22-250 bullets falling through casings.

[Drop-tine]

I have been having a problem with reloading my 22-250 rounds. first time loading brand new casings the bullets fit just fine, but reloading them the second time is a different story, I loaded 50 rounds and put them in my individual ammo box got to the range opened my ammo box and my bullets had fallen through into the casing...? what is up with that? are my dies not crimping the bullets tight enough? are my casing necks expanding too much?

[JimmyHoffa]

It could be your die isn't fully resizing.  Did you have to trim after you resized?  Another thing that happens, but usually after a few shots is that the brass gets work hardened and acts like a spring, even with a good die it will fit and then spring back later.  Annealing will soften the brass so it will keep the form from the die.

[Biggerhammer]

Check the dies and the expander. That shouldn't be happening. Make sure your dies are set correctly and your getting the neck completly sized.

[Drop-tine]

How do I check the expander? And the expander is the ball on the pin that you use to de prime the fired casings?

[mountainman]

Seating too deep?

[Drop-tine]

not seating too deep I start with the die raised and press the bullet to see where it ends up seated then make adjustments from there. I want to say its a bad set RCBS dies. But who knows I could have a faulty set of dies.

[wildweeds]

My buddy had your same exact problem last week with a fresh  set of 300WSM dies.He called RCBS for a part for the dies as he had a stuck case,they said "No problem it's on it's way" Well they just sent him a complete new set,turns out the part he needed for the old set was wrong in the new set.One more call and he got yet again a new set,problem fixed.

not seating too deep I start with the die raised and press the bullet to see where it ends up seated then make adjustments from there. I want to say its a bad set RCBS dies. But who knows I could have a faulty set of dies.

[Drop-tine]

Awesome! ill give them a call tomorrow! thanks wildweeds hopefully that will solve the issue.

[Kittman]

Was there any gap between your shellholder and resizing die while compressing (full stroke) the reloading hand lever?  In other words, were they almost in contact?  If there was a noticeable or excessive space between the two components your cases may not have been traveling far enough into the dies. 

[Drop-tine]

No it was all normal had the same feel as every other bullets I have loaded with no more resistance or no more ease than usual, still had the same smooth motion. I tried loosening up the top long screw on the set die without any good results then taking it back down gradually to where it needed to be and same problem. I called RCBS this morning and they said too big of a expander ball in the die so their sending me a new set, we'll see how they work.

[Kittman]

Thanks for sharing the details, and good information to know.  I am looking to get a set of 30-30 dies soon, so I definitely will be watching for this.  I have several sets of different caliber RCBS dies and never encountered this issue (so-far).

[b23]

No it was all normal had the same feel as every other bullets I have loaded with no more resistance or no more ease than usual, still had the same smooth motion. I tried loosening up the top long screw on the set die without any good results then taking it back down gradually to where it needed to be and same problem. I called RCBS this morning and they said too big of a expander ball in the die so their sending me a new set, we'll see how they work.

So I'm assuming you loaded that first batch of new brass, the ones you didn't have any trouble with, without running them through your FL die first?  They were brand new cases and you loaded them straight out of the box, yes?

[wildweeds]

Apparantly inspector #7 went on vacation or something,exact same problem on my buddys dies.

No it was all normal had the same feel as every other bullets I have loaded with no more resistance or no more ease than usual, still had the same smooth motion. I tried loosening up the top long screw on the set die without any good results then taking it back down gradually to where it needed to be and same problem. I called RCBS this morning and they said too big of a expander ball in the die so their sending me a new set, we'll see how they work.

[Drop-tine]

Thats correct, I didnt need to run it through the FL die because the casings were not primed so I just lubed them loaded the powder and pressed the bullets. Is it recommended to run them though the FL die first? I have never done that with brand new brass.

No it was all normal had the same feel as every other bullets I have loaded with no more resistance or no more ease than usual, still had the same smooth motion. I tried loosening up the top long screw on the set die without any good results then taking it back down gradually to where it needed to be and same problem. I called RCBS this morning and they said too big of a expander ball in the die so their sending me a new set, we'll see how they work.

So I'm assuming you loaded that first batch of new brass, the ones you didn't have any trouble with, without running them through your FL die first?  They were brand new cases and you loaded them straight out of the box, yes?

[wildweeds]

Sounds like they have killer customer service,copied this from my freinds message

 " i love rcbs customer service, first they send me a whole new set of dies when all i wanted was a expander ball, that set had the wrong expander ball, so this just showed up, new spindle, expander ball and 5 decapping pins with a voucher for 50% off my next set of rcbs dies"