Seating issue help?

[Sniper338]

Im working on once fired brass from my gun...

Cleaned
Resized
Trimmed to length
Chamfered/deburred
Neck turned to 14 thou
Whiped out case necks for any shavings
All is good on concentricity guages
Primed
Loaded power charge

I go to seat the bullet and most seat at the same psi/tension... then theres a few odd balls that the bullet goes in a bit, then it hits a wall and the neck tension is way off from the others...

Had 3 out of 20 cases do this so far.. i set them aside as obviously theres neck tension issues... im kinda at loss for ideas, everything was done exactly the same...

 

[duanehunter1]

Im working on once fired brass from my gun...

Cleaned
Resized
Trimmed to length
Chamfered/deburred
Neck turned to 14 thou
Whiped out case necks for any shavings
All is good on concentricity guages
Primed
Loaded power charge

I go to seat the bullet and most seat at the same psi/tension... then theres a few odd balls that the bullet goes in a bit, then it hits a wall and the neck tension is way off from the others...

Had 3 out of 20 cases do this so far.. i set them aside as obviously theres neck tension issues... im kinda at loss for ideas, everything was done exactly the same...

I have the same issue, frustrating.

 

[KMart]

Not all pieces of brass within a given lot or group are the same hardness/softness. Annealing may help this.

Also, I have recently started using mandrels (1-2 or 3 thousands under bullet diameter) after sizing and this seems to improve the inconsistence when seating.

Are you cleaning the brass with SS pins. This can cause some roughness inside the necks.

 

[Sniper338]

Not all pieces of brass within a given lot or group are the same hardness/softness. Annealing may help this.

Also, I have recently started using mandrels (1-2 or 3 thousands under bullet diameter) after sizing and this seems to improve the inconsistence when seating.

Are you cleaning the brass with SS pins. This can cause some roughness inside the necks.

I did anneal, forgot to add that... well I figured fired brass resized to the bushing would pretty much solve most things. Ive only used the expander mandrel on the new brass...

Yes ss pins...

 

[nmkid]

Using the expander mandrel has pretty much done away with that issue for me. I'm on the 'wildcat' Kool-Aid for now and after a case is sized down to new caliber and all case prep is finished I anneal again and run them through the expander mandrel as a last step before loading. Works in my little world.

 

[Sniper338]

Ended up with 9 outta 50 that did this, the rest seated reletively the same.

I ordered 20 more pieces of brass as back up incase these in this batch I cant get right... all norma brass..

 

[Jarhead6870]

You might try using a dry lube. Stainless steel pins, and ultrasonics, remove the carbon inside the necks leaving metal to metal contact with the bullet and case neck. In my experience, this increase in friction causes problems with inconsistent seating and bullet release. I've tested both dry lube and Imperial sizing wax inside the necks, separately of course, and each made my seating very consistent.

 

[Shaggy357]

Sounds like you may have found a donut in your brass. Did you check neck thickness all of the way down? Or just at the mouth of the case? Do you have an inside neck reamer? Sometimes the inside reamers will resolve this issue. If you do not have the inside reamer, it is anneal, re-size, outside turn neck. You will likely feel the pilot slide in the neck easily until you come up to the donut, If your brass is soft enough, sliding the donut over the pilot will move the brass out where you can turn it off. You need to be kissing the neck/shoulder junction with your cutter in order to cut this. Some folks actually cut a little onto the taper.

This may be what you have. Maybe not. Something to check. There are some other threads right here close regarding handling of donuts. You might go through those threads to see how much seems related to what you are going thru...

 

[geraldgee]

I like to takes bronze bore brush one size smaller than the brass I'm prepping. I will wrap it in 0000 steel wool and polish the ID of the case neck. It's an extra step but I believe it add a level of consistency to my reloads.

Gerald

 

[Webster]

Im working on once fired brass from my gun...

Cleaned
Resized
Trimmed to length
Chamfered/deburred
Neck turned to 14 thou
Whiped out case necks for any shavings
All is good on concentricity guages
Primed
Loaded power charge

I go to seat the bullet and most seat at the same psi/tension... then theres a few odd balls that the bullet goes in a bit, then it hits a wall and the neck tension is way off from the others...

Had 3 out of 20 cases do this so far.. i set them aside as obviously theres neck tension issues... im kinda at loss for ideas, everything was done exactly the same...

I have not put much thought into it but I use a Wilson micrometer seater. I see a big difference it seating feel between flat base bullets and boat tails. The FB have a nice radius on the back. I kind of felt the bullets were not getting started straight in the neck. Cannot think of any other reason.

 

[Shynloco]

I have not put much thought into it but I use a Wilson micrometer seater. I see a big difference it seating feel between flat base bullets and boat tails. The FB have a nice radius on the back. I kind of felt the bullets were not getting started straight in the neck. Cannot think of any other reason.

That's because the bullet itself is longer and more of the boattail end is going into the casing. Using an expander mandrel helps get rid of any inside neck issues. But as was stated in the beginning, not all brass holds the same hardness REGARDLESS if you anneal or not. I would pull the harder brass and use them as foulers and not for score shooting or load development. And that holds true regardless of the caliber you are reloading.

Alex

 

[ballisticdaddy]

Ended up with 9 outta 50 that did this, the rest seated reletively the same.

I ordered 20 more pieces of brass as back up incase these in this batch I cant get right... all norma brass..

Curious are you keeping the brass separated by lot? I had similar issues but after keeping every lot separate it is very seldom...even with good brass.

 

[Sniper338]

Curious are you keeping the brass separated by lot? I had similar issues but after keeping every lot separate it is very seldom...even with good brass.

Yes

 

[onelastshot]

You're using Norma brass, would you mind telling me what the lot number is?