Re-sizing cases after pulling heads?

[DaveT]

I simply reseat a new bullet in these cases .... the brass has 'spring' .....thats what gives the neck tension so it should be largely retained when the bullet is pulled.

Reseat and then try to push the bullet deeper by pushing against a piece of wood..... if it resists reasonable pressure (don't put your back into it!) you are good to go..... not terribly scientific but its practical!

[Cruinneas]

I'm not sure its the "right" way to go, but it works.

Agreed. It's not ideal, but as said earlier i am somewhat limited in my ability to get new components so am trying to "salvage" what i can, and more importantly IF i can. If not then so be it.

Why would you want to rip the bottom of your case?

Not sure what you are referring to here?

Me I'd just neck resize to be sure and to ensure a consistent neck tension.

I would like to, but i don't think my Lee neck die can have the pin removed. I think the pin does come out of the FL die, but the brass is once fired Lapua, and not keen on FL resizing it.

@ John25 & DaveT. Appreciate the comments. I'm using a single shot F-Class rifle so no magazine issues. My only concern about the issue of necking the case is to gain proper results. In other words if i pulled the heads, adjusted the charge on the rounds (0.2 gr for 5 rounds at a time to re-do ladder test, etc), and then re-seat the bullets would the results i get out to 300 (distance i shoot ladder test at) be reliable. If there were inconsistencies, poor results, would it be down to the head being pulled or just the load not being a "good one".

I think the best option may be to pull the heads, adjust the charge, and re-seat. Then fire them. If they work -grand, if not well the rounds would have to be fired anyway. Once fired i can take any good results, and replicate them when i have the brass cleaned, necked, reprimed to see if they were "true" results.

[ovenpaa]

I have built and had to pull rounds before, it happens.... For me it was because I had seated them too deeply. This was on an F Open rifle and I had discovered the hard way that I had to jam the bullet further to hold the case out during the fire forming process. These days I own a collet puller which I have carefully blended the open internal diameter of to minimise marking and it makes life a lot simpler should I need to pull bullets.

[Cruinneas]

I always make up dummy rounds using de-primed brass to check seating depth before turning out a few rounds. Once i get my seating depth using this dummy round i mark the round with the bullet brand/weight for furture reference. I have yet to pull a bullet for seating depth, etc, but this time i was over cautious (not necessarily a bad thing) in my load development. Coupled with the short time frame i made a leap of faith, and fell.

[phaedra1106]

I used the kinetic hammer to remove 50 PPU 175gr bullets as my .308 doesn't like them, re-charged, seated 50 A-Max 168s and factory crimped, results were no different to my existing A-Max rounds.

[ovenpaa]

I built mine to the OAL I wanted which was a .005" jump however this was for a SAUM Wildcat so different shoulder angle and what I had not realised was the case would move forward very slightly when hit by the firing pin, enough to mark the primer but not ignite so it looked like a light strike. Jamming them by .010" resolved the problem, allowed me to fire form and then go back to the jump I wanted.

[Cruinneas]

Just a quick update.

Got to the range today with the pulled heads/re-seated rounds. Had 7 batches of 5 rounds each with about 10 "fouling" rounds. Wind was a steady 14mph, between 7-8 o'clock with steady direction, and slight variance in speed.

Blanked off full size target with white paper, and placed a 5" target in the centre as POA. Got to the 1,000 yard firing point and set up. Once on paper i went through the usual ladder test with a helpful volunteer in the butts. At the end i had slightly over 1 MOA total variation in all rounds fired with the "winning" load coming in at just 4.5 inches. Mirage was fairly bad, but still the reseated rounds seemed to perform well.

Next is to make up a small "batch" of them, and test again. If all goes well i have my load.

Thanks to all for their input, and advice. Much appreciated.

[dromia]

The head is the name for the base of a case, case head separation for example. I am assuming that you are referring to actually pulling bullets but because of the fashionable but incorrect nomenclature your posts read as though you are pulling the bottom of you case, hence confusion.

[tikkathreebarrels]

Hey all.

Looking for some help, and hope ye guys, and gals can help. If i pull the head off a loaded round, change the powder charge, and re-seat the bullet will neck sizing be required before seating?

I have a good few rounds that need "tweaking", and rather than fire off the case/primer, and start from scratch i would ideally like to simply pull the head, change the charge, and re-seat. However i am concerned about the neck tension having read many articles on how bullet pulling (with kinetic hammer) may or may not affect neck tension.

Currently supplies are limited so it's not as easy to simply restock on primers/powder or even cases. I'm using a Lee seating die, and have thought about removing the de-priming pin on the neck die, but i don't think that'll work. I'm also not crazy on the idea of de-priming live primers. I know if done slowly and correctly it should be okay, but again not really what i want to be doing.

My only real question, as above, is if i pull the head, change the charge, can i simply re-seat. Was thinking of measuring the neck before pulling, and again when pulled to see if there is a difference. If not to just re-seat.

Any help or thoughts is appreciated.

Answer: unless you have reason to doubt the consistency of neck tension achieved by the manufacturer of the ammunition you have no reason to re-size case which hasn't been fired.
As has already been said brass has "spring" which is why it is used for cases in the first place. If you're using a kinetic bullet puller you are not changing the tension in the neck (if you were clamping the bullet in a vice and wanging the case to and fro that'd be different!)
Simply re-seat your bullets my friend and, please, the head is the opposite end of the case from the mouth which is at the end of the neck. The projectile is a bullet.

[Cruinneas]

My apologies for any confusion to some about the subject of this thread. Most answers seemed to understand that i was referring to the bullets by my asking about re-seating the "head", and while i used the term head i also used the term bullet. It's a common thing for bullets to be referred to as heads where i'm from (however incorrect that may be) however i can see why other that stick rigidly to the proper naming of items may be confused. So again my apologies.

Allow me to clarify. I pulled the bullets from rounds i had made up. I tweaked the charge, and re-seated the bullets. I then proceeded to test at 1,000 yards with decent to good results indicating that pulling the bullets seemed to have no effect on accuracy/performance.