Seating 40 S & W cast bullets - issue

[mookiie]

I am trying to seat some 40 S & W cast bullets. I am having an issue when I do though. Some of the lead is shaving off the bullets and clinging around the cast mouth. Do I need to adjust my sizing die to bell the cast mouth more?
Thanks!

[ku4hx]

Flare the case mouth just enough to prevent lead shaving; taper crimp in a separate operation just enough to close the flaring.

[Cmemiss]

In a word, yes. It seems most reloading dies are set to open the case mouth for a J-word bullet. Those are normally sized at .400 while our cast boolets are sized to .401 or larger, so it would follow that you need more case mouth expansion. In addition, depending on your barrel the throat may not want to accpt the cast, in which case I find I have to seat the boolet a slight bit deeper. You may want to make up some dummy rounds to do a "plunk" test to get the seating right. Good luck.

[landers]

Mookiie, you didn't mention the brand of dies you are using but there should be an expander die you can adjust to expand or bell the case a little more to help stop the lead shaving. You don't want to use the sizing die as an expander.

Landers

[mookiie]

I am using Lee dies.

[mookiie]

Landers - thanks - the expander die was still hooked to my powder measure and so i completely forgot it existed and since I am mocking up rounds with no powder to check function it never occurred to me. Thanks!

[fredj338]

If you try seating any caliber lead bullet w/o a good case mouth flare, shaving will occur. The bullet should easily sit atop the flared case mouth, the flare is quite visible.

[williamwaco]

.40 Cal pix Here:

http://reloadingtips.com/pages/loading-40-sw.htm


Be sure to click on the images to expand them.