HI
I must not have set my FLS correctly and I have brass that is once fired, re-sized and then loaded and now it won’t chamber. I can get the bolt almost down but not enough for the rifle to go into battery.
I have a redding body die to suit can I just re-size the body on a loaded round without putting myself in danger.

I would really prefer not to have to inetia pull 520 rounds of loaded ammo.

thanks

later
P

Ogre,

As the saying goes "Its better to be safe then sorry"

Or as I'd put it "You have a whole life time to waste on things, so why be unsafe and risk losing that whole lifetime with one act"

Dimitri

Until you actually know what the problem is just body sizing would be a poor idea even if they weren't loaded. Have you checked such things as case length, OAL..........the way I see it you already made one mistake, trying to short cut the solution potentially creates another huge one.

Start pulling bullets.

I would pull the bullets on a few rounds, dump the powder and try resizing without the decapping pin and see how that works out. Something is wrong and that needs to be determined and corrected. All the best...
Gil

Sounds as if you didn't lub the inside of the case neck well enough and stretched the case as the sizer button came back up through the neck. Start pull'n

ogre wrote:

HI I must not have set my FLS correctly and I have brass that is once fired, re-sized and then loaded and now it won’t chamber. I can get the bolt almost down but not enough for the rifle to go into battery. I have a redding body die to suit can I just re-size the body on a loaded round without putting myself in danger. I would really prefer not to have to inetia pull 520 rounds of loaded ammo. thanks later P

Ogre - Just remember before you resize loaded rounds that suicide is painless, well most of the time. Get that bullet puller and start working.

Clearly your going to have to pull those bullets. Before you pull them all, go to an industrial supply house and get some "Prussian Blue" or machinist blue it's sometimes called. Simply paint it on a couple of your reloads, covering the entire case an bullet, let it dry and then try and camber the cartridge. The Prussian blue will come off easily where the case is binding or is indeed, as mentioned before, your OAL is too long and the bullet will have the blue removed where it's hitting the rifling.

popgun wrote:

Start pulling bullets.

Amen Chris.

Ogre old mate, I would totally dismantle one round and check each step of your reloading process. Grant has suggested using Prussian Blue, don't know if it is available here in Australia, but I know that good old fashioned smoke is. Use either a carbide smoke pot or a piece of flannette rolled up tight and pushed into the neck of an old case, soak it in gun oil, light it and use it to smoke a case (don't do this at the reloading bench !!) Chambering the empty case will rub the soot off showing you where the problem lies.....hopefully. If everything is ok then seat a bullet as normal and repeat the process. Once you have identified the problem then start pulling them bullets and correct it mate.

Reloading can be very theraputic and relaxing. Identifiy and correcting small problems is also very satisfying.... even if it is a little tedious.

Cheers, Vince

Vince,

Its probably just as easy to get Prussian Blue in Australia as anywhere else

Its still heavily used by machinists so maybe a tool supply house would have it

Dimitri

I think the same as what others have said............. it is time to pull out the bullet puller and go to work. Find out what happened and correct it before seating the bullets again.

ogre, I think the potential hazard of sizing loaded rounds in your body die is over rated, but maybe not.

Think about it a minute - to set off a round requires that something impact the primer but there is NOTHING in sizing that touches the primer nor is there anything that could touch it.

Also, generating the pressure to really shoot a bullet requires that there be enough resistance to the bullet's movement for high pressure to build. Yeah, your body die will contain the case but the neck will be unsupported and the bullet will be free from a bore and rifleing. So, even IF a round should go off, it is unlikely to do more than spit the bullet out at some really low speed. That's unlikely to be really hazardous unless you were looking straight down the die's "bore", so to speak, and that's unlikely too.

If I had 20 rounds to correct I'd use the puller. If I had your 520 rounds to correct I'd likely do it with the bullets in place.

BUT, this OPINION is only mine and gives full value for what it costs you.

He still doesn't know why they don't chamber....................

Ogre,
First, is this a claw extractor, like a Mauser? If so are you feeding from the magazine?

Did you fire the rounds in the same gun before? If so, the sizing is not the problem, your bullets are set to far out.

If the cases were never fired before, they should be to spc, as mfg and the bullets are set to far out.

If you got these cases after being fired in another chamber, you could have all manner of problems, unless you full length sized the brass to start with. However, if you did full length size and had no problem with resistance, your bullets are set out to far.

If you resized the cases and had a lot of resistance at the web, the web is enlarged, the cases still might not fit in your gun if you have a tight chamber.

Take one round, a black magic marker and paint the bullet. Insert the round and remove. If you see bright marks around the ogive (curve to bearing surface) you are to long. Seat the bullet deeper by a half turn of the seater plug. Paint black and go again, if still marks around bullet, set 1/8 turn, paint, etc untill the bolt closes and no marks appear.

If you have no marks on the bullet to start with, paint the case about 1/2 inch from the rim, all around, insert the round, bright ring, it ain't sized right for your chamber.

If no joy there, paint the edge of the shoulder where it joins the body. If you crimped the rounds you might have pushed the shoulder back.

If you have a body die for a neck bushing sizer, that is a neck size die, intended for your fired brass, from your gun only. If the body die will not touch the neck, without the bushings, it probably will not size the body either.

If all else fails I would look at an RCBS bullet puller die with collet. All that beating with the inerta puller might get you into your third or fourth puller, before you are done. The heads break off at the handle....
Ed

Hey WNCCHESTER... You have the right size to answer as you did, I agree
but most on this site would rather Google search than try something unique. I give you credit for being forthcoming...good luck...hope to hear from you...REGARDS... SHOOTIST