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Bullet Pulling Question
- Thread starter Lovellr653
- Start date
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Lefty7mmstw
Well-Known Member
depends on your neck tension to start with. I've had bullets that were pretty much just tighter than a slip fit. Those you can push/ pull or whatever and you really aren't changing the neck tension. Now, if you are at 2 thou. neck tension possibly with a crimp to boot I'd reset the neck tension and check to make sure you've ironed out the crimp (if used) before you attempt to seat anything.
Lovellr653
Well-Known Member
This is good info. No crimp and light neck tension, I believe my sizing mandrel sets tension at ~1.5 thou but I'll have to confirm that with this batch of brass.
I've used kinetic hammers before to pull projectiles and had the powder ignite so I only use ones that sit in my press
Having made almost any mistake reloading that I could screw up on, I do agree that neck tension matters greatly. My fellow F class competitors use 1.5 to 2 thou neck tension for consistent groups at 900 meters. But remember that we load single shots. If the rifles had magazines, the recoil will move your bullets deeper into the case.
If you are crimping, that is totally different thing. A crimp controls neck tension in a different way.
What caught my eye is the flaws with the bullets??
I hunted with Randy Brooks 30 years ago and spent time learning about his bullets and the quality.
The TSX and TTSX are IMO the best hunting bullet and perform at all reasonable ranges and velocities.
I shoot about 3500 Bergers each year at targets but would never ever use target bullets on game.
Resize your neck (partial or neck die?) if possibleZ
Side note, about 6 years ago I seated f210 instead of f210m in 20 cases. As an experiment, I soaked the 20 cases in a bucket for 2 days. I let them dry for a few house and wiped them down. I then cycled them through my F Class 308 and 19 of the 20 fired.
When I started loading 48 years ago, primers were touchy and easily contaminated. This experiment taught me they are much more rugged than I thought. I don't recommend soaking them in water but it goes to show you that they are not as fussy as I thought they were.
Good luck and let us know your results.
And I only crimp 300 mag and up. Below that, I relay solely on neck tension.
If you are crimping, that is totally different thing. A crimp controls neck tension in a different way.
What caught my eye is the flaws with the bullets??
I hunted with Randy Brooks 30 years ago and spent time learning about his bullets and the quality.
The TSX and TTSX are IMO the best hunting bullet and perform at all reasonable ranges and velocities.
I shoot about 3500 Bergers each year at targets but would never ever use target bullets on game.
Resize your neck (partial or neck die?) if possibleZ
Side note, about 6 years ago I seated f210 instead of f210m in 20 cases. As an experiment, I soaked the 20 cases in a bucket for 2 days. I let them dry for a few house and wiped them down. I then cycled them through my F Class 308 and 19 of the 20 fired.
When I started loading 48 years ago, primers were touchy and easily contaminated. This experiment taught me they are much more rugged than I thought. I don't recommend soaking them in water but it goes to show you that they are not as fussy as I thought they were.
Good luck and let us know your results.
And I only crimp 300 mag and up. Below that, I relay solely on neck tension.
really ? so what happened after the powder ignited ? did the kinetic hammer blow up or turn into a torch ? did you have to use a fire extinguisher to put out the flames ? Do you have pics of the burned out kinetic hammer that ignited the powder ?
I have so many questions, please tell us when & what happened so we can avoid a similar situation
Lovellr653
Well-Known Member
Great info. My bullet puller should arrive today, I'll be sure to post an update.
Carey Farmer
Well-Known Member
I pull bullets all the time during load development. Have never been able to tell the difference between cases that have had bullets set once vs. set twice (unless I did a crap job of chamfering, and scratched up the bullets while seating them).
Well-understood behavior of metals is consistent with this observation. When you re-size the neck of a fired case, typically you yield the brass squeezing down on diameter. In this context "yield" just means you deform it enough that it doesn't spring back completely to the starting diameter. Then when you expand with a ball or mandrel, you'll typically use a mandrel large enough to open up the case neck enough that it doesn't spring back all the way to the post-resizing diameter. Then when you set the bullet, unless your expander diameter was the same as your bullet diameter, you yield it again.
But when you pull a bullet and then reset the same diameter bullet, the case necks move in the "elastic" range. In this context, "elastic" just means you don't yield the metal. That is, when you pull the bullet, it springs back smaller a thousandths or two, depending on its hardness. When you set a new bullet of the same diameter, the case neck doesn't yield: if you pull that second bullet, you'll find that the case neck springs back to the exact same diameter it did when you pulled the first bullet.
The key here is that the only neck tension the bullet actually "feels" is the difference between neck diameter with the bullet seated, and the spring-back diameter when the bullet is pulled.
You can measure all of this to confirm what your brass is doing. The bottom line is that neck tension shouldn't change when you pull and reset bullets, unless your chamfering is inadequate and scratches up the bullet during seating.
Well-understood behavior of metals is consistent with this observation. When you re-size the neck of a fired case, typically you yield the brass squeezing down on diameter. In this context "yield" just means you deform it enough that it doesn't spring back completely to the starting diameter. Then when you expand with a ball or mandrel, you'll typically use a mandrel large enough to open up the case neck enough that it doesn't spring back all the way to the post-resizing diameter. Then when you set the bullet, unless your expander diameter was the same as your bullet diameter, you yield it again.
But when you pull a bullet and then reset the same diameter bullet, the case necks move in the "elastic" range. In this context, "elastic" just means you don't yield the metal. That is, when you pull the bullet, it springs back smaller a thousandths or two, depending on its hardness. When you set a new bullet of the same diameter, the case neck doesn't yield: if you pull that second bullet, you'll find that the case neck springs back to the exact same diameter it did when you pulled the first bullet.
The key here is that the only neck tension the bullet actually "feels" is the difference between neck diameter with the bullet seated, and the spring-back diameter when the bullet is pulled.
You can measure all of this to confirm what your brass is doing. The bottom line is that neck tension shouldn't change when you pull and reset bullets, unless your chamfering is inadequate and scratches up the bullet during seating.
What caused the powder to ignite?
Lovellr653
Well-Known Member
That's very insightful, thanks. I will take measurements to compare before and after and report back.
Not sure but it was 72 gr of imr7828
I'd like to know that too ?
RD57
Well-Known Member
This is this case for owning a neck sizer die. If pulled with a kinetic bullet puller I highly recommend re-sizing the neck. As an experiment I unloaded 30 cases (given to me) and put them on my concentricity gauge and they were all out of round. With a collet type bullet puller there is very little runout, but I still prefer to resize the neck.
