Had to resize some loaded cast bullets, is it dangerous?

[chutestrate]

I cast and loaded several 40 cal slugs. They are the 175 gr bullets from lee. I loaded them into 10mm cases. I'm using a dillon 550b and dillon dies. Each loaded round came out with a signifigant bulge on one side of the case. I was able to fire very few of them because they wouldn't feed into the chambers of my pistols.

Here are my observations...

The cartridges would only feed halfway into the chamber before stopping. I could push some in, but it was difficult getting them out.

Unloaded bullets would drop freely into the chamber

Resized and deprimed brass would drop freely into the chambers

Loaded rounds would drop freely into the chambers primer first.

The top band of the slug measures .420, the bottom band measures .402, a commercial round measures .419 case included.

I removed the depriming pin from my sizing die and ran the loaded rounds up through it. Now they all feed great, and the side lump is gone. Are they unsafe to shoot?

At no time did I see signs of over pressure. I'm using 8.3 grains of power pistol in 2nd or 3rd time loaded brass.

[Blammer]

should be fine, all you did was size them in the case, no biggie.

[mooman76]

I've done it a few times myself. Not my favorite thing to do but as long as you are careful, I see no problem.

[dbldblu]

The Lee factory crimp die does exactly what you want.

[chutestrate]

All the lee factory crimp die did for me was crimp the mouth, the side bulge remained.

[Bwana]

"The top band of the slug measures .420, the bottom band measures .402, a commercial round measures .419 case included."
Not sure what you are talking about with this sentence; boolit/loaded round?
Sounds like something in your seating die is pushing the boolit off center. Might want to pull it and clean it.

[Jim]

The Lee factory crimp die does exactly what you want.

'Scuse me for buttin' in, but are you talking about the TAPER crimp die?

[dragonrider]

When I tried that I found the boolits to be loose in the case afterwards. The went bang anyway. only had seven or eight and had to know what would happen.

[beagle]

I've done that a bunch. I do it when I want to pull some stubborn cast boolit Ah Sh_ts! and as you have noticed, the bullet becomes loose in the case as you've sized it down some.

Don't think it's that dangerous but it's a prime way to crack a carbide sizing ring as I've done one like that so I'd avoid it if possible./beagle

[gray wolf]

The top band of the slug measures .420, the bottom band measures .402, a commercial round measures .419 case included.


I agree, this should be explained, I, we, everyone seems to be assuming the OP is talking about a loaded round. The quote above sounds like he is referring to the top band on a bullet, if it's a loaded round then it's .001 bigger than his factory round and that should not be giving him all that trouble. .420 is a heck of a large bullet for a mold in 40 Cal.
OP please esplain

[noylj]

You need a larger expander plug. Measure the ID of your sized case. It probably measures around 0.395" or less. Now, run the case through your expander and measure the case ID. The case ID where the bullet will be seated should be no more than 0.002" under bullet diameter. Thus, for jacketed 0.400" bullets, the expander should open the case ID to 0.398-399". Check and see what you have.
Now, you are going to try and insert a cast bullet, always much softer than jacketed bullets or the case itself, into a case that probably has an ID of 0.398". This is too tight and the bullet will probably be swaged down a bit (pull a bullet if you haven't already sized all of them down) and the force to seat the bullet will also cause the thin wall side of the case to bulge out.
This is NOT a sizing or seating or crimp problem, it is an expander plug problem.
The Lee FCD will "mask" the problem and all the rounds will fire fine (do a bullet push test to be sure that the bullets are still held in case tight--old cases can spring back to near original OD/ID while the soft lead bullet is permanently sized smaller--and disassemble any that fail).

[Mk42gunner]

Are these tumble lube boolits by chance? If they are and are measuring .420" you need to examine your mould, they shouldn't be that large.

Are you sizing your boolits?

Robert

[MikeS]

All the lee factory crimp die did for me was crimp the mouth, the side bulge remained.

The other poster was half correct. What you need is the Lee FCD AND the Lee Bulge Buster kit. What the kit does is makes the die a push thru cartridge or brass sizer. You remove the top adjuster, and the crimping insert, then screw in the bulge buster into the die. The kit also included a pusher than you mount in the press instead of a shell holder, and a plastic box to catch either the resized brass or cartridges. That should completely remove the bulge, as the case goes completely thru the die.

If you already knew this, than sorry for posting what you already knew. If you didn't know this, give it a try. I believe the bulge buster kit was originally designed specifically for the 40 cal, then they also added 45ACP and I think 9mm to the list of cartridges it will work with. (the same bulge buster kit works for all calibers)

What I do is I take the crimper that's removed from the FCD, and put it into the Lee powder thru expander die (instead of the expander), so I can use it as a great crimping die, and still have the FCD body setup with the bulge buster if it's needed. Now I have 2 usable dies, where before I had 2 mostly unusable dies!

[frkelly74]

I have run 45 loaded rounds into a 308 Win die to size them down a little. It works but I got horrible leading because the boolit was too small to fit the bore. It is not the best idea.

[prs]

I think post sizing with lead boolits is bad juju. Leading, velocity variation, erratic ignition, just bad juju. Find the problem and solve it.

prs

[gray wolf]

I don't think we know exactly what his problem is as of yet.

[garym1a2]

Just pull them and try again. Post size with FCD dies always lead my barrels.

[chutestrate]

Problem found. I had a part of the primer stuck way up on the depriming post. Thank you for the help.

[gray wolf]

Problem found. I had a part of the primer stuck way up on the depriming post. Thank you for the help.

OH! well that clears it up for me, How bout the rest of you folks ?

[bhn22]

FOLKS!!!!!!!!!!!! If there's a bulge on one side of the case, then the bullets being seated crooked. There is no other cause for it.

[gray wolf]

I was being sarcastic ---I can be that way once in a while,
but in a fun way of course.


Problem found. I had a part of the primer stuck way up on the depriming post. Thank you for the help.

I am going to search every post on the board because this answer
must fit someplace.

[Bwana]

Communication, how does it work? If you are sending and no one else is receiving then you have failed to communicate. Whether this is due to poor skill on your part or poor skill on the receiver's part, the result is the same. Effective communication is a beautiful thing and seems to be in scarce supply these days. So we struggle along as best as we can.

[prs]

I was helping a fellow loader with a problematic progressive press. The index was a bit off and since he was set-up to where straight walled form fired cases were being sized only down to where the boolits were to be seated, the sized area was off to one side -- hard to commumicate that -- but one side of the case was still straight from rim to mouth and the other side had a stepped in area. Thus the bottom of that area looked as if it was bulged, sort of. Maybe the OP was effectively "neck sizing" due to the primer cup stuck onto the shoulder of his deprime pin. Any who, gled he got 'er cured.

prs

[Ozarklongshot]

I'm stunned that not one single mention of headstamp. Mix a few "A-MERC" in with your "R-P" in 45acp or 9mm. Ta-Da tiny bulge. Next never never never fire "loose" bullets. If there is a setback of the bullet into the case the pressure becomes insane. The classic in 45acp is the gun fires the spike hits and a portion of the web on the bottom blows out taking the magazine with it and sometimes the grip. It doesn't always destroy the weapon but it always hurts...