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Crushed case neck

IdahoSpud

Sergeant of the Hide
Full Member
Minuteman
Jul 20, 2020
210
179
What stupid mistake did I make here? I’ve reloaded thousands of 62 grn 5.56 rounds for plinking and never had this happen I just tried to load up some 75 grn Berger VLDs into Lapua brass for my Tikka and this happened.
 

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Nope, chamfered inside and out. I thought maybe it was just a bad chamfer or tight neck so I tried another. Same thing.

Do you have any bullets left that never did this before? Try loading one of those in your batch of cases. Also check with a caliper the bullet's diameter between ones that work and those that don't. Maybe a clue will appear after.
 
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did you have the crimp set on your die....way too low?...I no longer crimp with the seating die....I use a seperate die.
I've never adjusted the crimp. Would the difference between 62 and 75s cause an earlier crimp? I guess I can just pull it and see if that fixes it. In fact, what am I doing crimping at all.
 
What dies do you use?
Lee Collet Dies. If the collet in the die has been collapsed, the case neck can not clearly enter the collet area. This results in a crushed and/or buckled case. This can be avoided by not operating the die without a case in it. If this happens, it is necessary to remove the collet and pry the collet leaves back so that they stay apart when inserted back into the die. The ID of the die body will cause the leaves to stay uniformity apart.
 
If bullet diameter and neck sizing have been ruled out, I might try backing the seating die out a ways and see what changes. I've had something similar happen, but it's been awhile and I don't remember what I found was messed up. It will not doubt come to me at about 3am....
 
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I swear it felt no different than the last ones. I went slow on the second one.

With an average press like an RCBS IV....there is so much leverage...you really don't know you've screwed up like that...until you see what you did wrong.....necks are soft....and will deform quite easily.....most dies do not support the neck at all...that's why on my precision loads...I use a LE Wilson arbor press seat die...that supports every part of my cartridge.
 
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With an average press like an RCBS IV....there is so much leverage...you really don't know you've screwed up like that...until you see what you did wrong.....necks are soft....and will deform quite easily.....most dies do not support the neck at all...that's why on my precision loads...I use a LE Wilson arbor press seat die...that supports every part of my cartridge.
Yeah RCBS. I felt nothing other than the normal resistance of seating a bullet.


What dies do you use?
Lee Collet Dies. If the collet in the die has been collapsed, the case neck can not clearly enter the collet area. This results in a crushed and/or buckled case. This can be avoided by not operating the die without a case in it. If this happens, it is necessary to remove the collet and pry the collet leaves back so that they stay apart when inserted back into the die. The ID of the die body will cause the leaves to stay uniformity apart.
RCBS die. I guess I'll try one more without crimp and see if it happens.
 
Haha well look at that

If I spin it out it’s not seating deep enough
 

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I did this to a 6.5 cm once, long ago, because my seater die was screwed too far in. I turned the die body out a few turns and went deeper with the seating plug. I was also dealing with a “donut” issue that led me to keep pushing as the resistance (seating pressure) went up above normal...but it wasn’t so much that I panicked. There’s a lot of advantage with a rock chucker press. View attachment 7490059
I would have that one saved and in prominent view on the "I CAN fuck things up" shelf! That's fairly impressive right there. KUDOS!!!
I can't say that I have done anything like that but I HAVE fucked up, big time.
Long ago, I had a shotshell reloader set up in the huge closet I shared with 3 brothers. Our dad had been killed in Vietnam and I really had no real mentorship. I learned by reading and trial and error. I don't, to this day, know for sure what happened but I had about 20 primers in a primer feed tube ignite each other. They launched into the wall and ceiling and caught some shit on fire. I quickly put out the fire but let me say that it freaked me out. It freaked my mom out, too. I was banned from reloading for several months until we were over at a neighbors house for a birthday party and the neighbor man told my mom that shit happens and that he'd be sure to come over and make sure I had shit set up okay. He inspected, nothing wrong...don't know? He became a little more interested in what my younger brothers and I were up to after that. GREAT guy!
That is not the singular fuck up I've done and I feel like I'm not done just yet since I'm still inhaling O2.
 
I did something similar attempting to seat and crimp 300 bo in one step. I now seat everything and go back and crimp as a separate step.
 
No judgment, but why crimp a bolt gun?
In fact, what am I doing crimping at all.

I don't crimp for a bolt gun. I normally use a Forster Bench Rest Ultra that doesn't even let you crimp. It's been so long I forgot how a normal die crimp even works.

I called that a night and didn't load any more considering my brain was that fried.
 
I did this to a 6.5 cm once, long ago, because my seater die was screwed too far in. I turned the die body out a few turns and went deeper with the seating plug. I was also dealing with a “donut” issue that led me to keep pushing as the resistance (seating pressure) went up above normal...but it wasn’t so much that I panicked. There’s a lot of advantage with a rock chucker press. View attachment 7490059

WOW a NEW wild cat round tell us all about it. How many fps are you getting. Look like you could get 5000 fps out that round. Might get one barrel and try it out.😁😁
 
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