'Squashed' necks/ shoulders on 22-250 reload!!!!

[Paul]

Hi All,

So I seem to have a problem with what appears to be squashed necks on my reloaded 22-250.

As you may have prev read, I got a new Lee press, and was using Redding FLS for the 22-250. Seemed to go fine, and apart from the Quick Trim (ball bearing removed) not quite doing as much chamfering as I would get normally by hand, all seemed to be well.

Loaded up with Hornady V-Max 55gr.

Out this morning and the round was tight into the chamber, but did go. Hmm, is that an issue with the FLS I wondered?

Anyway, didn't get a primary target but took out a stray bunny.
When I checked the spent cartridge, then inspected the other reloads this is what I found...

The first pic shows a new Hornady Superformance Varmit on the left for shoulder comparison, the middle two are what I found after I decided to check the rest of my carried ammo due to the tight chambering (and I'm guessing not the result of FLS as prev suspected), and the right case is after shooting the rabbit. There is a clear crease in the case, though the shoulder issue is gone (small consolation). Second and third pics for better view. Upon checking the remaining reloads,I foud the same shoulder issue on the others to more or less the same extent.

Soooo, I'm thinking that for some reason when I pressed the projectiles in, it compressed the neck for some reason. I did 20 cases and after FLS there did not appear to be shoulder issue, so Im guessing it happened in the projectile pressing.

Why did this happen?
How can I avoid it?
How can I 'undo' the damage. (can I remove the projectiles, powder and primers and re-do them?)'.

Is it because the chamfering was not bold enough? The V-Max are flat bottomed vs boat tail. I've never had this issue before when using my Lee hand loader and tapping the same projectiles in.

Help!

Paul

IMG_3595.jpg (210.45 KiB) Viewed 2046 times

IMG_3597.jpg (242.76 KiB) Viewed 2046 times

IMG_3599.jpg (161.07 KiB) Viewed 2046 times

[Blr243]

I guess incorrect set up of seating die but I’m very new to reloading 2225o. I could be very wrong ....I just bought 500 rounds of factory loaded hornady v max ammo for a dollar a pop because I wanted to avoid these sort of loading dramas / headache

[bladeracer]

Looks like the seating die is crimping before you have finished seating the bullet.
Raise the die until the crimp no longer hits the case mouth, then turn the seating stem down to the seating depth required.

[bigrich]

as others have suggested , seating die is too low and compressing the end of your case before the projectile is seated . it's a learning process , you'll get there

[marksman]

so you are saying the necks were not pushed down bulging the shoulders after using the FLS die

this seems odd to me because the seater die is oversized so it will help guide the projectile straight into the case but there is quite a bit of slop
you would feel if the die was connecting with the cases, and example is that the 17cal seater is about a 20cal neck ect..

you would normally get this problem from over FLSing and the answer is to learn to bump the shoulder back 2 thou instead of going by manufacturers instructions and ruining your cases viewtopic.php?f=13&t=11560

l would have no issues in shooting the cases you have with bulged shoulders but its time to start learning how to adjust your dies to suit your chamber
the benefits are a round that is custom to the chamber of the rifle they are intended to be used in
the crease in the case is that something was in the chamber when it was fired, when you fire the rifle the cases will come out as a duplicate of the chamber
eg.. if there was a couple of grains of powder in the chamber you would have an imprint of the powder grains on the outside of the case

hope it all works out for you

[Paul]

Thanks for the feed back folks, I will follow up and check the crimping issue. As many of you have said, learning and getting use to 'press dies'. I am not exactly sure which part is the seating and which is the crimping, having gotten use to the Lee hand-loader seating rod' style of putting projectiles in. Maybe follow up Qns on this

So, as per one of my original questions, do I pull these apart, or as marksman says, they would be OK to shoot - providing I can get them in the chamber.

Hoping for some clarification.

Many thanks,

Paul

[straightshooter]

As others have stated the problem is poor die setup.
A contributing factor may be a lack of "feel" when seating and possibly over soft case shoulders.
The mark on case 4 is from a fragment of grass that found it's way into the chamber before firing.
Case 3, and case 4 less so, look to have the beginnings of case head separation.
Your fls die needs to be adjusted for close to zero headspace for your chamber and not according to commercial die dimensions. You can find that sweet spot by removing the cocking assembly from your bolt and adjusting the fls die in small increments until the bolt will close with slight resistance. This assumes your brass needs any fl sizing in the first place.

[bladeracer]

Something else that can "pull" the shoulder forward is not lubing the expander ball that pulls through the neck. Are you feeling a lot of resistance pulling the sized case out of the die?

[Paul]

Something else that can "pull" the shoulder forward is not lubing the expander ball that pulls through the neck. Are you feeling a lot of resistance pulling the sized case out of the die?

I wouldn't say I am feeling a lot of resistance when I extract the case, though I had not lubricated the throats for the expander 'button' (on Redding dies). Something to do in future.

These were once fired Remington cases, and I would have normally only done a neck resize, not sure why I went FLS. I had planed to FLS some cases that I have fired probably 5 times, as I'm not getting the consistency I would expect, though still working with the thought I can get close to 1- 1 1/2 MOA out of the Parker Hale Midland @ 100m.

And as for dissembling the already loaded cartridges vs firing them back to shape???

Cheers,

Paul

[bladeracer]

And as for dissembling the already loaded cartridges vs firing them back to shape???

Cheers,

Paul

If you can chamber them they'll just fire-form as usual. I think you'll struggle to chamber them though.

[Blr243]

First time I tried reloading for the 250 with small pills the finished product looked like it was assembled by a 3 year old .....Much closer attention to the supplied instructions especially in relation to the adjustment of the seating die Sorted it out smartly