If I were to pull some bullets, would I need to size the case again before I load them back up? Just curious about neck tension. They are .308 in Lapua brass.
- Thread starter Jackcrow73
- Start date
I wrote about handloading for about twenty five years and have loaded literally hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Yes, after pulling bullets, you need to neck-size your cases.
There is no need to full-length size, just deal with the necks. This will give you consistent neck tension when you seat the new bullets.
By the way, several years ago I did an extensive test once on pulled bullets. In firing over 1,000 rounds, 500 new bullets out of the box and 500 pulled ones, the accuracy was the same for both lots (actually, the pulled ones shoot very slightly better than the new bullets). I know that the pulled bullets look a bit neck-scraped, but they will shoot just fine.
God Bless,
Steve Timm
Yes, after pulling bullets, you need to neck-size your cases.
There is no need to full-length size, just deal with the necks. This will give you consistent neck tension when you seat the new bullets.
By the way, several years ago I did an extensive test once on pulled bullets. In firing over 1,000 rounds, 500 new bullets out of the box and 500 pulled ones, the accuracy was the same for both lots (actually, the pulled ones shoot very slightly better than the new bullets). I know that the pulled bullets look a bit neck-scraped, but they will shoot just fine.
God Bless,
Steve Timm
No. If you had good neck tension before, you will still have it
M
milo 2.0
Guest
I'm with Steve, touch up the necks, for accuracy reasons, you can shoot them safely if you don't have a neck die.
Timm,
What are your thoughts on pull marks? Do they have a quantifiable effect on accuracy? I.E. light vs heavy pull marks, given the same load and firing conditions?
What are your thoughts on pull marks? Do they have a quantifiable effect on accuracy? I.E. light vs heavy pull marks, given the same load and firing conditions?
I wrote for Handloader, The Rifle, Guns & Ammo and the last fifteen years for Varmint Hunter Magazine ... plus the lead-ins in almost all of the Nosler Manuals. Handloading has been an integral part of my life.
One thing a writer needs for an article is "the hook." At one time, I thought I could get an article out of the pulled bullet thing, but I never actually wrote it.
I described my test-fire above. The rifle was a full-house custom .223 Ackley with a Krieger barrel. I pulled some of the bullets using an inetia puller by RCBS and the last half or so using an RCBS collet puller. Later on, I even did a smaller test by leaving off the expander plug (Redding dies), in an attempt to get the most buggered-up possible drag marks on the bullets.
In all cases, the pulled bullets shot very, very slightly tighter groups than the virgin bullets. The difference probably wasn't enough to be statistically significant, but it was there. The rifle shot pretty consistent aggregates (four five-shot groups) of .45" with the control load and the pulled bullets usually shot in the low-4s ... call it .41". The REALLY buggered bullets shot slightly better.
I was on a prairie dog shot, Red Mist out of Glenrock, WY, a few years ago and, as usual, Johnny Barsness was my roomie. I mentioned the test and he said that he'd done the same thing. And his pulled bullets shot at least as good and probably better.
It's a small thing, but useful knowledge. Just like "ironing out" the base of sticky .308 cases with a .45ACP Tungsten-Carbide sizer or sticky .223s with a .38/357 Tungsten-Carbide sizer. Little things are handy to know in handloading.
God Bless,
Steve
Very interesting info, Steve, especially the "ironing out" bit at the end. Thanks for sharing.
So, if I don't have a neck sizing die should I just take the decapping pin out of my FL die and run them through that? The brass is primed, obviously.
Jack,
Yep, that will work and I've done it lots of times. Just pull the decapping pin and you'll be fine. HOWEVER, be sure to lube the cases a bit ... just because they've previously been full-length sized doesn't mean that they won't stick.
You'll be fine.
Oh a little addendum to the above. My really good friend, writer Johnny Barsness is a nut about using a Juenke bullet concentricity spinner. The Juenke measures slight inbalances between bullets. Believe it or not, the collet-pulled bullets measured fabulously consistent. Dang, it almost make a guy want to seat bullets, just to pull them and make them GREAT :grin:
God Bless,
Steve
I appreciate the feedback. Just trying to switch out a bunch of nosler 168's that I had as my hunting load last year. I'm using berger 155 VLD's now which shoot better in my gun.
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