[RedSafety]

A friend of mine was reloading some .223s and they would not chamber. They tested good in a go-nogo gauge, but would not seat. They also would not go into the sizing die. The casings are crunched in the shoulder area as illustrated. Ideas? My thought is the die is too low and the press is squeezing the casing.

 

[flh]

Is he putting a lubricant on the brass before attempting to resize the casings ?

 

[Bad Bob]

The die, optimally should contact the shell holder @ full compression. He may not be properly lubing the cases. Go/no go gauges are for the chamber, not the cartridges. He needs a chamber gauge.

He is gonna need to pull all the bullets and lube/resize them all.

If the case neck is too tight or the bullets oversize he could be compressing the case seating the bullet. He should be using a taper crimp die. He needs to adjust the crimp die as that could compress the cases as well.

 

[sdprof]

Off topic - I like the automatic description of the image:
Office supplies Writing implement Cylinder Metal Titanium

Maybe we should have all our cartridges self identify as such.

 

[OldVet]

Looks seriously over crimped to me. I don't crimp .223 cases at all.

 

[Rabbit212]

Looks seriously over crimped to me. I don't crimp .223 cases at all.

I put on a light crimp but yeah that looks like way too much crimp.

 

[RedSafety]

Cases were lubed and it's a chamber gauge.

 

[dangerranger]

Like OV I'm going with way to much crimp. From the pic with that much crimp he is deforming the bullet, and deforming the case. Just a slight adjustment to his dies, and back in business. DR

 

[retired badge 1]

I agree with the comments on excessive crimping. The force applied appears to be deforming the neck and shoulder areas.

 

[Stevew]

I would start with:
Backing off the crimp.
Cleaning the die. Lube build up can cause problems.
Good, lite lube on the case.
Size the case and test in the chamber.
Seat the bullet and test in the chamber.
Add a little crimp and test in the chamber.
Trim cases or sort by length. And adjust dies accordingly.

 

[justahunter]

No doubt in my mind…. He’s way over crimping. I’m betting he’s crimping at the same step he’s seating the bullet. Crimping needs done on a separate step. I have shot THOUSANDS of un-crimped rounds in an AR but freely admit I prefer them crimped. It doesn’t take much.

Todd

 

[RedSafety]

Without knowing much about reloading, that was my thought, but it's not the crimp itself that's the problem. Its where it necks down, as in where the arrow points. I'm guessing that when he's crimping he's putting too much pressure on the press and buckling the shoulder. Hard to see on that pic, but very noticeable when looking at the actual casing. I had a cheap plastic caliper for some non-critical measurements and it showed that portion to be considerably wider than the factory casing.

 

[OldVet]

Without knowing much about reloading, that was my thought, but it's not the crimp itself that's the problem. Its where it necks down, as in where the arrow points. I'm guessing that when he's crimping he's putting too much pressure on the press and buckling the shoulder. Hard to see on that pic, but very noticeable when looking at the actual casing. I had a cheap plastic caliper for some non-critical measurements and it showed that portion to be considerably wider than the factory casing.

The seating die only seats the bullet and crimps the neck, and it should never touch the case shoulder regardless. I suspect the crimp is pushing the neck back and causing the shoulder bulge. The crimp will wedge into the bullet the more the press handle is pulled. The more you pull the handle, something will give. He needs to readjust his seating die to lessen the amount of crimp.

What brand of dies is he using?

 

[RedSafety]

He's using Hornady dies.