Hi ya'll!

I just got done reloading approximately 330 rounds of .50 caliber for my M95 Barrett rifle. I use the Lee Classic reloader with it's associated 50 BMG dies.

After charging the case and seating the bullet to the correct depth, I ran all 330 rounds through the seating die again after giving it another quarter turn (in order to taper crimp the rounds). I had about 7 rounds that I discovered the bullet was loose in the case neck. All that was holding the bullet in the shell was the crimp on the cannelure.

I was surprised that this happened. Most of the shell casings are LC 52, and I had tumbled, cleaning the interior of the necks, full length resized, etc, etc. The shells are in good shape.

Would these particular 7 shells with the loose fitting bullets be candidates for annealing?

Kindest Regards,

-Will in Maryland

I don't think so. You might want to measure the case lenth of those rounds. If they're longer than the rest of the cartridges you loaded, then the neck might buckle ever so slightly with only the crimp now holding the bullet in the case.
you might want to anneal that brass after several loadings to alleviate the work hardening of the brass from resizing, but annealing is not called for in theis case. (No pun intended.)
Paul B.

What the heck; annealing won't hurt a thing, give it a try. You never know what a case has been through before it got to you.

Let us know what you find out, plese.

LD

quote:

Originally posted by Willltill:
Most of the shell casings are LC 52,

-Will in Maryland

Annealing is NOT the first remedy that comes to mind. First order of things would be to take a close look at neck thickness of these cases (all of them, really).

If these necks are particularly thin, the sizer may not be necking them down far enough. No amount of annealing will compensate for that. FWIW, Dutch.

Depending on the thread pitch of your seater die (is it 7/8 x 16?), and how close the crimper was to the neck beforehand, a quarter turn to produce the crimp could be overkill - resulting in bulging the necks.