Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Reloading ? Why are my cases collapsing when seating bullets ?

I have been a casual reloader for many years and never run into this problem. When seating bullets in .223 brass my case is collapsing and forming a ring around the top of the brass right where the body meets the shoulder. What am I doing wrong and how do I prevent this? Thanks for any ideas you might have for correcting this situation.

Not an expert or a gunwriter, but are you crimping at the same time as seating the bullets?

Geno

Are you chamfering Case mouth? I use the VLD tool

If you are not prematurely crimping by having your seating die set to low, then i would look at these questions. What is the diameter of the expander ball? Doe this happen with specific cases or bullets? How well are the case necks chamfered?

The cases are chamfered but my seating die may be set too low. I'll check and see what happens. Thanks.

That was my first thought.

Ask me how I know that's a problem.

Good luck,

Geno

It was the die being set too low that was causing the problem. It didn't,take you guys long to figure out what was wrong .I appreciate your help.

I'm a bit late to the party, but the reason folks are so quick to reply with the correct answer(s) is we have all done the exact same thing.

Not many mistakes to make that some, or most, of us haven't already made.

Ed

If you get to noticing there are powder kernels scattered on your bench, but you don't remember spilling any, make sure you put primers in the cases before you charge more of them.

Scattered on the bench? That's what the shell holder trays are for, to catch the powder kernels that fall through the hole.

Jeez, do I have to explain everything?

Y'all makin' me laugh!

Geno

But I had a few that got all the way to the bullet seating stage, so they were being handled. You see, 3031 logs don't flow all that freely out of the flash holes.

Another important advantage of spherical powders.

4831 is not apt to leak out as much.

If you wear shorts while reloading you'll be able to feel the powder trickling down onto your bare thigh....

+1 on the VLD chamfering tool, the gentle angle makes bullet seating go much smoother.

Since I"m an expert at loading and have been since my teens with no mistakes, I also hear tell that most folks eventually stick a case in the size die too.

On a serious note, one of the first thigns I bought was a stuck case remover.. actually took a number of years, but yes I finally needed it...

My first donut crimps were 300 wtby ammo.

Luck has it most dud ammo I"ve done, IE no primer, dud primer, forgot powder, somehow ended up in my wifes competition ammo... she sure gave me the evil eye. And it was NOT intentional, at that time I could still beat her without extra effort> LOL

Lets see, powder dripping out of cases- check
No pimer, check, obviously, see above
no powder, check
Oops, didn't realize you shouldn't use cast bullet data for jacketed- check and bought a totally new bolt for that rifle.
Stuck case, check
forgot to empty powder measure or at least put label on it and yep... time flew by and no idea what powder was in there... so tossed it in the flower bed.

That is all I can remember on short notice.

I can say, that in the days before you tube, and having no experience at loading, a teenager was probably not the best age to start loading, didn't read all instructions or totally understand, no mentor, dad had never done it... learned lots by trial and error... maybe I should have started later or with a mentor... 14 or so might have been a bit young.

That said, reminds me of shotgun shells... it took me some years to understand why crimps over closed or didn't close all the way and the importance of volume vs powder/shot and wad shapes/sizes in loads... as I understood more "mechanical" things, I understood more things on shotgun shells.

Now it really seems looking back, I wasn't dangerous but might have been close to stupid...