Crushing .223 Cases

[Hawk in WY]

I haven't had this problem before.

Lake City 223 cases were prepped as usual, sized with a Hornady sizing die, and an expander ball. They may not have been annealed.

Nosler Custom Competition 77-grain bullets are not seating using a Hornady seating die. Comes up hard once past the boat tail and then crushes the case.

I don't trust my micrometer at the third digit after the decimal, but the bullets are measuring 2.235, and the expander ball is 2.20.

15 thou plus a bit of spring back may be my problem, but I have used these dies many times before without any issues.

Does anyone have a .223 Hornady expander ball they could measure for me?

If the dies are not the problem, I will try annealing. I use a Sinclair mandrels for other calibers, but not .223. Maybe it's time to add one to the set.

Any other thoughts?

 

[memilanuk]

Well, your numbers make no sense - 2.235, and 2.20?

Get a new caliper that you trust. Usable ones are cheap. Good ones aren't that expensive.

 

[hlee]

Yeah, it’s some really hard cryptography to figure out. OP inadvertently moved decimal place. Bullets measure 0.2235. Hornady expander ball measures 0.220. 3 thou or neck tension seems right.

How are the cases cleaned? Are you lubing the case necks?

I crushed a couple of 300 BO cases once, but I was attempting to seat and crimp in one operation. Separating seat from crimp resolved the problem. On that note, is your seating die adjusted properly?

 

[Hawk in WY]

Well, your numbers make no sense - 2.235, and 2.20?

Get a new caliper that you trust. Usable ones are cheap. Good ones aren't that expensive.

Fixed it. The bullet is .2235. Mitoyu calipers work for most things.

Yeah, it’s some really hard cryptography to figure out. OP inadvertently moved decimal place. Bullets measure 0.2235. Hornady expander ball measures 0.220. 3 thou or neck tension seems right.

How are the cases cleaned? Are you lubing the case necks?

I crushed a couple of 300 BO cases once, but I was attempting to seat and crimp in one operation. Separating west from crimp resolved the problem. On that note, is your seating die adjusted properly?

Bingo!

I removed the micrometer seating stem, and the case still came up hard in the same place. It was the seating die that was crushing the case, not the seating stem.

The die had to be backed out almost its full length on my Forster press. The die was last used on a Hornady Lock-n-Load. I screwed the seating die down to make contact with the shell plate. That doesn't work.

Thank you.

Returning to regularly scheduled programming.

 

[supercorndogs]

I picture of the crushed cases might be worth a thousand words.