Too much flare in shell casing with primer already set

[RUSTY6]

I am a new reloader and have made some mistakes as expected. I have primed some 9mm and 40 cal shells and have put too much flare on the cases for the bullet to seat correctly. Is there a way to correct the flare or do I have to toss them? Can I safely decap them in my Lee reloader? Thanks for any and all help.

[GrumpyOne]

Try running it through your seating die with no bullet, that should close the flare a bit.

[RUSTY6]

Grumpy,

Thanks for your input. I will give it a try.

[RUSTY6]

Grumpy,

I tried it and it didn't work. The shell is too big at the bottom and won't fit in the case gage all the way. Any other suggestions. Thanks.

[Blueridge]

You could remove the decapping pin and run them through the die.

[mildot1]

As Stated, IE: remove the depriming pin assy and resize in the sizing die.

Second note and I am not trying to be a smartass but you have just learned a valuable lesson( it has taken me several of these LOL) of not trying to go to fast on a progect !

Start with a sample of 5-10 to work out the bugs and you will spend a lot less time breaking down the screw up's to salvage components.

Wish you the best of luck.

Mildot

[GrumpyOne]

Grumpy,

I tried it and it didn't work. The shell is too big at the bottom and won't fit in the case gage all the way. Any other suggestions. Thanks.

Exactly how much flare are you talking about? I didn't mean the case gauge, but he actual seating die or the crimping die. I don't know a whole lot about Lee presses, but on a Dillon, the seating die closes most of the "flare", while the crimping die finishes closing it. Barring that, like Blueridge said, remove the decapping pin and re-size it. If you "flared" it enough that the bullet just drops in before seating, I think you may have overworked the brass anyway, and it might fail (split necks) and you probably should think about just setting it aside. The "flare" or "bell" should be just big enough (say maybe 1/16th of an inch down, opening the mouth up to where the base of the bullet just barely fits in it). On another note, you may want just a little more "flare" or "bell" on the case if you are loading lead. The extra little bit will keep you from shaving the sides of the bullet when seating. But with a jacketed bullet, just barely enough for the base to sit in the mouth without the bullet tipping over.

Edited for content....

Edited September 27, 2009 by GrumpyOne

[mrg]

If you crimp on a separate station you might try running through the crimp station. That's worked for me on similar issues.

Mark

[RUSTY6]

Thanks for all of your inputs. I did remove the decapper and re-sized the casing and it worked great. I only lost 2 shells that were crunched in the die. Thanks to all of you for your help.