Newb case sizing question - rifle cases and cast boolits

[Sticky]

Okay, so I have cast my first 230gr boolits for a 300AAC subsonic load, but.. when seating, I am shaving a bit of lead.. I know, bad...

How do you bell a rifle case? I have belled thousands of pistol cases and loaded thousands of rifle cartridges with jwords, but this is kinda new to me.. lol

Is there an expanding/bell die for rifle cartridges, or do you just use an appropriate tool (like a tapered punch) and do it by hand? :-?

[jcren]

Lee makes a universal expander die for under $20 with shipping, I believe layman makes the "m-series" expanding dies just for lead. Personally, I just use a hardware store 3/16" taper punch for my 06 cases. Set the punch in the mouth of the case, drop the case/punch on the bench a few times. Problem solved.

[Sticky]

I like the tapered punch idea.. I have one of those.. lol

Okay, so if I bell the case mouth a bit, the relationship to case mouth ID and boolit OD becomes less of an issue, no? I have boolits dropping at about .310 and my case mouth is significantly smaller when sized, on the order of .303-.304 ID.

I normally rely on case neck tension with a 300blk sub, no crimp..

[MarkP]

0.303 -0.304" is too small; remove your expander spindle assembly and measure the expander ball. It should be fairly close to bullet diameter within a few thousandths of an inch. If not you should call the die manufacturer or look for a different expander ball. What brand of dies are you using?

[mistermog]

hahaha i never thought of the punch idea, so i bought the lee dealie. cant go wrong with it, plus it threads into your press so you arent dropping a case a few times, then another, then another... with no controls. :) (in other words, lee universal and I always order from fsreloading.com, great place and people)

[jcren]

+1 above, I use Lee neck size (collet)die, and get .307 ish measured with calipers. Are you camphering the case mouth? You may be measuring a bur .

[427smith]

probably no help but for 300 blackout I use a lee 357 powder thru die and replaced the expander bell mouth part with one I made on my lathe. in my experience if the case mouth is more than .001 or .0015 smaller than boolit it tends to resize them to small. just a thought

[Sticky]

I will double check the case mouths for deburring, pretty sure they were (they were sized but didn't get trimmed). My die is an RCBS 22407 and it measures about .3065 on the expander... Hmmm.. lol

[ABJ]

I have used the lee expander and it works pretty good, until i got the Lyman m-die. The m-die made some 30-06 loads even better. I also use the lee collet die for closing the bell just enough without crimping. I like the lee die because you can see the bullet coming up through the die as the shell contacts the collet.

[Sticky]

Okay, after some contemplation, research and coffee, I headed down to the 'room' this morning to redo my test strings. Took some fresh brass, used a punch to bell it, and man, what a difference! Only had one that hung up on me and that was probably inadequate belling.

Pulled all the loads from yesterday to recycle the components, which brings me to another question... loading with A1680, which is a very fine flake powder. Lubed with BLL, which really isn't sticky, but this powder sticks to everything! I was able to remove most all of the residual powder from the boolits, plan to dump them on top the pot next casting session (have half a pot of cold alloy in it now). Does the presence of a few flakes of powder create any issues with remelting? I know moisture is a serious thing to avoid.. lol

[Sticky]

Applied a very slight crimp with my seating die to remove the belling and the final product looks great. I'll get out in the next few days to test em out.. ;)

[Harter66]

Do you have a drill press and a tap and die set ? Making correct expanders as a complete replacement rod isn't hard to do. With a universal decapper die you can even set up pins for correct neck diameter and flaring and decaping with replaceable pins. This way you have absolute QC.

[Sticky]

Harter, even better, I have access to a machine shop, so I see where I can do some tweaking as I get into this a bit more for cast loads. Thanks for the advice, I will put that on my list of things to work on! We can make anything.. lol ;)

[blikseme300]

Harter, even better, I have access to a machine shop, so I see where I can do some tweaking as I get into this a bit more for cast loads. Thanks for the advice, I will put that on my list of things to work on! We can make anything.. lol ;)

Having access to a machine shop makes things easy. I used the Lee expander as the basis and machined inserts that mimic the M-die. These units from Lee are cheap enough that I have a number of these with different inserts for different calibers. CB loading is so much easier when using these.

[Echo]

I was able to remove most all of the residual powder from the boolits, plan to dump them on top the pot next casting session (have half a pot of cold alloy in it now). Does the presence of a few flakes of powder create any issues with remelting? I know moisture is a serious thing to avoid.. lol
Well, you will see some sparks when the flakes ignite - might be a good idea to have some sort of cover over the pot when you do the melting.

[Sticky]

I need to look closer at an M die to see what it's all about. Simple enough to fab some inserts once I see what I need exactly, thanks!

Echo, I was thinking it probably isn't a good idea to drop a well powdered recycle into a molten pot, but I would get most all of the residual powder off and set them atop my slug of alloy that I let cool in the pot last cast and let them warmup with the warming of the pot. A couple sparks should make some decent flux, no? lol

[jcren]

Basically, a m-die forms a combination flare and solid caliber sized plug that forms a short expanded "collar" if you will got ensure straight starting of cast bullets. A worthy investment for max accuracy or oversized for caliber bores.