(Reloading noob) Overpressed .308 casing

[phacious]

I just got into reloading with a single-stage lee precision. At the moment I am reloading .308 with hornady 150gr FMJ, varget powder, CCI Primers, and Remington brass. I setup the press a couple days ago and loaded a few rounds. I must have setup the bullet seating die (only have a decap and seating die) too low because the casing bulge out a bit were the case begins to narrow. Most of these rounds will not chamber.



My question is, what do I do with these rounds? Can I extract the bullet, salvage the charge and primer, and put the case through the decapper/ resizer?
Is there anything salvageable from this screw-up?

[Edward429451]

If they're over pressed, how can pressing them more fix them? You can't, they're trash now. You need a case gauge to help you set up your dies. Trial and error until the case fits the gauge properly, then you know you set the shoulder back the right amount.

[William T. Watts]

Looks like you screwed the seating die to far down (or the case wasn't trimed to length correctly), to correctly set the seating die place a sized case in the shell holder screw the die down until it touches the case mouth, then screw the seating die out one full turn and tighten the die lock ring. The die is now set and locked in place and adjust seating adjustment for proper over all length. If it were me I would pitch the cases and maybe do a little more reading until you understand the reloading process better. William

[4runnerman]

Case is garbage for sure

[hooligan1]

I use a nickle to turn my seating dies down to and it works just fine, it depends on bullet variances whether I have to re-adjust seating stem.

[Brian Pfleuger]

The case isn't necessarily garbage. Pull the bullet and run the case back through the sizing die. Carefully, since you'll be decapping a live primer. Where eye and ear protection and do it slowly. I did the same thing when I first started and resizing the case worked just fine. Yes, you have the seating die body adjusted down too far.

[hooligan1]

WHOA,,, DO NOT DECAP LIVE PRIMER!!!!!! unscrew decapping pin from the die first then try to resize it.

[Brian Pfleuger]

There's nothing wrong with decapping live primers. Where ear and eye protection just in case. People do it all the time. It's not a grenade. The only other precaution is to not have other primers on the press at the time. It's really not a big deal.

[hooligan1]

Still whats the point of wasting the primer, would you use those decapped primers Brian?

[Edward429451]

Because you can get clean price from the scrappers if they're de-primed.

I don't reuse primers that I have de-capped. When it's first seated, the anvil takes a set and so loosing it and re-seating it would make it questionable in my mind.

[Brian Pfleuger]

I don't waste them. I might not use it for hunting ammo but I've reused primers a number of times and every one went bang.

[GeauxTide]

Brian is correct. Every one of mine when bang, too.

[phacious]

unscrew decapping pin from the die first then try to resize it.

I was hoping I could do this. Is it possible to do this without removing the bullet? I don't have anything to properly remove the bullet without damaging the bullet, case or wasting the powder. I'm using a lee press with lee dies.

[Brian Pfleuger]

If you unscrew the decapping pin you will also be remove the expander from the die. It will size the neck much too small.

[4runnerman]

Im with Brian here to. I have deprimed 100's of live rounds.Reprimed and accuracy has never changed nor has one ever gone off on me..

[300magman]

You will have to find some way to remove the bullet, there are a number of bullet pullers available in mechanical and momentum styles. -> One grabs the bullet the other looks like a hollow hammer that holds the case and when you smash it down, it relies on the bullets own mass/momentum to continue its movement forward and out of the case.


SOMETHING THAT HAS NOT BEEN MENTIONED YET - Did you hear crunching when you seated the bullet? If its at all possible that you crushed the powder when you seated the bullet and compressed the brass, then the powder would not be suitable for re-use either. You should have heard the crunching if you did this, and its probably only likely that you did it, if you were using a recipe with high load density. But by crushing it, you may have changed its burning rate/properties, and that is generally a Bad, or very bad, thing. So throw out the powder if you heard crunching.


As for the brass, review all your loading procedures and ensure that the brass was not over length to start with. Then you should do as advised about and wear eye/ear protection just in case. And then you May or May Not have success by running it back through the full length sizer, which I would do without the decapping pin. But be warned, it may not fit into the die, it may be more prone to becomming a stuck case, and it may still be out of spec even if you get it through the full length sizer.

[wild willy]

Since you said you are new to reloading and only have a few loaded. I'd just put them in a box well marked with what they are and taped shut.Then when you get a bullet puller someday you can pull them.It doesn't pay to get one for a couple shells.If you keep loading you will probably get(need) one.

[phacious]

I don't remember hearing any crunching, and I don't think the case are off by much. 8/10 rounds I did in that batch are like this. I'll have to get a bullet puller and see what can be done. I documentation that can with the set was not very thorough, I don't remember seeing anything regarding case length when reloading.

[hooligan1]

In all of my loading manuals they show a picture of the cartridge and all its measurements, you need to have some type of loading manuals and also I recommend the reading of "The ABC'S of Reloading" it explains all of this in detail.
Kinetic bullet puller on sale at Midway USA is only 19.99.
Also "Crunching Sound"???///never heard of that one before either, this is a day of first for me, I have no need for decapping live primers, and the newbie probably would be better off if he'd shy from it also.

[hooligan1]

I just came up from my laboratory, where I browsed through the Safety chapters of both 3rd edition ABC's of reloading and the 8th edition of ABC's of reloading and both say that you shouldn't decap live primers,,, what do you guys say now? Page 23 in the 3rd edition and page 14 RULE #1 in the 8th edition read'em and wheep!!

[mehavey]

1. Get an impact bullet puller. No reloader should ever be without one.


2. Pull bullet and save. You can reload it later.

3. Empty powder and save. (ditto above)

4. Using proper case lube, slowly/steadily resize the case w/ your head/eyes averted "just in that 1/1,000,000 case." Save primer (ditto above)*

5. Re-prime the now sized cases/Re-weigh powder/Fill cases.

6. Unscrew seating die one full turn from contact w/ the shell holder when ram is fully up. Lock Die at this point (and forever more).**

7. Re-seat bullets to ~crimp groove as you show in your picture (it's as good a place to start as any)

8. You are done.




* My experience is the same as Brian P's. YMMV of course.
** Forget crimping at this point as you don't need it anyway.

[oldpapps]

I'm lost with all of the back and forth...

Let's look at what we have.
1st, the case is bulged at or just behind the shoulder.
2nd, oh, there isn't one.

What needs to be done?
Pull the bullet. I like the inertia type. They don't screw up bullets. The bullet/s are ok. The powder is ok. the primers are ok. The only thing not right is the brass.

First on the sizing die, screw the depriming rod back/in until it will no longer reach the primer, yet still expand the neck (don't go in so deep as to try to expand and size the neck at the same time). Lub the out side of the brass and size them and wipe off the lub. Don't forget to screw your depriming rod back into possession when your done.

Now you are ready to load again. Only this time, DON'T crimp. Reset you seating die by following the instructions that came with it.

Being OCD, I wouldn't use the bullets/powder for precision loads. But that's just me.

OK, guys start ripping me

Enjoy,

OSOK

PS,
I was too slow. See above. But, I'm a little different.

[Brian Pfleuger]

Originally Posted by hooligan

I just came up from my laboratory, where I browsed through the Safety chapters of both 3rd edition ABC's of reloading and the 8th edition of ABC's of reloading and both say that you shouldn't decap live primers,,, what do you guys say now? Page 23 in the 3rd edition and page 14 RULE #1 in the 8th edition read'em and wheep!!

Lyman 49th says you should NEVER buy once fired brass too.

Plus, EVERY load manual says NEVER exceed their max charges and some manuals having starting charges higher than other max charges....

[wild willy]

And a lot of gun manuals tell you not to use reloaded ammunition.hooligan1 do you follow that rule?

[mehavey]

Originally Posted by Papps

...screw the depriming rod back/in until it will no longer
reach the primer, yet still expand the neck

The Good News: +1

The Bad News: I should have thought of that. Saves a step and a primer