New Problem,,,,,

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hooligan1

New member
I had my first loose bullet problem with my 7mm mag loads. As I went to seat the bullets and measure their OAL I noticed that some were loose,,, like hand loose,:(.. I went over to the cabinet and retrieved the Lee crimping die and crimped them with a moderate crimp,, problem averted.... right???
Well I know that this changes the chamber pressures somewhat, but to what extent?
I'm going to the range maybe next week and fire some of these dudes to see if it impacted my otherwise "finished" data with these 140 grn Accubonds setting on a charge of 61.4 grns of IMR 4831. This load has grouped very tight for me, just under 3/4's of an inch at 100 yds, 4 round group.
 
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mrawesome22

New member
Crimping is not a substitute for proper neck tension.

You need to figure out why you aren't getting neck tension.



Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510e using Tapatalk 2
 
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DeadCenter

New member
yes, you definitely want to figure out why your case didn't get sized properly. A crimp is no substitution at all for an improperly sized neck. I wouldn't shoot them, but that's just me, I guess I would be afraid the tension from the crimp would come loose during chambering and the bullet getting pushed back into the case, then you have real problems!!
 
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McShooty

New member
Could it be that the expander ball of your resizing die is a bit too large? I do not think really firm neck tension could raise pressures to dangerous levels. This is not especially pertinent to your question, but what can be really dangerous are cases in need of trimming, so long that closing the bolt causes the end of the chamber neck to pinch the case into the bullet. This has been known to destroy an action.
 
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hooligan1

New member
I have come to the conclusion: I pulled a different makers bullet from these cases in question, and thought they would be fine but sometimes different makers bullets are a little larger than anothers.:eek: So instead of resizing and decapping live primers, I will go to the range tomorrow and see if the crimping and neck tension thing is a big problem.

Thanks fellas for the speedy response.:)
 
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Jim243

New member
problem averted.... right???
Click to expand...

NO......, don't know how many you did, but I would fire them single shot and not stack them in the mag. Second I would use the thumb test (place the round upside down and press as hard as I can to push the bullet into the case.) If they push into the case, they go in the trash (cheaper to replace components than a rifle.)

mrawesome is correct, you need to find out what the problem is!! Is your resizing die not down far enough to do the neck? Are your dies dirty and not letting the round all the way up? Is you mandrill wearing out and need to be replaced? Are the bullets undersized? Are the cases work hardend and spliting? Are the cases too short from trimming? Etc..........

Before, using these rounds, find out what happened!!!!!!!!!

But, that's just me, I would have to know. Then I would decide what to do with them.
Jim
 
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30Cal

New member
I'm guessing the expander ball on your sizing die is undersized. I'd send it to the mfr. They'll fix it.
 
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603Country

New member
I've had loose bullets in cases a couple of times. Once was because the case necks were just too thin. The neck sizer (non bushing type) wasn't able to get them small enough, though the full length sizer was able to do it. The other time was when I pulled some Nosler 120 grain bullets from 10 or 12 of my 260 Remington cases, dumped the powder, recharged them with the proper powder charge and then seated Nosler 100 grain bullets. The necks were not tight enough to hold the 100 grainers firmly.

The OP mentioned a Lee die, which makes me think that he might have a Lee bushing type neck die. It may be improperly adjusted or might have the wrong bushing for those cases.
 
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taylorce1

New member
hooligan1,

So if I understand you correctly you pulled the bullets from case and tried to reload them? If you did this there is a simple fix to all your problems. Pull the bullets again, then resize the necks with the expander ball/decapping pin removed from your die. This way you don't have to worry about decapping a live primer.

I've done the same thing before and this was suggested to me, as when you pull the bullets it screws with the neck tension. It works you don't need the expander ball to properly resize the necks. Try it and get back to us and let us know how it worked for you.
 
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603Country

New member
When I pulled those bullets and unsuccessfully tried to load the 100 grainers, I considered resizing the necks after pulling the expander from the neck sizer, but just went ahead and ran them through the rifle to 'shoot' the primers and then ran em through the neck sizer and reloaded them. Seemed quicker than messing with the sizing die. Of course if I had had 100 rounds like that, I'd have gone ahead and 'messed' with the die.
 
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er775

New member
I had the same problem with a set of Lee RGB dies, never could figure the problem out so I swapped em off to another member on here for a chamfer deburr tool and bought myself a set of RCBS dies, problem solved:)
 
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hooligan1

New member
Fellas the die is fine, I actually use an RCBS fl die for this cartridge, and its totally fine. The problem stemmed from pulling bullets that were minutely larger than the ones I replaced them with, so I used my Lee 7mm Rem Mag crimper and tightened em up a bit,,, These are going to the range tomorrow, and we'll see what they do, I expect perfect performance, and Jim243 I always shoot test loads one at a time, (I let the barrel cool between shots). I only have twenty rnds loaded, and if they perform up to standards, I will know within a few shots wether to dissamble the rest or seal'em and save them for deer killin.:)

And if I need to reassemble them I will take Taylorce1's idea and try it.;)
 
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jepp2

New member
The problem stemmed from pulling bullets that were minutely larger than the ones I replaced them with
Click to expand...

Any time I find it necessary to pull bullets, I always neck size before I seat new bullets. Even if you had seated new bullets that were exactly the same diameter as the ones you pulled, the neck tension would have been much less than it would have been on the bullets you initially seated.
 
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hooligan1

New member
Yep, too much coffee and noting else to do, I pulled those critters and resized the necks, then reloaded them. I feel that was the best thing to do, after some of these replies,, like the one from Jim243 talking about destroying a rifle, and Taylorce1, talking about how easy it is to resize the cases without punching the primers, which I've done before.

Neck tension is alot different from crimping. ;)
 
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chiefr

New member
I doubt if this may be your problem if you are seating the same bullets you pulled, but the last time I helped a guy who had the loose bullet problem, I found out he was using the wrong diameter bullets.
 
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