Time to do more with the brass?

[Mr.Snerdly]

I am new to all this but have been learning. I have been using the Lee Loader and just resizing the necks so far. On the 243 I have reloaded either 3 or 4 times with the same brass. Yesterday it took a little more effort to close the bolt and open it. Once the bolt got unlocked from the lugs the cartridge came out easily as it always has. Is it the shoulder growing that is causing this? That is my thought but like I said, I am just a beginner. I do have a regular press and everything necessary to full length resize but it is not set up yet. I will be moving in another month or two and thought I would set everything up at the new place.

I looked for signs of too much pressure and didn't really find any. My powder charge is not maximum but it is not minimum either.

Another question, when should you anneal the brass? Is there a set number of times or is there something you inspect with the brass that tells you?

[Ted_Feasel]

I am new to all this but have been learning. I have been using the Lee Loader and just resizing the necks so far. On the 243 I have reloaded either 3 or 4 times with the same brass. Yesterday it took a little more effort to close the bolt and open it. Once the bolt got unlocked from the lugs the cartridge came out easily as it always has. Is it the shoulder growing that is causing this? That is my thought but like I said, I am just a beginner. I do have a regular press and everything necessary to full length resize but it is not set up yet. I will be moving in another month or two and thought I would set everything up at the new place.

I looked for signs of too much pressure and didn't really find any. My powder charge is not maximum but it is not minimum either.

Another question, when should you anneal the brass? Is there a set number of times or is there something you inspect with the brass that tells you?

Annealing along with the occasional fl resize should cure the problem. I have seen doughnuting in the shoulders before but there again annealing to release all the stress and a fl resize will likely cure it.. to get the most out of your brass it should be annealed every 2 to 4 firings depending on the hardness of the brass your using

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[Ted_Feasel]

I am new to all this but have been learning. I have been using the Lee Loader and just resizing the necks so far. On the 243 I have reloaded either 3 or 4 times with the same brass. Yesterday it took a little more effort to close the bolt and open it. Once the bolt got unlocked from the lugs the cartridge came out easily as it always has. Is it the shoulder growing that is causing this? That is my thought but like I said, I am just a beginner. I do have a regular press and everything necessary to full length resize but it is not set up yet. I will be moving in another month or two and thought I would set everything up at the new place.

I looked for signs of too much pressure and didn't really find any. My powder charge is not maximum but it is not minimum either.

Another question, when should you anneal the brass? Is there a set number of times or is there something you inspect with the brass that tells you?

If there is doughnuting you can sometimes see shiny ring around the shoulder where its tight in the chamber but not always... what brand of brass if you dont mind me asking

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[Robinhood]

Annealing would be required more frequently if you full length sized. Generally when brass starts to be inconsistent on neck tension or is inconsistent when the shoulder is bumped then it is time to anneal. If you shoot competitively you cant wait for it to get that far. Full length sizing is good. Custom full length sizing dies are the best. Get a tool to check for neck and bullet run out.

[jpx2rk]

Try chambering all of the fired brass in the gun to see if one or more will still provide easy bolt closure. If you find one, then measure it with the Hornady comparator tool to get the measurement of those cases that still fit with easy bolt closure. Set your FL sizing die to resize the troublesome cases to that size or .001 smaller. Then you can neck size again if you desire until you have hard bolt closure/opening. Annealing is not hard to do, but you can ruin the brass. Just google it and you'll have lots of reading to do.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1012743827?pid=479704

[Mr.Snerdly]

Thanks for the ideas. I will never be a competitive shooter but I am just trying to get respectable without spending a tremendous amount of money. You have given me some good ideas and I will see what I can do.

Mr. Feasel, it is Winchester brass. A guy I know that is pretty fair said that Winchester had some problems with some brass being too hard some years ago. This was old ammo, probably 8-10 years old. I always had big plans about tinkering with guns but never had time to do it until recently. I had 3 boxes of the Winchester ammo and I had 3 necks split after one firing so I think he probably knew what he was talking about with the somewhat less than ideal Winchester brass. None of the other guns have acted like this but only the 223 has been used as much so far. The other brass is Remington and I did splurge and buy some Lapua brass for the 223.

[Mr.Snerdly]

One other thing maybe I should mention. The case length was all in spec except for one which was .0005" long. This was using a digital calipers which I feel is not as accurate as a micrometer but it is all I have since the boys I rent to neglected my precision tools.

[Texas10]

Since you're neck sizing only, your brass has now fully fire formed to the chamber. As such, it really has very little room to expand during ignition, the result is hard extraction. Same with closing the bolt on a live round, there's just no extra room so any minor differences in the brass and will make for a stiff bolt closure. Select one of the shot brass that the bolt closes on with just a little drag. Save and label it as representative of your chamber size, important to have when you start full length sizing your brass. You'll need to size just .001 or .002 below what that brass measures.

You can take an unsized piece of your shot brass and slip a bullet into the neck. If the bullet comes to a stop down at the neck/shoulder junction, you may have donuts forming and will have to remove them for best accuracy. FL sizing tends to reduce or eliminate doughnuts.

I hope this answers your question.