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Posted: 9/14/2015 7:34:36 PM EDT
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After a long break after moving and starting a new career i have gotten into shooting again. I put a weaver gs tactical on my savage 308fcp. I had reloaded some federal gmm cases (my first reloads) roughly 3 1/2 years ago, I remember making the mistake of not measuring my cartridge OAL. I had chambered one the 168gr AMAX loads and it was too long. When i ejected it the bullet pulled out of the case. I then realized my mistake and seated all the cartridges to the proper length. I think i was an idiot and lightly used the lee crimp die to try and crimp some of the AMAXs i chambered that were too tight after noticing them having loose tension when reseating. They noticed they are rotating in the case upon finding them today. I pulled the bullet from one and noticed it was deformed due to me being a noob and it having no cannelure. My question is it safe to shoot the ones that rotate it? I dont know if i tried to crimp the other 20 roungs with 168gr smk either. Should i just shoot them or pull them all? I dont think it is worth wasting primers if the bullet is already damaged. I might as well shoot it.
I also have re-educated myself on reloading the past week before i loaded up my winchester cases. That's why i revisted these before shooting and found my mistakes. |
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Pull them.
I don't see any benefit in shooting them. If they are loose enough to move with your fingers they could actually be pushed forward by the primer pressure alone which can cause problems with the powder charge lighting and burning properly which can create an unsafe situation. You can always resize the brass and with some die sets it's possible to leave the live primers in but if not you can safely de-capp them. Some people even re-seat them and use them. The bullets are probably junk. You can measure them. Motor |
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You may have ruined your bullets. No pic and no measurement posted, so can't say. Resize the cases and reuse if PP's (primer pockets) are tight. These are FC cases after all. A Lee FCD can be used to crimp non cannelured bullets, but you can over due the crimp with any bullet as you found out. |
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Dillon also I think makes a taper crimp die in military calibers.
What I would do is pull them. Dump the powder in individual cups if you want, check the weights while you're at it. I'd take my sizing die stem out, remove the decapping pin but leave the expander. Lube the cases and size them. Wipe them clean. Put your powder back and reseat a bullet. |
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Shoot them.
There is nothing in your description to be a safety red-flag to me, nor really a massive performance hit. A bullet that rotates is not a safety item. Bullet setback isn't going to blow up your gun unless you already have a crazy hot load. I've shot bullet setback rounds on hot loads even before, and couldn't tell the difference in pressure sign on the casing at all. Usually no noticeable difference on paper either. Heck, even if they are too long, if you can force them into the chamber, and they wedge into the lands, it will be safe to shoot so long as the load itself is not particularly hot. (I am assuming you followed a book recipe on your charge, all of which are conservative today). As to the bullet being deformed, no worse than many pulled bullets, and those shoot well enough. In your case, the deformation is radially consistent, and probably won't make a noticeable difference. I wouldn't use these at a 600 yard match or a once-in-a-lifetime hunt. But I bet they shoot just fine. I've chambered some mangled stuff, and shot 10's plenty of times. If it were my ammo, I would shoot them without a moments hesitation. |
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Seems the case necks need to be sized properly. Removing the decap/expander ball assembly as advised above is good advice.
The ring on the projectile from the LFCD isn't a big problem. You find factory ammo like this sometimes. In the future, don't crimp quite as much, but go ahead and shoot these bullets with the rings on them. When setting up the LFCD, you don't want the collett to close completely. There should be still a bit of a gap, like the width of a sheet of paper or a hair or something. Closing the jaws all the way will produce the ring you see. At the same time, you should be able to see the crimp on the case neck, so if you can't see it, then crimp a bit tighter. Crimping is not necessary, generally speaking, but I do LFCD crimp everything I put through a semi-auto rifle. It works for me and doesn't seem to reduce accuracy potential. |
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