Seating force

[NJRaised]

Reloading 1x fired federal 223 brass.

My process:
Deprimed
Tumbled
Annealed
Sized
Mandreled
Tumble
Trim/deburr/chamfer

I’m seating 77smks, and the amount of force required to seat bullets varies from case to case. Some slide in super easy, some take some effort.

I am not brushing necks. Just leave residue carbon from tumbling .

Any ideas what is causing this? I’m annealing and using a mandrel. Is it just federal brass?

 

[spife7980]

You annealed, brush the necks.
What are your measurements and how consistent are they? Is it the result of differences in neck thickness and concentricity?

 

[NJRaised]

You annealed, brush the necks.
What are your measurements and how consistent are they? Is it the result of differences in neck thickness and concentricity?

Very likely could be the inconsistency of brass thickness. I generally use starline brass for my bolt gun, and seating force is generally about the same from round.

This federal is inconsistent from round to round as far as seating force goes. But I’m still annealing and running a mandrel.

As far as brushing goes… do you recommend brushing right after annealing or before seating bullets. I tumble after annealing to remove any oxidation, and then tumble again after prepping brass, and have always left the residue carbon to aid in seating. But I haven’t made an effort to brush, yet.

 

[straightshooter1]

Reloading 1x fired federal 223 brass.

My process:
Deprimed
Tumbled
Annealed
Sized
Mandreled
Tumble
Trim/deburr/chamfer

I’m seating 77smks, and the amount of force required to seat bullets varies from case to case. Some slide in super easy, some take some effort.

I am not brushing necks. Just leave residue carbon from tumbling .

Any ideas what is causing this? I’m annealing and using a mandrel. Is it just federal brass?

What is your annealing process?

I assume you're flame annealing??? If so, what's your indicator for the right amount of time for the cases being in the fame (how hot the necks get)?

 

[JerkyFreak]

An often overlooked cause is uneven chamfering of the necks. A check would be to pull a round that seated easy and one that seated with more force and compare the two. If there are more gouges in latter as compared to the other, that could then be it.

 

[MarshallDodge]

Federal brass is fairly soft to begin with. Do you feel varying pressure when using the mandrel?

It could be the annealing is burning off the slick inside the neck and you are feeling that. You could test that by spraying a little One Shot or a very thin application of a case lube using a Q-tip.

 

[spife7980]

As far as brushing goes… do you recommend brushing right after annealing or before seating bullets. I tumble after annealing to remove any oxidation, and then tumble again after prepping brass, and have always left the residue carbon to aid in seating. But I haven’t made an effort to brush, yet.

I recommend brushing after you have done all the processing, I do it after it comes out of the tumbler the final time and I have chamfered case mouths. I can tell a difference still by hand if I don’t. It’s like it smears it around even or knocks down the high spots that vibratory rumbling alone does not.

 

[Baron23]

Reloading 1x fired federal 223 brass.

My process:
Deprimed
Tumbled
Annealed
Sized
Mandreled
Tumble
Trim/deburr/chamfer

I’m seating 77smks, and the amount of force required to seat bullets varies from case to case. Some slide in super easy, some take some effort.

I am not brushing necks. Just leave residue carbon from tumbling .

Any ideas what is causing this? I’m annealing and using a mandrel. Is it just federal brass?

After you mandrel, have you ever actually measured I.D. of a set of cases to see is they are consistent? Like with pin gauges?

And what do you use to trim/chamfer?

 

[NJRaised]

What is your annealing process?

I assume you're flame annealing??? If so, what's your indicator for the right amount of time for the cases being in the fame (how hot the necks get)?

Amp annealer

 

[NJRaised]

After you mandrel, have you ever actually measured I.D. of a set of cases to see is they are consistent? Like with pin gauges?

And what do you use to trim/chamfer?

Not with pin gauges, no. Bc this brass is originally factory ammo, it was very short, no need to trim. I have just been giving each piece a few turn with a hand chamfer tool. Generally I use my giraud , but in this case bc of how short the brass is (1.740”) I’m just doing it by hand.

 

[marchboom]

I would definitely use a nylon brush on the necks before running a mandrel into them. And then, as stated by Baron23, use pin gauges to check the I.D. of the neck.

Have you fired those rounds that have different seating pressures? Would be interesting to see if there is a difference in group size and ES/SD.

 

[Baron23]

Not with pin gauges, no.

If I may ask, how do you verify I.D. and consistency of same across the cases?

Yes, I know that many just use the expander ball or mandrel of their choice and assume that they get the interference fit they want and consistency of that fit across a set prep'd cases.

But after getting a set of pin gauges (Vermont Tool from Travers....about $4 each), I have found the fallacy of such faith.

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If you really haven't measured the I.D. with a proper tool, you can't really say anything definitive about the interference fit, IMO.

Best of luck.

Cheers