Resizing after major deformation safe to use again??

[ell198679]

61047

Ive run cases like this through my resizing die and it appears to bring them back to normal. Is it safe to reload cases like this?? Once they have been resized to spec of course? In other words they look like the one on the left before resizing, then like the one on the right after resizing. Is the brass permanently damaged when this happens, and yes I know its cause the boolit was seated to far in.

[Hickory]

Brass is fairly ductile. If the powder change is reasonable, they can be fired.

The collapse of the shoulder may have work hardened it a bit and the case length should be checked after firing.

All cases should be trimmed to length to help avoid collapsing the shoulder, especially when applying a crimp.

[Chicken Thief]

I would shoot it, no problem!

[koehn,jim]

I would shoot it, if the brass was recently annealed it may have gotten too soft and caused this. I had a batch that this happened to from that reason.

[fouronesix]

61047
and yes I know its cause the boolit was seated to far in.

It looks like the bullet seating die was set down too far and the crimp shoulder in the die pushed the whole neck downward- collapsing the shoulder.

I'd re-think the reloading procedure. Remove the neck expander from the sizing die, deprime with a decapping die, resize the brass, trim to length, lightly chamfer inside and outside of case mouth, use a Lyman M die to expand the neck, seat the bullet with the seater die pulled out so the crimping shoulder in the die doesn't touch the case mouth, lightly crimp with a Lee FCD.

That may require a few more steps and dies but it should prevent what happened and it WILL produce cast bullet ammo about as good as can be done.

[john hayslip]

I agreewith fouronesix as to the cause. If you don't want to go to all the dies he suggests think redoing how you adjust the seating die. Put a case in the shell holder, the longest one if they are of different lengths or any of them if all trimmed to same length, and screw the seating die down til it touches the case (NOT until it touches the shell holder) and then back off a little. The die stopped on the crimping ledge, not the shoulder of the case. Adjust seating stem to seat boolit to the depth you want (top of case in crimping groove) and then screw the whole die in just past where the case stopped it, perhaps 5 degrees more and everything should work. It may not be total answer though. I just loaded some 284 cases with 154 grain bullets for a friend who wanted them and found due to the length of the bullet and the location of the crimping groove I collapsed the shoulder anyway using a Lee seating die and that I could barely do it with an RCBS seater I had. Failure was caused by using of too long a bullet and crimping groove in wrong place for 284. Yes, I know 154 grain bullets are too long for the 284 but that was what he wanted.

[UBER7MM]

If they are reducecd loads and can be chambered, pull the trigger.

[bob208]

when i get ones like that. i try to iron them out in the fullength die till they will chamber then shoot them.

[MBTcustom]

I wouldn't shoot those, unless you pull the boolits and replace them. The sizing operation will guarantee undersized boolits, a leaded up bore, and miserable accuracy.
Also, it looks like the original problem is that you were laying on too much crimp. Back it off! When loading cast boolits, the crimp is used more as a way to iron the neck flair back down, and make it so it will chamber correctly.
If you crimp that much, you are damaging the boolit.

[Bullshop]

Even with resizing there is a possibility of head sepperation due to excess head space. When you colapsed the shoulder you may have set back the datum line and created gross excess headspace. Resizing will iron out the bulge but it will not push the shoulder forward to where it was thus you will have excessive headspace and could cause serious problems.
The only safe way or procedure that I would follow is first pull the bullets and dump the powder. Then resize the bulge out so they chamber. Then and most importantly neck up to a larger caliber. Then partial resize slowly until you get to the point that they will chamber with some resistance. The idea is to partially size the over caliber neck to create a new datum point to headspace from. With that method the case will not streach forward in the chamber on fireing to contact the for end of the chamber because it will already be there. It will only streach outward to fill the chamber and return to original shape and is what you want.
That is my line of thought on it and I believe the only safe way.
If you do otherwise you " MAY " get away without damage or injury but I think you will find the cases will be short lived anyway because of the streaching and thinning at the pressure ring. The point just ahead of the solid web will show as a shiney ring or crack and will eventually prematurley sepperate at that point.

[Mark85304]

I doubt the one on the left with the crushed shoulder will even chamber. If it does, you got chamber problems. Look at how much larger the shoulder diameter is versus the rest of the cartridge. Ain't gonna chamber.

[woody1]

Rimless case, the shoulder has been set back for sure. Agree with Bullshop but here's another way I believe will work and is what I use: Seat boolit out enough that it engages the lands firmly on chambering and it will hold the case against the bolt and allow the shoulder to resize to proper length on firing. Regards, Woody

[Bullshop]

I didnt want to offer that method of controling headspace because I have read of several instances where it lead to case sepperation and damage was the result.
I know that it is used often but since I have read about some having problems with it I didnt want to suggest it as a safe way.
I have never read of a failier of any kind if using the method I described, necking up then back down to a tight fit.

[MBTcustom]

I have done this numerous times, back when I thought I needed to crimp the living hell out of all my boolits. Just run a medium charge of Unique and you'll be fine. Seat the boolit out far enough that it will keep the base against the bolt face (I assume you are using a bolt action rifle?) and pop 'em off. You'll be back where you need to be.
John 8:11 And Jesus said......go, and sin no more.

[uscra112]

I have fireformed brass with light loads using the "long seated boolit" method, and avoided any chance of stretching the cases by lubing them with case lube. Did I mention the the load was very light? Obviously the chamber must be cleaned of the lube afterward. I would not do this normally, but this rifle was chambered .30 Remington, for which brass is mighty scarce. We had some that had apparently been run through a .30-30 (?) die, which had moved the shoulder too far back.