New to the reloading game.. Just FL sized once fired brass and evidently bumped the shoulders back 8 thou on approximately 30 pieces of lapua brass... Am I ok to reload these again or am I better off trashing those?
excessive shoulder bump?
- Thread starter Centex Reload
- Start date
I've done it in a bolt gun. Just have to load a little lighter than normal. If it was on several firings I'd say can it but once fired shouldn't cause any issue
I had all kinds of fits on this second batch.. I'd find that 2 thou bump and the next case would be 3.5.. Then I'm backing off and workin my way down..I never tightened the lock ring due to all the adjustments made. Not all of them are 8 thou... just the few that i royally screwed up. Most of them are right at 5-5.5 thou bump. I've got some factory hornady that sits at 1.533 and all of my 5.5 thou bumped is coming in at 1.532... I think I'll be ok on those, but I'm just going to trash the others that are more excess.
I'd be more nervous about running it in a gas gun than a bolt gun. If you think about it there's people who do it all the time not knowing what they are doing. Eventually you'll get head separation problems but not on once fired brass.
There's nothing wrong with the brass once you get it back to fire formed so throwing them in the trash for no reason means you might as well pull $30 out of your wallet and throw it in the garbage.
What Press? What dies? What gun are you shooting this out of?
Run us through your die set up, and sizing process from start to finish. Maybe we can help you fix the issue.
As far as running them, I think you're fine, especially on once fired. Set your calipers to 8 thou and see how small that is. Just don't make it a habit and I'm sure you'll be good. I would NOT trash once fired lapua brass lol. Someone would probably buy them from you.
Pull your calipers and see what 3k actually is. You're talking about a piece of hair thick. Now I wouldn't make a habit of that but a once fired won't have any issue.
I would advise always tighten your lock ring after an adjustment. I'm not sure how that loose lock ring came to be the thought but the lock ring keeps it all where it needs to be. Each time you size on a loose die it'll shift a little. 2-8 k seems a large dispersion. When I size I do what I can to keep all within 1k. I'll have 3 piles. About 85% on my desired HS, 10% at 1-1.5k, and 5% at 2k dispersion.
Mec Marksman, Hornady match grade dies, Tikka CTR 6.5 creed
I do not have my dies set up in the lock-n-load bushing so i set them each time. As far at the process goes all I do is touch the shell holder and back off about a half turn and work my way down. I thought I might have been using a little too much case wax but from what I read that would've left dented shoulders and none of mine are dented. As I said earlier, I was all over the place with moving the die in and out and never screwed down the lock ring. I appreciate you chiming in.. any and all advice is appreciate.
My bad, I thought you were asking about how not to get that much variation...but that was just the back story, the real question was whether you could use the brass.. got it lol.
I use Imperial Sizing Wax. I clean my die out every 20-30 cases because it does build up in there. You will kind of know when you need to clean the die because you'll go a while with ideal sizings then you will start getting some significant diviation. You also don't need alot per case.
You’re fine to use brass. Most virgin to fired move .005 or so. Some move even more.
Work on your lubing and sizing consistency in the mean time.
Work on your lubing and sizing consistency in the mean time.
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