seating bullet too deep? 338 lapua

[EYESOFTEXAS]

Hi all. I'm a handloading newbie. I reloaded for the first time ever last night.

I have a question about bullet seating and case bulge (and pressure).

I was reloading for 338 lapua magnum --- 225 gr Hornady SST bullets, Norma brass, 87,0 gr RL19. I seated the bullet ~.571 inches, all the way to the cannelure. I did not crimp the neck.

I didn't seat to this depth for any particular purpose, except that I was copying step-by-step the RCBS Precisioneered Handloading VHS tape. And the guy in the video was seating his bullets to the cannelure and crimping.

Looking at the charged rounds this morning, some of the cases look like they're bulging slightly in the neck/shoulder area. Is this dangerous? Do I need to scrap the lot and start again? If so, how do I go about that? Pull the bullets, primers, etc., out and resize again? How do I get live primers out?

Also, what are the proper guidelines for how deep to seat a bullet? This morning someone told me you seat to about the diameter (eg. seat a .338 caliber bullet .338"). Are there benefits/advantages to seating to other depths?

Sorry if these are newbie/stupid questions.

BTW... I'm shooting these in an AR-30.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Bart B]

Your bullet seating die may be set too low in the press. This may be causing the seating die's crimping shoulder to push the case neck back and buckle the neck-shoulder junction.

Use a bullet puller to remove the bullet, then dump out the powder. You can deprime live primers when you resize the case to get rid of most of the bulge. Get rid of the primer. After resizing the case, put the case in the reloading press, raise the ram to the top, then put in the bullet seating die and screw it down until the die touches the case mouth, then back off (up) the die about half a turn. The die should be set properly now to not crimp the case mouth on the bullet.

Reprime and recharge the cases, then seat bullet to the depth you need. This should solve the problem.

 

[davewilson]

first i'll welcome Bart to the forum.

second, i agree with what he said except i wouldn't remove the primers.

third, i would recommend you start off learning how to reload with something other than a 33 lapua.a 308 or even better a 223.

forth, i would highly recommend you find someone that is knowledgable about reloading and learn as much as you can before even going another step.the video you watched is great,but hands on with someone that knows what they're doing will be much better and more importantly, safer. they can show you how and why to do every process that's involved with reloading,especially what depth to seat the bullets.the more you learn, the more helpful this site will be.don't mean to dodge your question, i just think you need some hands on training before a verbal explanation will be adequate. good luck.

 

[EYESOFTEXAS]

Thanks for the comments.