Partially Sized Rounds Question

victorj19

I finished a batch of a couple hundred fully loaded 223s. I dropped them into a case gauge and found that some were a little oversize. Rather than pull the bullets and resize, would it be safe to remove the plug and rod in the sizing die and resize load rounds? This assumes that the die has a plug and not just a rod.

Thanks,

Jim

Ray B

The problem with that is that most sizing dies (those that size the neck with the button being pulled through it) reduce the neck to a smaller diameter than when the bullet is in place. As such, pushing the case into the sizing die (with the primer punch/nect button removed will have a problem when the neck gets to the shoulder of the die and neither wants to give.

charliemeyer007

Will they chamber in the gun? If not then the easy way is to pull the bullets, dump the powder and resize without the de-capping pin. Be careful with the lube.

Mobuck

it is not a recommended practice to attempt to resize loaded cartridges.
If, by some chance, the primer pops you have the equivalent of a "chambered" round within your press. I don't know the final result of this but it just can't be good for anything in the area.
You can pull the bullets and salvage the powder prior to sizing w/o a neck expander. If using boattail bullets and a good mouth chamfer, you can load as normal. Flatbased bullets may catch on the case mouth if the neck expander is not used.

jepp2

quote:I dropped them into a case gauge and found that some were a little oversize.

I'm sure you already checked this, but any kind of nick on the rim of the head of the case will give the indication of the shoulder not being set back sufficiently. When fired in an AR, I find at least 25% of the brass has nicks. So I always insert the brass head first into the gage, and if it doesn't slide in easily, I don't count on it to give me a try indication of headspace.