After the trim

[survivalshop]

 This article talks about the different degree's of chamfering , which I don't use VLD Bullets , but its interesting .

RELOADERS CORNER: CASE TRIMMING: FINISHING THE JOB

JANUARY 9, 2017 GLEN ZEDIKER 1 COMMENT

So you have a sack full of trimmed cases. Now what? Here’s what! A few tips on final preparation that may even promote better accuracy. Keep reading…

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Glen Zediker

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The most basic and necessary tool or tools we’ll need to get the freshly-trimmed case into shape to take on a new bullet is an “outside” and “inside” chamerfing appliance. These are most popularly housed in one hand-held tool: one end does the outside and the other does the inside. Of course (of course) there are options, and some are right dandy.

Here’s a basic and common LE Wilson inside/outside chamfering too. One end does the outside, the other does the inside. Shown is a 45-degree tool.

After trimming the case mouths will be square, flat, and appear wider-walled than before. That’s normal.

There will usually be a little edge-ring of brass on the exterior surface of the case neck, and that’s the reason for the wider appearance. That’s easily remedied. It takes only a light skiff using the “outside” function of the tool.

That little ring of brass around the top outside edge of the case neck: just get it gone. Doesn’t require a cut, just a skiff with an outside deburring tool.

Don’t cut into the outside, just remove the ring. No bevel is necessary; that only thins the case mouth. If the ring is left standing, the case might not want to feed, and then there will be little shards of brass here and there.

Next, the inside. The inside edge of the case mouth needs to be broken and also beveled to more easily accept a bullet. Now we’ve got options in depth of the bevel and angle of the bevel.

The long-time “standard” is a 45-degree chamfer. That functions okay to allow most bullets to sit unsupported in the case neck prior to seating. I believe, and I’m not nearly alone, that a steeper angle is better. For anyone loading bullets that are of a longer, “spikier” form, I strongly recommend something closer to 30 degrees, or less. These are often called “VLD” cutters or chamfer tools, and that is because these tools followed the “low-drag” style bullets that, among other attributes, featured relatively longer, more steeply angled boat-tails. They also have relatively thinner jackets (“J4”). Essentially, a 45-degree pathway and the geometry on the bullet didn’t mate up.

Here’s a Lyman “VLD” chamfer tool. It’s got a 22-degree angle. I’ve used other brands that were 19 and 20, and I honestly don’t know that a couple degrees makes much difference. However! There’s a world of difference between this and a 45-degree tool.

The result of a greater angle mismatch is that the bullet gets a pretty hard start into the case neck, and it can also get a crooked start, and that’s because it’s not sitting “into” the neck very far. It’s in a precarious position and easily tilted. These long bullets create what amounts to more leverage in less-than-perfect case necks, which is going to be the most of our case necks unless we’re neck turning. (It’s also why I’m a big believer in a bullet-seating stem that engages farther down the bullet nosecone; this also helps reduce the angular deflection in seating.) I’ve seated and then pulled bullets from cases with 45- and 20-degree chamfers, for instance, and those from the shallower angle show noticeably less scuffing. (Plus, many of the custom-made low-drags feature a “pressure ring,” which is a tiny elevated ring right at the boat-tail/shank junction, usually about 0.0005 diameter, which helps obturation. That ring can get deformed by a 45-degree chamfer.)

It’s not the depth into the case neck cylinder that improves the transition into the case neck, so a “bigger” cut with a 45 won’t do a thing. A steeper cutter is going to make a deeper extension into the case neck simply because the angle is steeper.

Cutting the inside, do not go for a knife edge! For a yardstick, I suggest going about halfway on a 45-degree cut and 2/3 on a VLD-style chamfer tool. By that I mean that the appearance of the wall thickness at the case mouth is roughly half after chamfering that it was before.

There are also “all-in-one” cutter/chamfer/deburr heads for some case trimmers. These are one bugger to set up, but they work well and save a ton of time and extra steps, and since it’s incorporated into the length-trimming operation, the chamfer consistency will be spot-on. Trick is finding one that cuts a shallower angle on the inside… If not, it’s going to produce better results overall to do this operation separately.

It is important, at least in logical thought, to have the same chamfer depth on each case to ensure perfectly consistent engagement with the bullet shank. Honestly, I don’t know if that shows up on a target, but it’s easily attained using either an LE Wilson or Forster case trimming base, as well as some others, with the addition of a chamfering tool in the apparatus to replace the length trim cutter. It’s an extra step in retooling and adjustment, but then if the cases are all the same length and the stops are set, each case mouth will have an identical chamfer.

Here’s a trick and half for seating flat-base bullets. These are difficult to get started straight since there’s no boat-tail to ease transition into the case neck. I use an LE Wilson inside neck reamer set to engage a feature built into that tool. LE Wilson added a short tapered area that can be run into a sized case neck, about 1/16 inch, that machines something close to a “shelf” that provides a nest for the flat bullet base. There’s a noticeable improvement in runout on the flat-base bullets I have seated with and without this cut. [Note: This is the “standard” inside neck reamer intended to remove excessive thickness in the case neck cylinder on fired cases, not sized cases; the feature just described is an accessory benefit and, again, is engineered for use on sized case necks.]

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The preceding is a specially-adapted excerpt from Glen Zediker’s newest book Top-Grade Ammo. Available right’chere at Midsouth Shooters Supply. Visit ZedikerPublishing.com for more information on the book itself, as well as others.

[98Z5V]

I put that process in the steps I made for making 300BLK cases from 5.56 cases.  I chamfer the hell out of them, inner and outer, with a VLD chamfer tool, right after cutting them off, and before final-length trimming.  Makes trimming them down ALOT easier.  They get chamfered again in the whole, long process, too.  Schit, I can't even find my post on making 300BLK cases anymore... 

[98Z5V]

Schit, I found it in the "reloading bench" thread...

Steps for my 300BLK manufacture:

 

1.  AR-15s get the $hit shot out of them at the range.  All brass policed up.

2.  All AR-15 brass (.223 Rem and 5.56 NATO) goes into the tumbler once it gets home.

3.  Sort out Lake City 5.56 NATO brass - that's the only stuff I'll turn into Blackout ammo anymore. 

4.  Run the Lake City 5.56 brass through the mini chop saw.  I was cutting it right at the neck, but that leaves ALOT of trimming.  I've been cutting it a little further back now, so I have less final-trimming to do.  I'll get pics next time I chop a batch up.

5.  Chamfer those now-straight-walled cases heavily, with VLD chamfer bits - this is important later, and for the next step. 

6.  Run them through the tumbler for about 15 minutes, to clear out all the brass shavings from chopping them - don't let that stuff tear up your 300BLK dies.

7.  Pull from tumbler, shake 'em out, and lube 'em up on the pad (or whatever you use).  You can hit straight-walled 5.56 cases with some pretty heavy lube, and it won't hurt the brass.  Typically, if you use too much lube, you're gonna dent in the shoulders of brass that you're just resizing.  That's one sign of "too much lube."  You can run this stuff heavy and it won't hurt new-made BLK cases - you're forming a brand new shoulder, where there wasn't one before.  I've yet to have a problem on a heavy-lubed pad, and any shoulder issues when making new BLK brass.

8.  Run 'em through the sizer/deprimer.

9.  Leave the lube on there - don't sweat it.  There's still alot of steps to go here...

10.  Change dies in the press - Run them through the Swager now - get rid of those crazy Lake City primer crimps.  Be aggressive with them in this step, because the new Lake CIty primer crimping is a 4-Corner affair.  Lake CIty wants to make sure you never blow out a primer in their brass, and they're damn good at the primer crimping process.

11.  These things are going in for final-trimming now.  Put them in your trimmer - lube still on them - and cut them back to 1.363" OAL.  I've been cutting them shorter now so I have less to trim.  If you chop them right at the shoulder, they'll be somewhere between 1.900" and 2.000" long when you start trimming - THAT'S ALOT TO HAND-TRIM!!!  I chop under the shoulder now - still experimenting - and my initial length, to start trimming, has beenin the 1.800"-something range.  That's not bad.

12.  You may need to hit them with the VLD chamfer tool (inner and outer) while you're trimming them down.  Measure often - if you have alot to go, chamfer those fuckers.  It makes it easier to trim them down.

13.  Once at final trim-to size, chamfer those bastards again, inner and outer, with the VLD chamfer tool.  This must be done in order to make it easier to get a good, light crimp on them later. 

14.  Once they're all trimmed to 1.363", they go into a small tupperware of hot soapy water.  Run them all around in there, make sure you wash them good.  They've got lube on them, brass shavings, gunk.  The hot soapy water makes that stuff go away fast. 

15.  Toss in a squirt of Real Lemon, right into the soapy water, for the last 10 minutes.  Makes 'em pretty.

16.  Out of the water, into a small collander - hot water bath, right under the faucet, to clear all that soap and lemon juice out.

17.  Onto the paper towels, out into the AZ sun, to dry out.  Takes less than 10 minutes here, in the middle of the day, in the summer...

18.  Into the tumbler again.  Polish 'em up.

19.  Clear them out from the tumbler, take them back inside ('cause it's summer in AZ...).

20.  Prime those bastards up.  I'm running CCI 400 small rifle primers in mine.

21.  Measure/drop powder.  I'm running 150 grain Hornady FMJ BT projectiles, so I'm running 16.1 grains of H110 powder under them.  It's very, very damn close to a compressed load in this small case.

22.  Seat your bullets. 

23. Toss on a light taper-crimp, if your dies don't already do this for you.  I've been using the RCBS AR-Series 300BLK Small Base Die Set.  The seater die has a crimp function built right into it - all in the same motion.  Once you hit that final depth on the seating, it crimps it, too.  No separate action the their AR-Series Dies. All in one.  Saved one step that way...  <lmao>

 

There you go.  That's the process I take to turn Lake City 5.56 NATO brass into 300BLK ammo.  Might seem excessive, but those steps are there for a reason.

[survivalshop]

 I've been using an RCBS 45 deg. de burring tool for ever , I haven't had any issues loading any kind of Bullet . Not sure the VLD will make much difference , but will have to get one to see .