260 remington, 140 gr coreloct no crimp, insufficient neck tension

[john keyes]

I have reloaded a lot of bottleneck rifle cartridges, .308, 7mm-08, .30-06 for many years with out a crimp.

suddenly I'm loading some 260 remington and the bullets are loose.

some details:  using rem factory brass unsized, then fired and resized..no difference

the bullets are obviously <.264 past the cannelure, but seating up to the cannelure, I can still grab the bullet and spin it   

probably not a lot to go on for you guys, I can't figure it out.

I'm gonna try some speer or sierra or other type 6.5's and see if they do the same thing.

trying to remain intrigued instead of angry..

I know a factory crimp die will fix it buy I'd like to figure it out w/o just taking care of it.

pretty comical actually.  how many situations are we getting peeved and if we could look at ourselves from another perspective we would be laughing our butt off.   

[Old Syko]

You don't state what you are using for dies and your size die is likely the problem.  Check a case freshly sized without the expander ball in place to first make sure you're getting proper neck compression.  If the die is not oversized in this area next check your expander ball for proper dia.  You want it to be at least.003" to .005" smaller than your bullet dia. and preferably closer to .005".  If it isn't correct turn it down and polish to correct size.

If you are using a collet sizer die either get the proper collet or modify yours to fit.

[beemanbeme]

Take the expander ball and spindle out of your die.  The expander ball will have a small band of metal around it that does the actual expanding as you draw it from the case.  If it will unscrew, take it loose and chuck it in a drill so the band of metal is exposed and using 0000 steelwool, buff it down a bit. Measure it before you start and keep track of how much you take it down.  It don't take much. If the ball won't unscrew, chuck the spindle in the drill but be sure and keep pressure on the steelwool on both sides of the expander ball so you won't bend the spindle. 

[Hopalong7]

I load 260 REM and 140 core-lokt with RCBS dies and REM brass and have not run into this problem.  Something is not sized right, which I'm sure you already well aware of.  Mike the expander ball and the bullets.  As long as there was resistance when you withdrew the brass from the die( i.e. ,the expander was actually making contact and doing something) it has to be the size of expander or size of the bullet.  Good luck and let us know.  Walt

[coyotejoe]

I encountered the same problem when I first started loading the 6.5x55, my RCBS sizer was not reducing the neck enough to firmly hold a bullet. I bought a set of "cheap" Lee dies and problem solved.

[john keyes]

thanks for your help,  I bought some hornaday 140's and sierra prohunter 120's, took the deprimer/expander shaft out, looked at it, put it back in, sized a case....and it was like it should be.
maybe it was not at a good angle, ie off center somewhat or something.
hell, I dunno.  I got it licked now, if I don't I'll buff the expander ball like you said.  If its not the expander ball but the sizer I'll just try some other dies.

thanks again.