I’m planning on running the necks over an expander ball, do I need to do anything else when loading primed brass from disassembled cartridges?




P

Resize the outer neck diameter otherwise there won't be enough neck tension to properly hold the bullet. Not sure why the reference is made to an expander ball unless cast lead bullets will be used.

It’s my understanding that the function of the expander ball is to make the neck circular and to properly size the neck.

What does outer neck diameter mean? How do you resize the outer neck diameter?





P

Well, a Lee collet neck sizer would be one option. A Redding S die for another.

I run brass back through the regular full-length resizing die to prep for typical loading. Bullets will expand the necks slightly and there won't be enough tension if the brass isn't resized. A neck sizing die also works if you use those sets.

Use a spare mandrel with the decapping pin ground off.

Neck turner

Pharm, just remove the decapping pin from your resizing die and run them thru again!

Unless your going to buy a separate neck sizer!

I have a Lee collet neck sizer, but that would pop the primer.




P

I have pulled lots of 223 Rem bullets, dumped the powder, recharged an seated the bullet without doing any neck-resizing. If not resizing makes any difference it is not enough that the gophers notice and it is not something that I can see has any effect on groups.
It is not something I would do if I was building match loads but for day to day varmint shooting it is just fine.

Do a few that way then go shoot a target, I think that you will find that it works just fine.

drover

Just remove the decapping pin like mentioned and have at it.

Not familiar with the Lee die or how the decapping pin is attached some dies they can be removed others not so much!

Pulling and reseating would probably be fine if your ok with a plinking load but the inconsistent neck tension probably won't give you your groups like your use to!

Gonna try this.

250 cases. What a PITA.





P

How much neck tension do y’all prefer?




P

I like .002-.003 for a bolt rifle!

I have been through this a couple of times, for me I can tell you what worked best........for me
I tried different things with different brass but 2 years ago I got 500 Federal 270 Win brass that was pull down because of a bad batch of bullets.
I ran many of them over my Sinclair comparator and found they were more out of round than most virgin brass, I tried several dies to alleviate the problem..........by far the best solution was to NOT take the decapping pin off the LEE collet neck die (to cut it off kept the necks from straightening out). I saved 100% of the primers and re-seated them

I just resize the neck and reload. Just make sure you pull out the de priming pin.

kwg

Pharm, I bought an extra mandrel for all of my LCDs and broke off the deprimlng pin part. Works like a charm.

Or remove the deprimlng pin from a normal resizing die expander and adjust the die to only size the neck.

If it were me I would try to load a couple and seat the new bullets and check the neck tension. If it is good you save a step on each case, if it isn't, I would go with the advice above or use a neck sizing die to set the neck tension.

Where are you located? I'm in Hillsboro and I have a Hornady Neck sizing die for 223 you could borrow....

Epiphany time.

I finally got around to addressing the issue. Took some twice fired brass and measured outside diameter as well as inside diameter. Then I ran the brass over the Lee neck sizer and measured again.

Then I measured the outside and inside diameters of several pieces of pulled brass.

Exactly the same.

I’m going to charge and seat and call it good.





P