Bullet not secure in brass?

[rocsteady]

I searched for setback issues and didn't find this particular thing:

Loading 70 grain TSX bullets into LC pulled brass and seems that randomly the bullet is quite loose. Doesn't seem any easier or harder, generally, to seat the bullet than when I used once or twice-fired brass but after I measure COAL I pressed nose of the bullet pretty lightly and was able to shorten the COAL. On a couple of rounds the bullet moved just from measuring with the calipers?

Only thing I changed on the turret/die setup from previous brass was moving the decapping pin up slightly so as not to deprime the brass when sizing.

I was under the impression that the sizing die expands the case mouth to accept a new .224" bullet so if anything, by not running the sizing/decapper pin all the way down into the case mouth the case mouth might be tighter/harder to get a new bullet pressed in?

What am I screwing up?

[T2C]

The decapping/resizing die makes the case mouth smaller and may or may not set back the datum line on the case depending on die adjustment. Depending on which rifle I shoot, unsized, fired .308 brass measures .3085"-.3100" on the inside diameter at the case mouth.

On my progressive reloader the resizing die shrinks the case mouth down to .307" inside diameter. That gives me adequate pull tension for a bolt action rifle. I set the crimp die for more pull tension on reloads to be fired in semi-automatic rifles.

You may have to adjust your resizing down further to get the correct inside diameter at the case mouth.

[RearwardAssist]

What dies are you using? On my dillion dies I can take the decapping pin out without adjusting the expander ball. Also no the brass is usually larger and sizinf die shrinks it down the expander ball is a bit misleading but expands it against the wall of the die. To test this you can take a piece of fired brass and slide a bullet into it the neck is larger than the bullet from being fired. my advice would be take the decapping pin out and put your die back to correct depth.

[rocsteady]

What dies are you using? On my dillion dies I can take the decapping pin out without adjusting the expander ball. Also no the brass is usually larger and sizinf die shrinks it down the expander ball is a bit misleading but expands it against the wall of the die. To test this you can take a piece of fired brass and slide a bullet into it the neck is larger than the bullet from being fired. my advice would be take the decapping pin out and put your die back to correct depth.

That did it. I feel about stupid now, but that did the trick.

Looks like I have some bullets to pull. On the bright side, they should come out pretty easily...

Thank you very much for the help.

[T2C]

Happy to hear you got it sorted out.

Watch your neck tension closely. A bullet can set back in the case while the round is still in the magazine due to recoil. That can make for a bad day at the range.

[markm]

I size the brass without the expander ball and then run the brass through a neck expander die separately.

It's more work, but worth it for less runout, less trimming... just better ammo.