Resizing rifle brass..

[Tin]

Would it be prudent to resize rifle brass after pulling the bullet and changing the powder but reusing the bullet.. would neck tension be lost after pulling the bullet since the neck would be stretched somewhat./.. TIN..

 

[Autococker07]

I would neck size only.. no need to FL resize....


Lee sells a collet neck sizing die for around $20 or so... I usually get 3 nick sizes between full length sizes.. I only Fl when they get sticky in the chamber (loading for same chamber)

 

[x10x10]

Its a bit more involved than that, If you have more than one 223 then you may have to resize, And if you have a Tight chambered AR then you may small base resize.

And also if the bullets are in real tight it could pull the neck up a little and you may have to bump the shoulder

 

[Rule3]

Simple answer is Yes, re-size. You can probably just neck size as mentioned.

Pull out the decapping pin so you do not have to mess with punching out a good primer , saving it and then re-priming.

 

[Smithhound]

I am in the process of pulling 600 old .22 Jet rounds, these are original ammo but were stored poorly and I just don't trust the powder/primers amymore but I want the original Remington bullets and of course the cases. You will definately lose neck tension when you do this, so back off the size die to where you are just sizing the neck down and not touching the shoulder and you'll be GTG. It is a pain but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet. (PTP).
RD

 

[alwslate]

I have pulled FMJ bullets from .223, 7.62X39, 308 and 8mm and
replaced them with softpoint bullets over the original powder charge
without any resizing and had no problems.

 

[moxie]

As alwslate states, it can be done! Have to check.

Pull a few bullets. Recharge and reseat. Test for sufficient neck tension by pressing hard against your bench. If the bullet stays put you're good to go. If not, you haven't lost anything. Go the necksize route.

 

[AveragEd]

The OP doesn't mention how he plans to pull those bullets so I thought I would pass along an endorsement for Hornady's bullet pulling die that uses collets of the correct bullet diameter. You thread the die into your press, run the loaded round up into it, rotate the operating handle 90 degrees and withdraw the bullet-less case. If used correctly, it doesn't touch the case neck (you quickly learn how to feel that you have the neck in the collet) and leaves no marks on the bullet, so it could be reused if you are changing powder charges, for example.

The old impact pullers take forever by comparison, are tiring to use, leave you with a mix of bullet and powder and usually damage bullet tips unless you are pulling FMJs.

Ed

 

[Smithhound]

Good advice on checking tension against the bench, but if you are going to use the ammo in an AR style rifle I would go ahead and spend the time to neck size. Think about the cartridges violent trip from mag to chamber, that bullet has to stay put while getting slammed up and over the feed ramp and then again when it stops in the chamber, it could get pushed back or fly forward during this journey. That's just my opinion tho'.
As far as bullet pulling I've tryed the collets and found them too slow and they mark up the bullet jacket, to keep the bullet tips from deforming in an inertia type put a couple of cotton balls or a bit of waded up paper towel into it. No getting around having to dig thru powder for the bullet tho. Perhaps a small frame with some screen on the bottom to seperate could be made? I'll tinker with that idea.
Either way, pulling bullets is the most boring task in handloading next to case trimming, no arguement there.
RD

 

[Tin]

Resize rifle brass

Thank you all for your comments..I'm recharging some rounds for a 300 Savage rifle that I made up some experimental rounds for to find the best powder combo..Powder used was IMR 3031,,,Winc 748,,,and IMR 4895 which gave the best group.. I'll refill the unused rounds with 4895..I've refilled rounds for a 7.62 Mosin Finn and found that just changing the bullet to a U,S made bullet made a great difference.. Thanks again for all your feed back........TIN..

 

[moxie]

Good advice on checking tension against the bench, but if you are going to use the ammo in an AR style rifle I would go ahead and spend the time to neck size. Think about the cartridges violent trip from mag to chamber, that bullet has to stay put while getting slammed up and over the feed ramp and then again when it stops in the chamber, it could get pushed back or fly forward during this journey. That's just my opinion tho'.
RD

You paint a pretty scary picture of that poor round's trip. You're right, it is scary.

But, I've found that with the .223 in an AR, a press test tells the tale. And the original FL sizing does the job.

Be cool.