I have been reloading rifle rounds for about 50 years but have never encountered this problem to this magnitude. I am reloading .260 Remington using Redding type S match dies. I started with new Laupa brass and Sierra 142 and 123 MKs. The brass necks were lubricated with Imperial dry lube and run through the neck sizer with a carbide expander ball. The neck ID was then gererously chamfered. The neck ID measures .262. As I was seating bullets I noticed that it was taking an unusually high force to seat the bullets, something on the order of 20-30 lbs. force on the handle of my Rock Chucker. The powder charge is not compressed. When I checked the lenght to ogive using a Sinclair comparater I see variations in lenght of about .022". After investigating several possibilities. I notice that there is a crimp of varying depth around the circumference of the bullet about .250" from the tip. This is an imprint of the seater plug. There is a direct correlation between the crimp from the plug and the lenght of the round. The deeper the crimp the longer the round.
Obviously the more force used to seat the bullet the deeper the crimp and therefore the longer the round. It gets more interesting. I also have some new Winchester 7mm-08 brass that I necked to .260 using the same technique. These also took an unusual amount of force to seat. I did only five of these. The lenghts on the comparator for these were; 3.227, 3.216, 3.200, 3.209, 3,228. I pulled these bullets using a Forster collet puller. It was all I could do to tighten the collet enought to remove the bullets and then I would have to try three to five times on each round. I could not remove one bullet at all using the puller even after hammering the puller handle as tight as I dared try. I finally raised the round through the empty die hole in the press and clamped a pair of vise grips on the bullet and lowered the round and thereby pulling the bullet. It must have taken about 40 lbs. of force to remove the bullet.
Could there be another problem besides brass necks being too hard? Having two different brands of new brass do the same thing is very strange. The neck thickness of both brands of brass runs from .0145"- .015" on a fairly consistent basis.
Obviously the more force used to seat the bullet the deeper the crimp and therefore the longer the round. It gets more interesting. I also have some new Winchester 7mm-08 brass that I necked to .260 using the same technique. These also took an unusual amount of force to seat. I did only five of these. The lenghts on the comparator for these were; 3.227, 3.216, 3.200, 3.209, 3,228. I pulled these bullets using a Forster collet puller. It was all I could do to tighten the collet enought to remove the bullets and then I would have to try three to five times on each round. I could not remove one bullet at all using the puller even after hammering the puller handle as tight as I dared try. I finally raised the round through the empty die hole in the press and clamped a pair of vise grips on the bullet and lowered the round and thereby pulling the bullet. It must have taken about 40 lbs. of force to remove the bullet.
Could there be another problem besides brass necks being too hard? Having two different brands of new brass do the same thing is very strange. The neck thickness of both brands of brass runs from .0145"- .015" on a fairly consistent basis.