Reloading Hornady 250 FTX

[mcheney]

Hello,
I am having two issues reloading the 250 FTX.
First, the manual says COAL is 2.225 but I am measuring the factory Hornady 250 FTX at 2.25.
Lee die manual lists the max COAL as 2.26, which is not for the 250 FTX, but seems closer to what I am actually measuring on factory ammo.
So I am a bit confused here as to the best COAL.

As for the second issue, I am using a lee crimp die turned in 3/4 past touching the case holder.
With about 75% of the bullets made with reloaded Hornady brass I can easily push the bullet in deeper with my thumb.
I adjusted the crimp a bit more but it was to severe and trashed the mouth pretty bad.
Does anyone else have issues getting a firm crimp with this case-bullet-die set up?

Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike

[MOOSE EARS]

What brand resizing die are you using? Are you flareing the case mouths? If you are, stop and chamfer the inside of the case mouth instead.

[mcheney]

What brand resizing die are you using? Are you flareing the case mouths? If you are, stop and chamfer the inside of the case mouth instead.

I am using the Lee dies and have been using the powder through expanding die which does flair the mouth a bit.

[Al in Mi]

There were a batch of Lee sizers that were bad awhile back.

Can you slip a bullet in a resized case before using the expander?

[mcheney]

There were a batch of Lee sizers that were bad awhile back.

Can you slip a bullet in a resized case before using the expander?

No. Just a bit too tight. But once expanded they almost fall in.
Almost like the mouth is a bit smaller than the body and once opened ...plunk!

[mcheney]

Looks like it might be the Lee sizer. I used a Hornady with the decapper removed so as not to mess with the primer then reloaded.
I also set the Lee to maximum crimp and these seem much more stable.
Once I shoot these I will run some through both the Lee and Hornady die sets for comparison.
Just so happend Shooters Service had a used Hornady 4 die set for $45 so I bit the bullet and picked it up.
Thanks for the help.

[plant_one]

There were a batch of Lee sizers that were bad awhile back.

Can you slip a bullet in a resized case before using the expander?

No. Just a bit too tight. But once expanded they almost fall in.
Almost like the mouth is a bit smaller than the body and once opened ...plunk!

sounds like you need to Dial back your powder through expander some then. those are designed to flare more/less based on how you set them into the die holder/press , if i recall correctly

[mcheney]

Thank you gents. I'll try.

[mcheney]

Follow up.
Lee send me a new sizer body for free and it fixed the problem.