What am I doing wrong???

[chuckhunter]

I am new to reloading so be nice . I'm reloading Hornady brass for the forth time. On some of the bullets when I push down on them they fall into the case. My question is how can I increase neck tension? I am using redding dies. Thanks

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

In almost every case when I've found my dies weren't giving me the result I'd expected, the problems is cured by fishing around in the bottom of the trash basket, finding the instructions and reading them. I usually only take this step after calling customer support and being told (in diplomatic terms) what a goof I am.

But that's just me.

The only Redding dies I have are body dies so I'll confess ignorance to their neck sizing dies' setup method but, in general, if there's too little neck tension, I find that screwing the die body in a bit further cures the problem. On rare occasion (when I've run slap out of smart pills), it happens because I've got the die body screwed in too far and have reached a point in the range of motion of the cam where there's too little leverage. But in general, it's the opposite, it's not screwed in far enough.

I do neck sizing, BTW, with a Lee collet die, which tends to be a little more temperamental about setup than a full length die that also neck sizes. I mention it because I've so often found that I didn't have enough neck tension only after charging the case that I've made a habit of testing every case before I start dropping powder. I take a bullet and try to stuff it into the sized neck. If I can push the boattail or base in all the way to the shank of the bullet, I resize the neck. You'll only have to find a couple that are too loose before you get a good feel for how to tell the difference.

[hemiallen]

First, I am confused that a bullet falls in the case, and will say impossible....but that is just a guess. BTW, I just reloaded 15 221 fireball cases, thought the brass had been FL sized, filled them w/ a primer and 18.5 grains of Rel 7, and did the same as you, bullets dropped in ( new brass). So I fl sized 15 cases, primed and passed the powder from bad to good cases, then filled em with 40 gn Noslers....so I know your delima, but mine is new brass.


Regardless of your reloading ability, I will state the process you have.


Take fired cases, lightly lube the outside of the neck and body with a lubricating pad. Too much lube can get inside the case, and will cause dents in the case, usually at the shoulder.


Using once fired brass and a complete FL or even neck size die, place shell holder to be used in ram, run to the top of the stroke and release the handle. Take the die out of the box. Assuming it is clean, remember new dies need to be cleaned. Notice and record how far the stem sticks above the die, remove the whole top assembly out of the die, out the bottom for RCBS, out the top I believe on all others. Use alcohol to clean the stem you removed, and the inside of the die like you would a new to you gun. Dry, re-assemble to as noted length, this is essential as the button and decapper needs to be at the right height.


Now assuming you don't have redding bushing dies that someone left the bushing out of.....

With the assembled die, thread it into the press, unitl it contacts the shellholder, then back it off 1 turn. Drop the ram, insert a lubed case, and run it to the top. Take said case out and see if it allows the bolt to close w/o "brightening" the base of the case. If it does, the die needs to be rotated clockwise a baby step at a time, until the bolt face doesn't " shave" the case head and the bolt closes similar to factory rounds, IE little or no resistance between closing the bolt w/o a case and with the resized case. If the above is followed and you still have bullets falling into the case, buy the appropriate bushing and install it....casue no friggin way you FL sized a case and had a bullet fall into the case on standard dies.


Can you tell my bet is, you are missing or have the wrong bushing in a set of BUSHING dies?


Yea, I have a migraine, sorry if I sounded rude, but if you are a old reloader.... you must already know what I posted.....


Allen

[bow shot]

Had the same problem once... found out I bought .17 bullets by mistake instead of .204s (same grains, just filed to notice the caliber...)

With me, Anything is possible, LOL!!!