Thread: how little reworking of the brass while reloading is necessary

Originally Posted by Bill999

he basically knocks the primer out and replaces it without resizing the neck and fills it with the powder charge

This bit doesn't really make sense. If the neck has opened up to release the old bullet, the new bullet should just about drop freely into the case. The seating die will push bullets down against the resistance in the neck - it doesn't hold onto the bullet so it can't prevent the bullet from falling in if there's no neck tension at all.

So you'd expect that your friend's cartridge lengths would end up all over the place. The die won't be able to control the bullet seating properly. It might be able to crimp them in place wherever they may be after they have fallen in "some amount" (probably when they're resting on top of the powder). But that can't be concentric or precise.

If there is plenty of tension there when seating then there's a problem. I have had one gunsmith screw up a build for me where they used the wrong reamer and gave me a rifle that had almost zero clearance around the neck on my loaded rounds. I did not notice immediately, as the rounds chambered without any noticeable effort and fired OK (they were mild loads). Then when I went to reload the brass, the cases didn't need neck sizing. With the neck being so tight and the brass having a little springback, the result was there was enough tension to hold a bullet securely without any sizing. This is a dangerous situation - because it can cause a pressure spike during firing.

So I suggest you don't copy your mate. He could have a similarly dangerous situation going on. Best case scenario: you don't have a stupidly tight neck and your ammo is just shit.