, but the RCBS was on the LGS shelf so that's what I went with...

When I want to change a powder charge in rifle cartridges, I run the bullet into the collet till it stops at the case mouth. Tighten the collet and pull the bullet. Adjust the powder charge and re-seat the bullet with the Bullet Puller. No re-sizing and the bullet is at the same seating depth.

You have to lose some neck tension when doing that. I don't know how much, but it may be enough to affect consistency.

[ncrypt]

I use the RCBS bullet puller. It's awesome and works flawlessly. Worth the extra money.

[Snyper]

You should be able to back the depriming assembly out so it resizes the neck without punching the primer.

Play around with it to see what happens before wasting all those primed cases

[ncrypt]

I tried that and it wouldn't work. The expander blocked the area where the neck is resized.

I just broke the decapper tip off and resized them normally without removing the primer. I have a couple extra mandrels. I'm sure this wont be the last time I need to resize without removing the primer.

[MtnCreek]

You have to lose some neck tension when doing that. I don't know how much, but it may be enough to affect consistency.

It's pretty common for me to change a charge in an already loaded case when working a new load. I've not noticed any reduced accuracy shooting for groups at ~300yds. Most of my bolt action rifle bullets are set .015 to 0.030 off the rifling. If I were trying to seat very close or at the rifling, I would probably complete the seating depth with a die.