Case shoulder deforming
 

Tonight I was loading up some ammo for my 270 wsm and noticed a few rounds were a bit stiff while closing the bolt. Initially I assumed I didn't bump the shoulder back far enough when I full length resized, but I chambered some empty cases that were ready for powder and bullets and they chambered fine.

After further inspection I noticed the shoulders on the rounds I had seated bullets in were slightly deformed. Right at the shoulder it was actually wider then lower down on the case body. This is only one side of the case, the other side is flat as it should be. In the picture below I've held a straight edge against the side of the case and you can see there is a fairly large gap near the shoulder. all 20 rounds i loaded up are this way.

Any ideas as what would cause this during bullet seating? Maybe I'm cranking down too hard on my press? It's not a compressed load so there shouldn't be much pressure in there.
Any opinions or advice would be great!

http://i.imgur.com/sITcxVR.jpg

There is a chance your seating die may be in too deep. Try resizing a case and see if it has the same effect. If it does, try adjusting sizing die upwards a bit and try again. Are your cases trimmed to length? Could possibly be a seating die with crimp hitting case and deforming...

Just a few ideas.

Can you describe how you set your seating die? Your shoulder seems to be getting crushed during bullet seating. Neck run out must be huge.

I had this happen on me while loading a couple of years ago. as far as I could tell, it was the neck being crushed by the seating die while seating the bullet. Strange part is is happened on random brass, I couldn’t find any correlations between them that would cause it to happen, and then just like that it stopped happening. I wound up just pulling the bullets, and resizing the brass back and started over. Odds are your bullets won’t be any good after this though. Mine got shredded on the process.

N

As has been mentioned, it could be the seating die adjustment, but I had the same issue when helping a friend load some 270wsm, using his RCBS dies. The die was reducing the neck diameter too much, and the excessive neck tension was causing this. I added even more chamfer to the neck, but that didn't help, so I ended up having to use graphite on the inside of the neck and bullet, and seat the bullets in steps while rotating the case for each step. We managed to seat enough bullets for his test loads, but I brought my Redding dies along for the next loading session, and the issue disappeared , because the neck tension was much less.
How much effort did it take to seat the bullets? Wen I seated bullets after sizing with the RCBS dies, it took much more effort to seat the bullets, because of the excess neck tension.

Sharp shoulders make problems. Betting this was a short mag before I read. :D

Grizz

If you are sure the cases were not like that before you seated the bullets, I have seen the sizing die do this to cases where the case was over max length and the top of the neck was being pushed down by the sizing die. The seating die will also cause exactly the same issue if the neck is too long or if you have the seating die screwed down to far and the crimp part is engaging on the longer brass. Since there is no cannelure in the bullet, it forces the neck down and bulges the shoulders. Trim your brass to correct length and screw your seating die OUT 1/2 turn.

Thanks for all the input guys, I'll check all of these things tonight. It's possible the seating die is out of adjustment.

It shouldn't be an issue with the full length sizing die, as my cases that do not have bullets installed don't have the bulge, it's definitely only happening when I seat the bullets. I'm using redding dies. It wasn't a random thing either, all 20 rounds I loaded have done the same thing.

The bad part is I guess I'll have to pull all these bullets and resize the brass, as I'm sure they wont be accurate. Does anyone know if I can remove un-spent primers with my Lee decapping die?

edit - cases are trimmed to length, I'll double check my trimmed length is within spec tonight. Case mouths are also done with a VLD chamfer tool

You can fix this by just pulling the bullet, pour powder into your pan, resize case but remove the de-priming pin from the die, wipe off lube, pour powder back in, re-seat bullet. No need to remove primer.

I wouldn't leap to that conclusion. Since you will still headspace on the shoulder, they could be as good as your usual rounds. Try a three shot group and see what happens.

Question is if they'll go in the chamber like that ?

Grizz

In the original post, he talks about putting them into the chamber and the bolt being a bit stiff when closing the bolt. If the bolt closes all the way, shouldn't be a problem

Thanks everyone for the help, I got it figured out. Dean2 had it right when he mentioned the seating die screwed down too far and the crimp part pushing on the neck, causing the shoulder to deform.
My brass was trimmed to the correct length, 2.090 when 2.100 is max. The seating die was screwed down just a bit far. When I reset that, the bullets seated much nicer and didn't deform the brass. Interestingly, after i seated the bullets the first time the shoulder was pushed back about .005 further then they were after I full length resized.... meaning that likely the crimp part of the die put excess pressure on the neck, as my bullets don't have a crimp ring, which pushed the shoulder back, and then deformed part of it, as shown in the picture above.
Not sure howhat my die got moved, but oh well, at least it makes sense!

Setting up the seating die incorrectly is actually more common than I would expect. My method is to place a sized case in the press, drop the handle down, with no die in place, then screw the seating die down until it contacts the case, and then back it off 1/2 turn. And although it seems obvious to me, some people do not readjust the die when using a different press, such as when borrowing a set of dies from a friend to use in your press.

IMHO
Seating die is set to low .
If it is RCBS seating die you should be able fit nickle (5¢)between die and shell holder