I loaded up a slew of rounds in the mid-1980s before I knew my ass from a hole in the ground about reloading. These rounds were not full-length resized; rather, they were resized to just about full-length with the die being set away from the shell holder by about the thickness of a nickel. I tried to shoot some of these rounds last year in my Colt AR-15, but found that 75% of them would not fully chamber. My local gun shop told me that the problem was that the very butt of the round was too big to fully enter into the chamber. I went home and sized up some in the manner he proscribed. All of them chambered perfectly. Problem is, I have several thousand of these rounds and am reluctant to break them all apart and reload them. Question: Could I secure another .223Rem die, have the hole for the decapping pin reamed out to the size of the neck of a loaded round and squeeze these rounds through this modified die to get the full-length resizing I need?

Rootbeer,

Answer to your question is "NO", do not resize a loaded round. If one were to discharge inside the press ...., well it is not a pretty picture.

You can either pull the bullets and resize or find a bolt action rifle to shoot all those reloads.

So do not try resizing them. It is not worth the risk.

Art

I had a similar situation needing to resize a few rounds. A local old timer told me to resize the loaded ammo. He said he had done this to more rounds than he could count. I consider it and then decided it was not worth the time and energy and decided to throw the few rounds I had away.

The way I see it. IF the round was to go off while you were resizing it, well it wouldn�t be a pretty picture. But I don�t think the odds of the bullet going off are very good. There is nothing to hit the primer. So you should be safe.

If someone could explain why it is unsafe. Please do, I am interested in the explanation.

Can't you just select an afternoon when you have the time and break the cartridges down with something like a Quinetics bullet puller? Stuff a piece of cotton in the puller nose so you don't disfigure your bullets and have at it. I've done this successfully several times and never had a problem. It is time consuming though. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

I'm with Cal on this one.

Rather than argue about whether or not a round might go off, and what would happen then, by the time you bought another die and modified it you could have pulled all these bullets anyway.

What would I do? Chalk it up as one of life's lesson learning experiences and buy/reload some other rounds. It's going to be a real pain in the ass to do. Plus how would you feel if one went off? Granted, the possibility of it happening is slim, but I would become very nervous placing a live round in a chamber-like device (the die) that wasn't the rifle itself.

I am with the pull the bullet crowd!! There is a very good reason not to resize loaded rounds!!
Buy a collet type bullet puller and sit down and take them apart!! Its way too DANGEROUS to try and resize loaded rounds.It would be better to throw them in the river than to lose an eye for a few 1000 round of ammo! JMHO
muskrat
live to shoot-shoot to live!

Throw them in the river? That'll give the gun owners a good name - what the hun are you thinking?

rootbeer - sounds like a predicament. If it were my situation I would probably start with a new batch of brass, reload batches of 100, and take apart/resize/reload batches of 100 of the cartridges that are a problem. That would cover two(2) issues: 1) the previous reloaded cases aren't lost, and 2) now that you are more educated in handloading, you can uniform the reloads.

Just don't throw them in a river.

Thanks to all who replied. Yes, my concern is with one going off and exploding the die into my face. I am thinking it won't because to detonate a primer, a sharp impulse is required. All I can envision happening is the primer pocket being crunched down to a smaller size by just a few thousandths (if at all), which should not cause a primer to ignite. But then, things happen in this life which we are at a loss to explain. In all honesty, it would not be the most intelliegent thing to do but then, men went to the North Pole in the early decades of the last century without GPS, Gore-Tex, or heater meals. What were they thinking?!!

I still like the suggestion that said to find a rifle that fits the ammo.....

Heck, we all need more excuses to buy new rifles...... LOL! Dutch.

rootbeer,
When I was younger and dumber I took some .264 win mag loaded ammo that had the same type problem and ran them into a .338 win mag die and gave them back to the guy they belonged to. I wasn't to worried because as you say the primer has to be struck sharply to go off.I was young fearless and knew every thing there was to know.How often have you hammered a bolt handle into place on a tight fitting cartridge? If you have you're sizing. When I first started reloading my mentor wanted me to learn caution but not to have ungrounded fears. I was leary of primers. He took a primer put it into a vice and "safely" closed the vice till the primer was flatened.The primer did not go off. He than hit the vice with a hammer and the primer went off. The point is pure force or pressure does not ignite primers. Now if someone will lone you a 6x45(6mm-223) die and buy a bottle of "Bardahl" your resizing should go smoooothly. I can not see how your going to move any brass in the primer area. There is greater likelyhood of setting a primer off by removing it from a case with your knockout pin in your die.At this point it is academic. I'm not telling you to do it. But I won't tell you not to. Just relating a story from the distant past. Like someone said anything can happen. Roger