Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Handloads made from "pulled" ammo without resizing....

Has anyone tried making ammo with brass that simply came from pulling the bullets, emptying the powder, seating a new bullet over a revised powder and charge?

I ask this because I am thinking of doing the same with about 200 pieces of 270 brass which were given to me as assembled ammo, but the projectiles are not what I need for hunting. I know the primers are CCI standard LR so they are a known factor.

My concern is the neck tension. Will the fact they've not been at least neck sized after the bullet was pulled affect neck tension to the extent accuracy will be affected or would it be ok?

Would use of the Lee FCD after seating ameliorate any such effect?

Thoughts and experience (if anyone has any of either) thanks?

- Bob

I take out the decapping pin and neck size after pulling bullets from cases..

Also visually inspect inside the case to make sure all the powder is out before reusing.. Shrapnel uses a lighter, btw..

Me too. Might want to make sure they were resized right and cycle through your rifle.

I've pulled bullets before, recharged with powder, and seated new bullets.
First, make sure all the old powder is out of the case- some of the older Weatherby ammo I've pulled bullets from had powder grains which stuck hard to the inside of the cases, requiring something like a straightened paper clip to dislodge.
Second, remove the decapping pin from the size die, and resize the necks.
This is a great way of salvaging ammo with bullet types or weights you will never use again.

I just went throught this very thing a couple weeks ago with some 20 yr old ammo I had made up with the old barnes xbullets in a 243. I wanted to reclaim the cases for my ruger varminter. That old barnes data was pretty warm too....so I wanted to pull the 90 and 100 grainers and drop 70-80 grainers right back in.
First off...some of the bullets had bonded a bit to the cases. So I used a seater die to seat them just a hair deeper and crack them loose from the bond. This made pulling them with the collet puller easier.
All the cases...even ones that had been shot 4x's had at least .002" grip left after pulling with the collet puller. I was a bit surprised and didn't expect this whole thing to go that well but it did and my converstion was really ez.
I did dump a few shells and can say that I tapped the base of the shell with a plastic lee dipper and that dislodged any stuck powder...but I don't thing much was really stuck.
Had I needed more neck tension my idea was to take the mandrel out of my lee collet die and VERY carefully adjust it so just the collet was moving the neck enough to get a grip of about .003". I've done this before making slip fit bullets for checking oal in different guns so was pretty sure it would be ez to do.....but very glad I didn't have to bother.

yep used quite a few LC 5.56 pulled brass and I simply use a lee collet die in the 1st slot on my 550 to fix any bad necks

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbth...01045/all/Anyone_use_a_leecollet_neck_di

Pull em and reseat new bullets, no sizing necessary

This.

Above is plenty of good advise
sometimes you can get away with just reseating a new bullet. but at times you will collapse the shoulder.

Thanks folks.

- Bob

Load and go, IME

My vote too.

This is the correct way to do it, either with a neck or collet sizer.

I tried this in some super accurate custom rifles, if you don't size the necks, you will have inconsistent pressures. However, the level of accuracy that you are expecting is critical on making your decision.

Good luck