uneven neck resizing...??

[Ed333]

Newbie reloader here...on my last batch of 6mmBR cases, when I went to seat the bullets , in about 10% of them, the bullet (105 gr. A-Max) slid right in with finger pressure, seated it down to the powder level. Relatively secure, not going to shake out. What is going on with that? I did not notice any differences when resizing. I use Redding full length resizing die, Hornady one shot lube and brush inside the neck with Imperial before resizing. This is after decapping and cleaning in ultrasonic cleaner.

Second question, is it safe to shoot these 'loose' rounds in my single shot Savage 12 F Class? I realize the jump will be significantly more, but that is true of 95 gr. factory Lapua ammo as well.

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

The necks are work-hardening with use, some more than others. Anneal and/or use a smaller bushing.

 

[jonbearman]

You can shoot them but inaccuracy will be the result. As long as it has some tension you can shoot but try not to in the future. Take a look at you tube on how to anneal properly and look in our articles. What size bushing are you using and what does a loaded round measure at the neck?

 

[Ed333]

You can shoot them but inaccuracy will be the result. As long as it has some tension you can shoot but try not to in the future. Take a look at you tube on how to anneal properly and look in our articles. What size bushing are you using and what does a loaded round measure at the neck?

And if a round had no tension, and you fired it, the result would/might be????

 

[fguffey]

And if a round had no tension, and you fired it, the result would/might be????

I do not know about tension as in neck tension, I know about bullet hold when measured in pounds. Then there are variables, I understand factors. And there are hypotheticals, what factor changes when one bullet is held with 30 pounds of bullet hold and another bullet is held with zero bullet hold?

F. Guffey

 

[CatShooter]

Newbie reloader here...on my last batch of 6mmBR cases, when I went to seat the bullets , in about 10% of them, the bullet (105 gr. A-Max) slid right in with finger pressure, seated it down to the powder level. Relatively secure, not going to shake out. What is going on with that? I did not notice any differences when resizing. I use Redding full length resizing die, Hornady one shot lube and brush inside the neck with Imperial before resizing. This is after decapping and cleaning in ultrasonic cleaner.

Second question, is it safe to shoot these 'loose' rounds in my single shot Savage 12 F Class? I realize the jump will be significantly more, but that is true of 95 gr. factory Lapua ammo as well.

You haven't given much information.

Is your Redding sizing a bushing die, and if so, what size bushing.

Are you turning the necks?

What is the loaded diameter of the case necks?

 

[Ed333]

Catshooter, the die set is Redding #36317, Type S Match Die set, full, for 6mm B.R. Remington.
The bushing is Redding Titanium Nitride Part # 76265, size .265.
Outside neck diameter of normal loaded rounds is .267", and for the 'loose' rounds , it is running .269".

None of this brass could have been reloaded more than 3 times, and more probably twice at the outside. My only active F class season with this rifle was 2013, I took 2014 off because of health issues. I have been using these snow storms as a chance to reload for the coming season.
I know I need to start segregating and keeping track of brass by # of reloads, when trimmed, etc. Some of this could have been trimmed, I have not trimmed very many cases. I have never turned necks, do not know about this aspect.
I note the Redding die set says "6mm BR Remington", but I seem to remember reading or being told that it worked for 6 mm BR Norma.
I have also wondered about acquiring a neck only die, for situations such as this, or for regular use. If I used a neck resizing die on the 'loose' rounds, I could extract the bullet, dump the powder, and not worry about the case being primed, right?
Apologies if this all seems too dumb for words, but this is where I am ....

 

[spclark]

Brass cases can harden just sitting around on the shelf. If you've never annealed those necks, that only adds to the circumstances you're seeing. I got into annealing cases when I noticed irregular results sizing necks and bumping case shoulders back on fired & cleaned cases I was prepping to reload once again. Even if you'd cleaned and annealed them after firing back in 2013 I'd have recommended annealing them again (won't hurt them a bit) before moving to sizing operations now.

Firing cartridges with essentially "zero" neck tension (bullets - and powder - will fall out of the case when held pointy-end down) ought not to affect whether you can fire them at all, but accuracy will be different from similar cases that have necks that exhibit greater neck tension. The idea is to find what degree of tension (commonly measured by the difference between diameter of case necks when empty and once loaded) your rifle prefers, then do everything humanly possible to maintain consistent tension when loading cartridges for that rifle.

 

[conor m]

ed333 hate to say this !! but it looks like the loose cases were missed when being resized . 4thou differance is a hell of a lot (spring back in a case neck ) . try this take one of the cases with the loose bullet and breaket it down and resize it and see if the tension has improved..
hope this help's

 

[CatShooter]

ed333 hate to say this !! but it looks like the loose cases were missed when being resized . 4thou differance is a hell of a lot (spring back in a case neck ) . try this take one of the cases with the loose bullet and breaket it down and resize it and see if the tension has improved..
hope this help's

EXACTLY...

Don't worry about your necks getting hard in a year - neva happening! 30 or 40, maybe.

With that much looseness, you forgot to size some of the cases (not that I would have any personal experience with that )

You can pull the bullets, and take the decapping rod out of the die, and size them with the powder charges in the case (not that I would have any experience with that, either )

 

[243winxb]

And the winner is > it looks like the loose cases were missed when being resized

 

[michaelnel]

Brass cases can harden just sitting around on the shelf.

Huh? Never heard of that before. I thought the only way to harden brass was to work it. Is the shelf vibrating?

 

[ptf18]

Quote [ "and brush inside the neck with Imperial before resizing. This is after decapping and cleaning in ultrasonic cleaner"].


Silly question to the OP. Did you clean the neck ID of any lube after you resized the case?

 

[LHSmith]

Brass cases can harden just sitting around on the shelf.

Huh? Never heard of that before. I thought the only way to harden brass was to work it. Is the shelf vibrating?

From Norma's website:
"The cases are annealed to become softer. This prevents gas leaks and enables the case to hold the bullet firmly for at least 10 years without cracking as a result of aging material."
This confirms what long time competitors have been saying for years.