reseating a bullet ?

R

rebs

New member
I have some loaded ammo that I mistakenly seated too long. Can I just put them in the seater die and seat them deeper or do I need to pull them resize the case and then seat fresh ?
 
Just turn the die down and push them in further. This is done all the time when starting with new bullets. It doesn't hurt a thing. I've done hundreds, if not thousands over the years.
 
Thanks for the replies. I wasn't sure if it would leave the bullet too loose in the case neck. They are jacketed with no crimp 223 rounds
 
If they are "loose" you could try a light crimp. I normally don't crimp my rifle rounds but I have a collet style crimp that works well in my 223 handloads...

Normally I'd pull the bullets if the were really loose, but to salvage a few rounds I'd see what a crimp would do. If you're shooting in a semi-auto check the neck tension first...
 
"...if it would leave the bullet too loose..." Only matters if you crimp. Crimped cases should be pulled and re-expanded(taking out the crimp and redoing it). Non-crimped rifle you can just push the bullet in more.
 
Crimped cases should be pulled and re-expanded(taking out the crimp and redoing it). Non-crimped rifle you can just push the bullet in more.
Click to expand...
Unless the rifle bullet has a cannelure it's not necessary to pull the bullets if they were loaded in a two die operation. I'd certainly assume the bullet won't be pushed in past the ogive and simply pushing it in further will crimp and move at the same time. Bullets without a cannelure simply don't have much crimp on them at all and it won't matter. If the OP is in doubt about any of this, just do a couple and try them. It they chamber and extract (don't fire them, just try them in the gun) there won't be any problems.
 
if you do pull a bullet for whatever reason resize the neck before reseating a bullet. You will get .001 to .002 plastic deformation when seating the bullet and it will not pull back to the sized diameter when pulled

here is a experiment I did on annealing

I took an old Starline case with about 4 firings on it that had been annealed after every firing on a Annealeze calibrated with Templaq 750 and equipped with a digital speed controller. I FL sized my case and had a neck diameter of .289 the same as my bushing. Seated a 140 gn Nosler in it, measured it at .292. I then pulled the bullet and measured the neck at .291. It looks like I had .002 of plastic deformation so I reseated then pulled the bullet with no sizing in between, with only .001 expansion seating was much lighter of course but each time i pulled and measured the case always sprang back to .291. I seated and pulled five times each experiment.

Then I repeated the test resizing between each seating and got a reading of .291 three times and .290 twice after pulling the bullet. I then took a fresh case and annealed it after each sizing, seated the bullet and measured the neck got the same the same results as far as measurements. Once again five repeats.

The bullet did seem to be a bit easier or smoothly seating at the end to seat but I attribute that to the bullet and the case polishing each other a bit if anything and it was progressive easier from the first to the last of the test.
 
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I would pull the bullet and then reseat. I personally had a round go off in the press. Cost a day out of work, trip to the ER, cost $2,000 and 7 stitches . Your choice in the end.
 
Don P: Any aspect like very compressed to go with that blow up?

I do it all the time, seat long and then adjust COAL. I have done thousands like that.

Trying to wrap my brain around getting a bullet go boom short of the primer strike and or heat via compression.
 
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