Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Crushing shoulders while seating

I am loading 6.5 Creedmoor with 130 grain Accubonds and for some reason I am crushing the shoulders of some of the brass while seating. I have crushed three out of 20. I am using new Lapua brass that have been chamfered and I have the seating die backed out a full rotation so as not to crimp while seating.
Any ideas are appreciated.

Sometimes the sizing die makes the neck tension too tight. Should be 2-3 thousands. Might be 4-5 thousands too much.

Or might need to trim brass.

Man, those look like triple venturi shoulders.😁

By having the die backed out a full turn with new cases, you’re probably not dealing with case length being too long or the die contacting the shoulder. My guess would be that the expander button is not opening the case mouth enough, especially since you’re seating a boattail bullet with a chamfered case mouth.

I just thought about it and if they’re new cases, before the first loading try running the expander through the necks if you aren’t already doing so. Don’t resize them, just push the expander buttons through the necks.

There looks to be a pretty good ring on the bullets from the seater. It looks like way too much neck tension to me too. Why I don't know. Have you measured your necks pre and post sizing?

Are you SURE that the die is not contacting the neck? ie over crimping? If not the necks are too tight or maybe they missed annealing. Run them over the expander or use some lube.
Let us know what you find.

The striations on the case neck suggest something is wrong with the die, it should not contact the neck

I'd suggest using a VLD (very low drag) chamfering tool, makes seating bullets much easier. Try one you'll like it.

Sorry if this too simplistic of an answer, but we dont know each other & you may be a new reloader.

Seating die is backed out a full rotation from where?

Touching the shellholder or touching the case neck with the ram at the top of the stroke?

The picture shows what look like chunks of bullet jacket rolled up just above the case neck. Crimping before full seating sure seems like a possible diagnosis. From here it could be a deburring thing too.

Do you have any measuring tools?

Back the die way off, take a sized case and put it in the shell holder. Run the ram all the way up to the top of the up stroke, screw the die down untill you just feel it touch the case and then back it off 1/4 turn and lock the die ring now Adjust your seating stem now for your seat depth of the bullet.
Measure a sized neck, now measure loaded round thats close to your nk tension, I run as much as .005 on some of my hunting rifles with absolutely no problem with consistent bullet seating.

I checked the adjustment of the seating die in the die ring (Forster Co-ax) by doing as suggested. I put a sized case in the jaws and lowered the handle, bringing the ram to the top of the stroke. There is ample clearance between the die and case which leads me to believe I am not crimping before seating.
I am using is a Redding premium die set with a FL and seating die. I also took measurements of a FL sized case at the neck and compared to a loaded round that wasn’t damaged in the seating process.





At this point I think there may be too much neck tension while Fl sizing.
Could this issue be related to running a compressed load?

Have you sized the cases, if so you didn’t mention that in the first post, you said it was new brass

Yes all cases are new and FL sized

I recently ran into an issue with the shoulders expanding as I seated flat base bullets in once fired 308 brass necked to 7-08. The problem was neck tension. Which I cured by annealing all of the brass in a propane torch flame.

Bevel the case mouth very slightly using a neck expanding mandrel adjusted so it barely contacts the front edge of the case mouth. This assumes that all case are the same length.

You may need to lube the front edge as well. Use graphite.

What does a loaded round measure on the neck?

Go to wally world and buy a cheap azzed RCBS FL die set. Learn to adjust it and load till your hearts content.

To eliminate the easy, have you made sure the bullets are 0.264"?

If it does turn out to be an adjustment issue then it's just as easy to fix with the dies he has now.

I had a set of new Redding die and was instantly having that problem. They had put the wrong expander ball in it. Called them and they sent the new one out. Cured. Edk