Full length Resizing mistake correction?

[MotoJack]

I am a new reloader.I have a large pile of once fired military 308 brass.I processed 300 yesterday.Tumbled,resized/deprimed,removed military crimp,trimmed,primed,loaded 30 of them with m80's.The rounds would not chamber.I had not adjusted the full length resizing die down far enough.Rather than lose the brass and primers I pulled the bullets and resized the 30 pieces of brass again with the center rod primer/punch pin thing taken out of the die.I loaded them again and went to the range and fired them in my Remington 700 VTR.They worked good with no problems I can see.I fired through a shooting chrony and checked the velocities and all were 2675-2760 Ft/sec @ 10 ft from the muzzel.My question:Is there anything wrong with what I did?I mean I did the full length resizing the second time with the center rod removed from the die.My friend who has been reloading for many years said he'd never heard of doing that and didn't know if it would mess up my head space or something.Anybody here ever done this?If this is not good practice,what are the problems I'm likely to run into.I still have 270 pieces of this brass which needs to be resized a second time to make it able to chamber in my VTR.Experienced reloaders please advise me.I'm using LEE dies and a Rock Chucker Supreme press.Thanks

[bogey1]

i do it all the time, with 50bmg's its a pain in the ass but its better than losing all that ammo. i dont know about 308 but after the cases are fire formed (shot once) just do a neck size on them, not a full length size, it will prolong the life of the brass. for bolt action only.

[Hawk]

I just did the same thing the other day. I grabbed what I thought was spent casings for my 1903A3 (2 of them) and neck sized them only. I went to the range and they wouldn't chamber. I went back to the bench pulled the heads, dumped the powder and removed the decapper rod from the FL die and resized them. I probably should of just reclaimed the components and trashed the brass since it was only 2 rounds.

[max384]

Although you may not have experienced any problems doing it this way, it would be better to leave the center rod in place, but remove the depriming pin from the center rod (this would require the removal of the center rod, then remove the pin and replace the rod). The reason why this would be the preferred method is because when rifle cases are full-length resized, there are two processes occuring (not including depriming). The outside body diameter is decreased to factory-new specifications on the downstroke and the inside neck is expanded on the upstroke. The inside neck expansion is done with the center rod.

If you would run into this problem using pistol brass, it would be no problem to remove the center rod, as its only function is depriming in pistol dies.

[Brick]

What you did worked so you don't have to worry about causing a problem. And what the other guys have said is good advice. For future reference though and since you are reloading for only one bolt action rifle full-length resizing is not necessary. You'll do just fine with neck resizing but you have to set your die correctly.

So start with the die screwed down to about the thickness of a nickel above the shell holder when the ram is full up. Resize one case, then try it in your rifle. That is chamber it and close the bolt. If the bolt closes freely, you got it right. If the bolt doesn't close turn the die down 1/8 or 1/4 turn until the sized case allows the bolt to close. When you've got it lock the ring on your die.

[WVBob]

Once fired military brass is the key. What you did is fine. It could have come from an MG and needs sized down. As Brick said once you get it sized and trimed, you can do neck sizing. But because it's military brass that has been fired from something that can fire full auto, it needs to be sized down. You also need to watch your powder charge. Because the brass is made for a MG, it's a bit thicker and will not hold as much powder without compressing. I think it like two gr. less for a max charge. You may need to do some neck trimming on some of the brass.

Shoot Safe.

[Xringshooter]

Just another thought, how far out the bottom of the die does your decapping pin protrude? It is possible that it is out too much and when you run the case into the die the inside of the case is hitting the base of the decapping pin and stopping and not allowing the case to go up far enough into the die. When you removed the decapping pin and center rod, and resized, it then allowed the case to go up further and resized the case correctly.

The decapping pin only needs to protrude enough to pop the primer out. The primer should come out at the same time (or just before) the case is at the top of the travel of the ram.