Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles What's the most rounds you've pulled down?

I somehow didn't bump the shoulder back enough on 100 rounds that I recently loaded for my two .243 Win. rifles. Soooo, I spent most of the afternoon whacking them apart with my RCBS puller.
I don't remember how I set up my die initially, but I'll bet I check it from now on.😒

Use a collet die to pull the bullets out. It's much faster. I think the most I've done was about 280 rounds of 8mm mauser that was loaded too hot. Nothing I loaded, but some surplus military schidt.


This was just a little bit of them. When I was done, the canister to the right was full of powder. I had about 2 pounds of powder from those. I use that powder in commercial brass, with those bullets, but about 3 grains less powder. They shoot pretty good in the nephews sporter.

I would probably spend 40 bucks on a body die and go watch football.

What is a body die?

Do collet dies not damage the bullet?

I should probably add that the rifles I'm loading the .243 for are a Browning BAR and a Browning BLR, neither of which are easy to measure headspace in.

I took a fired case that did chamber and measured the shoulder and then resized the rest bumping the shoulder back about 5 thousandths.

Frankford Arsenal pile driver works like a charm and doesn't damage bullets.

If you don't hold the case in the die long enough, or possibly not enough lube,(don't lube the shoulder) when you pull the case out of the die, you're not allowing the shoulder to stay where it belongs, once sized. A quick press stroke doesn't allow the shoulder to stay put and not normalize, otherwise it springs back too much and be all over the place dimensionally . Watch the video and see.

Do your self a favor and buy a Redding competition shell holder kit and stop wasting your time setting up a die. You still need to check HS with a gauge. My Hornady comparator works great.

If the inside of the collet isn't smooth yes. I had to polish all mine. The bullet would drop out but now they do. A body die only body and shoulder sizes and stays away from the neck. Neck size with a Lee Colet die.

PROPERLY annealing a shoulder/neck every firing will prevent any measurable spring back in the sizing die. Shoulders stay exactly where you put 'em....precision reloading 101, basic physics 101, elementary metallurgy 101, logic, reason & common sense 101, etc, etc.

Single stage press?

There's an easy button for setting up a die in a single stage. Once and done. It's outside the box, but it never not works every single time. Course, I'm picky who I share the method with.

Negative. Brass doesn’t always behave the way we want it to. Cut the BS with the 101 crap. And share your idea or get lost.

What’s that supposed to mean ? lol it never not works every single time ? I think your dyslexic!

Yes, single stage press.

I reload a couple thousand rounds per year for my Service Rifle and haven't had a problem, ever, with an ammo malfunction. Except for that one time I put a primer in backwards. 😄
I wasn't saying that I don't know how to set up my dies - just that I don't remember exactly how I set it up initially 6 months ago. Sometimes I raise the ramp until the shell holder touches the die and then turn it an extra 1/4 turn...whatever it takes to get the headspace where I want it.

Hit me up and I'll see if I can help ya out with a shortcut.

But to answer your original question I pulled 300 one time when I switched barrels from an AI chamber back to standard chamber and didn't want to waste those bullets or powder.

Nope. If they are stuck due to cold weld you will have to bump them deeper before pulling them. Inertia pullers on the other hand can cause the cores to separate from the jackets.

And the most I've pulled is about 250 well-crimped 10mm's loaded with lead bullets. Had to use an inertia puller and it took forever. Actually I think I used two pullers cause the first one broke.

300 .223 Rem that I loaded too hot.





P

Properly means consistent neck tension and consistent shoulder bump for consistent head space dimensions. And l know you you hate to see other than your text book results but l get CONSISTENT results believe it or not. And don’t forget, yes, Redding competition shell holders ARE consistently reliable too, believe it or not. Yes the best 75 bucks this troll EVER spent.

Loaded 500 pieces of Speer 223 brass when I got my first AR. Brass was too long, wouldn’t chamber. Some teenagers shot it up in bolt guns for me.

800 rounds of .30-06 loaded for an M1 Garand. They had some of the Winchester primers that were developing pinholes, divoting the boltface.

I had just finished building that Garand, the bolt was NOS, and had 3 divots in it. Winchester replaced the primers and bolt.

I started with an inertia puller, but bought a collet puller real soon, pulled them over a couple weekends.

😳
Those damn Winchester primers aren't worth a fawk. I had the same problem with pierced Win primers in my AR15 when I got started in Service Rifle, ruined a couple of firing pins before someone more experienced told me what was going on.