# Question...bullet fell INTO case



## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

I am still very green at reloading having picked it up this summer...I probably only have a few hundred reloads under my belt. So here is my question:

Last night I was loading up a ladder test for my 223. I am shooting LC Brass with 50 grain V Max Hornady bullets.

I get to the 15th case, and as I am measuring it in my caliper the entire bullet gets pushed INTO the casing!!!  So obviously it was not much pressure that caused it.

Anyway I just redid that particular cartridge. My question is what caused that?

I had full length resized, trimmed, and deburred all the cases. One thing that comes to mind is that I was seating the bullet to the specs given in my manual of a Overall Case Length of 2.20 inches. I think I was actually about 2.21 inches, yet it looked as though though the bullets were seating pretty deep almost where the bullet starts to taper off toward the tip.

I took each one I reloaded last night and pushed gently with my fingers on the bullet, and none of the others pushed into the charged cases. My biggest worry is what if while chambering it in my gun, this happens? What would happen then?

Any tips would be appreciated.


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## Swifty56 (Sep 14, 2009)

Usually when a bullet slides into the case with a little pressure from the caliper its due to the case neck not being resized properly. When seating the bullet you should feel a slight pressure when raising the ram. Since it was only 1 case that did this, my guess would be that you did not get the case all the way into the die on resizing. Most bullets without a cannelure on them are seated using neck tension only. Myself I use a dry mica lube on the neck when resizing, not only does this lube the inside and outside of the neck, but it gives a visual indication as to how much of the neck was resized, also since you will dent the case shoulder if you get lube on it, the mica also gives you an indication that you are inserting the case enough to also bump the shoulder back during the full length resize.
Hope this helps.

Swifty


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## dakotashooter2 (Oct 31, 2003)

New cases or once fired?? Even if it had not been sized properly it is unusual that it would have taken such little presure to drive the bullet in. It might just be an out of spec case. Unusual from LC but a possibility.
Run that case through the sizer again and try seating a bullet again to determine if it is a component or procedural problem.


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## StretchNM (Dec 22, 2008)

Hey Fallguy,
I can't add much to what's been said. You did right checking the others - you should not even be able to start to push the bullet into case with fingers, unless it's a boattail (sometimes they can be pushed in enough to kinda sorta hold themselves there). But flat base won;t even get a running start. In fact, when I'm (neck) sizing, I keep a bullet nearby and check every other few or so just to make sure the neck is getting re-sized completely. When full-length sizing, I don;t do that, but I do make sure the die is bottoming out on the shell holder on each stroke (by eye at first and then by feel).

So....(as was said), the neck probably wasn;t completely resized. What kind of die are you using?


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