Die selection

[West Creek]

I am gearing up to load for 8mm mauser and 33 brit. I figure on reloading lead boolits mostly although I do have some of those other kind but I figure on loading lead.

I'll be loading on a rockchucker and want to know what dies I should get. I'm figuring you guys will have some knowhow in those ways rather than me just buying a set of dies and stumbling through it.

I do have a 650 but I'll wait to see what kind of volume I shoot before I think about tooling it up for those rifle rounds. Right now I have been using the lock and load inserts for my rifle loads and the 650 for pistols.

I already load 32-40 with an RCBS cowboy set and they work great but I dont thing they make those for 8mm and 303.

Do I need a different set up or di I just chamfer the inside of the case mouth???

[462]

Since Lyman's Precision Alignment dies are long out of production -- though they can still be found on ebay -- Hornady's New Dimension dies are excellent. Both will require that the sliding sleeve be honed to accommodate large-for-caliber boolits...no way round that. There are other brands that are similar in function though not so moderately priced, but Lyman and Hornady are my preferences.

Chamfer a rifle case mouth, intended for cast boolits, the same as you would a handgun case.

[1hole]

Get the Lymans anyway, and an "M" expander die for both cartridges; that expander is great for jacketed bullets and nothing else is even nearly as good for cast stuff. I've loaded a lot of cast in both handguns and rifles, have never found any reason to use over-sized cast bullets at all.

[462]

" I've loaded a lot of cast in both handguns and rifles, have never found any reason to use over-sized cast bullets at all."

It would have been great if Smith and Wesson had made my Models 24 and 624 (.44 Special) so that they didn't require .433' boolits.

[1hole]

"It would have been great if Smith and Wesson had made my Models 24 and 624 (.44 Special) so that they didn't require .433' boolits."

Sorry 'bout that, I've not had anything that loose. But, my recovered bullets (from an old industrial sawdust pile) have shown that at about 1,100 ps everything I cast will obturate with standard sized diameters no matter how hard the alloys are, rifle and handgun,

[MikeS]

I have Lee dies and while some folks will tell you they're not as good as some other brands, I find that for me they work fine. You can get one of their 3 die sets which includes the Factory Crimp Die, which for rifles is a great die, as it makes a nice crimp, and allows you to seat the boolit, and crimp in 2 separate operations. I would add to those the appropriate size Lyman M die for loading cast boolits, as it expands the neck and flares the end of the case which makes seating lead boolits much easier than without it. If you don't want the Lee FCD, then you could get one of their 2 die sets, and with the difference in price between a Lee set, and some of the other brands (Lyman, RCBS, etc.) you can get the Lyman M expander die, and spend about the same as just buying a 2 die set from the 'big' name companies. I just bought a 3 die set of Lee dies from Factory Sales (a Lee distributor) and I think it cost me around $22.00 for the set. I already have a Lyman M die in 30 cal. so I didn't need to buy another one.

The only thing you give up by going with the Lee dies is the fancy exterior finish, they're just smoothly machines, no knurling (sp?) like most other dies have, but to me that's not something that's needed, it just makes the dies look nicer.

Another advantage of the Lee dies over other dies, considering that you're going to be loading milsurp calibers is that the decapping pin is held with a collet, and if you loosen up the collet, so it just holds the pin with enough strength to decap, and expand without moving, if you come across some berdan primed brass, the pin will just move up, rather than breaking like most other brands will.

You will notice that there are 2 groups on this board. Those that think that Lee stuff is junk, and won't even look at something if it's from Lee, and those that love everything Lee makes, and have loading benches with only Lee equipment! I fall somewhere in the middle, I like a lot of stuff Lee makes, but dislike other stuff they make. Some of the Lee stuff is very innovative in design, but the implementation leave something to be desired. But when it comes to reloading dies, I think Lee makes a great product equal to any other brand, at a much nicer price!

[largom]

I do not have a problem with LEE dies except for their seating die, which I consider the worst on the market. IMO the Hornady dies are the best "for the money". The seating die is the most critical in any die set and the Hornady's give a better boolit alignment to case during seating. If you shoot oversized boolits, which most of us do, you will probably have to hone out any seating die. I use a Hornady die body and make my own slideing sleeves and seating stems for each caliber/boolit.

Larry