450Bushmaster.net

So I'm getting some ever so slightly case buldging after seating the bullet. It's not happening every round either. Using hornady 4 die set. One friend suggested to check case length and that doesn't appear to be the issue. I'm expanding the case mouth very minimally and wondered if I need more but I figured I'd ask on here before making any changes. New to straight wall reloading as I've only 308 win in the past. Bullets used are Hornady FTX 250 with once shot factory hornady brass.

post a pic if you can, but if it's where the bullet is I wouldn't worry about it as long as they chamber.

I've seen that occasionally in stock 450b cases as well. Not to the point where the case will not chamber, but visible with the light at just the right angle. It's not your dies. It poor QC when the cases were made and you got some with thicker walls. There is also the possibility of bullets being out of spec, but I've never seen them err of the side of too fat. I have seen a run or two where they were a little undersized as measured with a quality micrometer. Say .448 or .449 as opposed to .451. Still have the remainder of a box of C.O.P. bullets that were that way.

Here's a worse case of what happens when you cut down .284 Win cases and try to use them as 450b cases.



Also, notice the bulge is asymmetrical. Again Poor QC.

This one was more common in its symmetry.



Some of them would not chamber and had to be pulled down. This should not be happening with stock 450b brass. The wall is thinner in them. As Al said, as long as the chamber okay, you're good to go, but ask why. Mic a couple of your bullets. Unless you have a specialized case wall mic it'll be hard to quantify them.

Hoot




Hoot

They look exactly like his pictures. Other than maybe it's not 360 degrees of the casing. Can just feel it and on some barely see it. They still chamber and shoot just maybe not as good as the ones that haven't got it. The rounds that this didn't happen to held 1MOA @ 400 yards with maybe 2" of vertical, not holding different for wind gust. I only shot the "bulged" rounds @ 100 yards and held 1.5-2" with them. If it matters any I'm shooting a factory bushy barrel and upper. If it's just shitty QC I'll just have to keep my eye on it and keep them separate.

trob_205 wrote:They look exactly like his pictures. Other than maybe it's not 360 degrees of the casing. Can just feel it and on some barely see it. They still chamber and shoot just maybe not as good as the ones that haven't got it. The rounds that this didn't happen to held 1MOA @ 400 yards with maybe 2" of vertical, not holding different for wind gust. I only shot the "bulged" rounds @ 100 yards and held 1.5-2" with them. If it matters any I'm shooting a factory bushy barrel and upper. If it's just shitty QC I'll just have to keep my eye on it and keep them separate.

To be objective, if you have any of the bullets left, grab a handful and mic them. Congrats on getting them to hold MOA at 400 yds. That's no small feat for them or you!

Hoot

I had this early on in my endeavor loading the 450B. My issue was not setting the Hornady seating die properly. The Hornady seating die has a floating sleeve to support the case neck during bullet seating (shaking die you can hear the sleeve move back and forth). I did not have this adjusted so the case neck was fully supported, only partially --- resulting in the bulge. To set it, I simply ran the rammer up full stroke and then screwed the die into the press. When the die stopped, I backed it off an 1/8th turn and then locked it down. I do not expand my cases when using the 250 FXT bullet. I am looking for as much neck tension as possible without crimping.

I too had tried the cut down 284 cases. Before I reamed my cases, once the bullet was seated, I could not retract the case from the die -- that is how tight that tolerance is. The tolerance for the neck is set for the Hornady case and a .452 bullet. The 284 had a thicker neck. It was OK though with .451 bullets. I abandoned the whole idea of 284 cases after that.

Siringo wrote:...snip...
I too had tried the cut down 284 cases...snip...I abandoned the whole idea of 284 cases after that.

Ditto. I had forgotten the nightmare of rounds stuck in the seating die.

Hoot

Thanks guys. I'll give it all a look. I'll probably go back and reset the seater die just to be safe but pretty sure that's how I've normally done it. And thanks for having measure my bullets as it reminded me I only have 3 left haha. I remember now they were unattainium when i finished my run last time. (Btw the three I had were all dead on spec wise)