RCBS expander ball wrong size?

[Matt52]

I'm loading up some 85gr Barnes TSX for my 243 Win was hoping to use them for deer in a few weeks. I noticed after the first 5 or so that it was hard to seat the bullet and a small sliver of copper came off every one. I checked my die over it looked ok. I checked my bullets with calipers they came to .243 on the dot. So then I measured my expander ball and it was .2405 this seems to be the problem. Any thoughts? What size should the expander ball be? It may be an expander for a .224 diameter cartridge.

 

[Chase515]

Did you chamfer debur the neck? You need three thousandths case neck tension.

 

[Matt52]

Fresh brass ran thru a Full Length die

 

[Chase515]

Size/deprime with fl die, trim to length, chamfer/debur. Check bullet fit with fingers it should start to slide in and immediately stop. Then go on loading you might have to guide the bullet into the die but be careful its easy to pinch a finger if you get tired.

 

[AmmoManAaron]

That sometimes happens with flat based bullets if you haven't chamfered the inside of the case mouth. Do that and your problem should go away. The expander has to be undersized so that the case neck holds the bullet in place, if the expander was bigger the bullet would just fall down into the powder space of the case.

 

[JStang314]

I had this happen recently. Deburring the inside fixed it. Hopefully yours is that simple.

 

[oldpink]

What the Ammoman told you is on the money.
In order to have adequate bullet tension, the expander ball must be undersized by about the amount that you measured.
Chamfer your case mouths, and you should be able to seat without a hitch.
btw...good choice going with the TTSX.
I'll be using the 165 grain .308 version in my .30-06 come the 12th, and yes I'm so damn pumped.