Bullet tension

[JKR]

I’m curious. What method are you all using to hold your bore sized, patched bullets in the case?
I’ve tried a few different things in the last couple years. Currently it’s the Redding neck size die. This is strictly a “by feel” operation. I’m wondering if anyone has a sure fire and consistent method.
JKR

[Don McDowell]

I resize the case, chamfer the case mouth and use a custom expander that is .001-002 over bullet diameter , so the spring back from expanding leaves the case exactly (more or less) the diameter of the patched bullet.

[JKR]

I resize the case, chamfer the case mouth and use a custom expander that is .001-002 over bullet diameter , so the spring back from expanding leaves the case exactly (more or less) the diameter of the patched bullet.

So Don, you’re saying that you don’t do anything at all to tighten the mouth after seating the bullet?
How deep is your bullet seated? Can handle the cartridge without the bullet falling out?
Jim

[Don McDowell]

Jim, I've found that anything done to tighten the case neck to hold the bullet after seating will cause damage to the paper, and if there's damage to the paper pulling the bullet by hand one can just imagine what happens when the firing pin gooses the primer...
I seat thee bullets anywhere from 1/4 inch or more depending on what bullet and what rifle. They seat with a good bit of thumb pressure, and if you pull one there will be a little pop when the base clears the case mouth.

[JKR]

That make perfect sense to me, Don. I’ve become somewhat frustrated with the way I learned although I’ve had some good luck with it. It was seating at 1/10” and trying to come up with a way to keep the bullet from falling out while loading the rifle.
Thanks. I always appreciate your advice!
Jim

[Don McDowell]

Jim I go about it a little different than some, but I let the seating depth be determined by the leading edge of the paper on the straight sided bullets engraved about 1 /10 of an inch. With the dual diameter bullets I like them to drop into the chamber much like you would with a greaser. Little bit of thumb pressure if any with either type to close the action. So as I mentioned before the seating depth is determined by the bullet and chamber. I like to be able to handle the loaded rounds without worry of the bullet falling out in the cartridge box or if the hands get shaky on the way to the chamber I don't have to stop and reseat the bullet.

[Kurt]

Jim,

Most of my chambers are cut with my reamers and most of the chambers will be too tight for a GG bullet. My Shiloh's or a couple others that have a GG diameter neck wall and I use a bore diameter PP I use a taper crimp die and it is set with the amount of neck tension I want holding the bullet just snug enough that I can lift the shell with enough tension on the bullet. But this you need to trim your cases so you hold a uniform neck tension.
With a slight taper crimp it will not damage the patched bullet on release. Not that I can detect looking at recovered bullets.
Most of the damage to the patch comes from the 45º case stop at the chamber end especially using very thin paper that two wraps is less than groove depth. I did a lot of snow pile digging to see the effects what is going on using different paper or the crimp effects.
The chamber end transition does the most damage on the bullets shank.
Even then it might not show up on the target in the long run.

[Don McDowell]

45 degree lead doesn't have anything to do with a bullet that was seated in the case and then pulled.....

[Kurt]

I deep seated these PP bullets to see what that 45º transition does to the bullet shank and how far it drags the cut and this is what I found. This is not the only one there are a bunch. It does not happen all of the time but it does. This one picked up the paper or lead ring on its way down the bore. You can see the impression on the nose.