seating cast bullets

[MSD MIke]

Chamfering or beveling the case mouth actually removes material. I would think that could weaken the case and it's kind of a hassle as well. I bought out a guys reloading stuff in the late 80's. Along with it came an ammo can full of 38 special brass and one full of 45 ACP brass. He said the brass was used many times when he got it, he reloaded with it for years and I have also reloaded with it for years. Most of my reloading has been with lead bullets and and all of it has been belling the case mouth. Every great once in awhile a case mouth splits and you toss the case. Belling the case mouth is standard procedure and will make your lif easier.


Mike

[shoot-n-lead]

Really...

OP...sorry man, but this ain't rocket science.

[greenjoytj]

Are you sure your not over expanding the case mouth with your expander die?
I ask this because the first time I handloaded using a Lyman M die expander I didn't know how much of the expanded tip to insert into the case. I examined the expander plug and saw the expanding steps (3 if you count the main plug dia.). It looked like a no brainer to me, the pictures in the instructions showed 3 points (sizes) of expansion. So my first case got way over expanded, it wouldn't fit into the bullet seating die. I re-sized it and tried again with the expander plug back way out. This time I slowly advanced the expander plug 1/4 turn testing the bullet fit after each advancement.
I decided to stop an tighten the plug locking ring when I could see about 1/3 of the bullet wide base band sink below the case mouth. This level of expansion made the bullet very easy to install straight and made it stable during its upward journey into the bullet seating die.
Not all my bullets need this much case expansion, I now adjust the die according to the bullet being seated to get the minimum amount of case expansion to hold the bullet straight.