shell casing as sizer for pb

[Gary Patterson]

First, let me thank all who have helped me through the frustrations of a beginner to the point where I pour my own lead, lube & load. I shoot 44spl. Colt NF with cylinder throats 433. Barrel @429. Bullets cast are 432. Marshall at Beartooth convinced me to buy a lyman M dye. I mic'd the expander plug at 426. Won't the shell casing then effectively size my bullet down to 426 before even shooting it rendering normal sizing procedures redundant? My RCBS regular neck exp die is 424, even worse. Don at Lyman customer service can't believe anyone would recommend shooting such a large dia. bullet and he can't see a solution. Any ideas would be appreciated. Again, thank you. Gary

[462]

Welcome, Gary.

I think M-dies are right up there with sliced bread and use them for all my various calibers. However, they do become a bit lacking when it comes to fat-for-caliber boolits. I've had custom expander plugs made for most of my M-dies, with the smaller diameter .002" under boolit size and the larger diameter .001" over.

I think Buckshot makes them -- send him a PM.

My S&W 624 .44 Special has .432" throats and a .430" groove, and I size boolits to .433". I think Don, at Lyman, needs to be in another line of work, or at least keep his comments to himself.

[bobthenailer]

I have 2 - 44mags that have .432 & .433 chamber throats for those two on a dillon press i use a dillon drop tube expander assy for the 45 colt but had to have it turned down to .430 dia for use with cast bullets in those two 44 mags the rest i use .430 dia bullets in.
Im sure you could turn down any larger expander assy from any reloading dies for your purposes.

[44man]

The solution to brass sizing the boolit is easy---just make the boolit harder so it expands the brass.
I would want to shoot them as cast at .432" and use a .432" Lee size die to remove excess lube only.
I take it you shoot for fun and target so you might find the harder boolit shoots better too.
Brass will never size a boolit to expander diameter but it will reduce it some if the boolit is soft.

[Calamity Jake]

Load a dumby round with your .432 boolit and a sized case then pull the boolit and mic it to see if it is reduced in size, if it isn't then your good to go, if it is reduced then do as 44man says and/or get a custom expander for the M die.

[44magLeo]

Your neck expander needs to be .001 to .002 smaller than the boolit. Any more and the boolit and case can be deformed.
The case will size the boolit some and the boolit will expand the case some.
Your resizing die needs to size the case to .004 or .005 below the boolit size.
This puts less stress on the case and extends the case life.
Leo

[Gary Patterson]

Thank you for your advice, seems most reasonable which is why someone like you had to spell it out for me. I loaded two dummy rounds, pulled bullets and one measures 427, the other 428. So, when they would leave the cylinder they're already be about .005 too small for the cylinder throat and smaller than the barrel, too. So, I will have a custom plug made. It'll cost about $15. Like buying horses, the cheapest part is always the initial purchase, huh?

[randyrat]

Here is a good article on your question.
http://www.levergun.com/articles/thoughts.htm
Go down a ways in the article and look at bullet seating.


I had someone (deltaenterprize) make me a plug a couple thousands smaller than my optimal cast bullet size. You do want some grab with your brass, don't just depend on your crimp to hold your slug. there are others here that are capable to make a custom plugs. Of course the other way, make your bullet harder. Not all want a harder bullet though.