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Old February 2, 2013, 07:26 PM   #1
gizmo688
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Would you shoot these?

I de-plated some bullets while setting up my flare die. The powder charge is correct, and the OAL is correct.

Do y'all pull these and reseat a new bullet, or just fire away knowing they wont be accurate?

Edit: Picture is massive. Here's a link.
http://imgur.com/GJkzTRd.jpg
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Old February 2, 2013, 07:55 PM   #2
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I wouldn't shoot them. Looks like you might have some feeding and/or chambering issues. I can't see the picture that good. Are you trying to seat and crimp in the same die or did you not flair the case mouth before seating the bullet?
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Old February 2, 2013, 07:56 PM   #3
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I doubt they will be bad accuracy wise and for plinking or practice should be more than adequate.
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Old February 2, 2013, 08:02 PM   #4
gizmo688
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CrustyFN- For the first few, I was seeing if i could get away with no flare. The rest were just me fine tuning the flare to what i wanted. I've done 750 now with no issues.
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Old February 2, 2013, 08:09 PM   #5
JMP
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I had a bunch that ended up like that when I used to load Berry's. When shooting them, I couldn't tell them from ones that weren't screwed up. If it were me I wouldn't hesitate to shoot them.
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Old February 2, 2013, 08:17 PM   #6
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It looks to me like most of them would not seat/headspace properly.

If the action did not close all the way, but was closed enough to allow firing, you would have a 45 ACP blowback operated pistol with insufficient mass in the slide for safety. Cracked frame possible. Maybe even having the slide installed in your forehead like a hood ornament.

Even if they did chamber, fire and cycle properly, several looked like they could leave chunks of the plating remaining in the barrel/chamber.

Disassemble the cartridges that do not pass the "plunk" test CLEANLY.

Of the pulled bullets, toss the ones that have the plating squished outside the nominal diameter (probably all of them).

Of the cartridges, consider retiring to a metal recycler any whose case mouths are buckled.

DEFINITELY change your loading procedures to insert an examination step of each round. Having such an exam would have alerted you to the problem before you had so many defects.

What press were you using? Were you batch processing or continuous processing? I process continuously. As each round comes out of my press, I give it a look and roll it between my fingers, feeling for any irregularities and primer depth.

Design your "factory floor" for efficiency, quality control and safety just like an industrial engineer would. Such mistakes do happen, but a good loading procedure would have caught them immediately. Write the procedure down, step-by-step. Examine it, vett it, refine it, memorize it, follow it.

Yes, I am being hard on you. "Rigorous" is a better word, I think. You have learned a valuable lesson at the cost of a few dollars worth of bullets and some time. A bargain at twice the price. No destroyed gun. No lost body parts. Be glad.

Lost Sheep

edit: I gotta learn to compose posts faster. Your post #3 came in while I was writing. Yes, adjusting the flare is an art. I have done a few like yours myself when I was first starting out.
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Old February 2, 2013, 08:23 PM   #7
gizmo688
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LostSheep - Each of these rounds was seated after turning the flare die 1/8 of a turn more than the previous round. I was setting up my dies. I havent had a problem in 750 rounds. And yes, i checked each and every one of them. My process is full of checks, and i am confident in its safety. Ive done 30-06 for years.


Edit: Your edit. Gotcha.
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Old February 2, 2013, 11:49 PM   #8
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Consider this a lesson learned working at this entirely too hard to get that many rounds in that kind of shape. IMO nothing good can come of shooting 9 out of 10 of them.

In my experience with handgun rounds, I use three steps to set up the flare. I use the feel of the press, a visual that the mouth is belled, and if I am really trying to save hard working the case the finger feel (or measure with a caliper) of the case after the stroke.

Use one case for this step, lower the ram to just touch a case with the die, raise ram and screw in third way turns, repeat raise-turn-lower, until a bullet will just click into it with a slight rocking, jiggling motion then turn it just an eighth more for smooth entry. On the next case you can literally feel the mouth bell open the correct amount.
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Old February 3, 2013, 05:13 AM   #9
david_r
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If you were setting up your dies, why do they have powder and primers in them?
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Old February 3, 2013, 10:09 AM   #10
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Quote:
CrustyFN- For the first few, I was seeing if i could get away with no flare. The rest were just me fine tuning the flare to what i wanted. I've done 750 now with no issues.
Glad you got it straightened out. I still wouldn't shoot them, it's not that many to pull.
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Old February 3, 2013, 11:24 AM   #11
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You're likely to have chambering problems with the ones that have chunks hanging over the outside, but it's probably easy to clean up. If they all chamber fine they should be safe to shoot.
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Old February 3, 2013, 11:47 AM   #12
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pull 'em and seat new bullet and all you are out is the bullet itself. Not worth even the possibility of a safety problem IMO.
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Old February 3, 2013, 10:04 PM   #13
Sevens
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I might shoot them...
I might admit that I shot them...

I wouldn't come to this forum and admit that I made them and include such a detailed photo!

I'm kidding, mostly.
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Old February 3, 2013, 10:26 PM   #14
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+1 for Stevens_
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Old February 4, 2013, 09:20 AM   #15
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If they fit in your gun they'll be fine and you can shoot em up.
You might not be able to reuse a couple of the cases.

If they chamber, there is no problem, shoot em.
If they dont chamber, pull em apart.
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Old February 4, 2013, 07:37 PM   #16
reynolds357
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Most of them wont chamber.
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Old February 5, 2013, 12:23 AM   #17
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pull em
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