Will tight necks bruise soft bullets?

[JeffinNZ]

Hi

For example. .44/40, 20-1 alloy, bullets sized .428, seated in neck expanded to .426.

Will the soft lead bullet be sized any by the brass neck of the case?

[Dale53]

When I shoot BPCR bullets (30/1 lead/tin) I use an expander that is from the same size as the bullet to .001" smaller. The elasticity of brass gets about .001" springback insuring good bullet tension without damaging the bullet. Any tighter, you can have problems.

Dale53

[Char-Gar]

Black power and soft lead shooting is a different ball game and has some rules perculiar to it.

You will have zero problems seating 1-20 alloy cast bullets that are several thousand larger than the ID of the case necks. Of course this assumes you have a sufficient bell on the cast mouth to start the bullets without shaving lead.

[JeffinNZ]

CHARGAR: Can you explain futher please?

[44man]

Yes, tight neck tension can size a soft boolit but the 44-40 has such thin necks I don't think there will be a problem. For other calibers like the .44 mag, .45 Colt, etc., you want tight neck tension and the solution is to use harder boolits.
Just shooting light loads with very fast powders, soft boolits and loose tension is OK, fine for the C.A. stuff.

[Bass Ackward]

Hi

For example. .44/40, 20-1 alloy, bullets sized .428, seated in neck expanded to .426.

Will the soft lead bullet be sized any by the brass neck of the case?

Jeff,

There are several stages in the bullet making process where soft bullets can be damaged besides a "prefect" seating test where you align everything perfectly and pull the bullet with an impact puller. Molding, storage, initial sizing, and maybe storage again, and then seating for the load. The damage comes when you get in a hurry that the bullet is angled in the bell of the case when it goes up in the die that screws ya.

You need to load with care is all I am saying. And some people that consider themselves experienced reloaders .... can have trouble. Some don't even realize the problems and just prefer harder bullets. Mostly it's reloading patience. If you don't like reloading, go hard to save yourself grief. I even catch myself sometimes, so that's how I know. As a result, I may not go as soft as I really should for the pressure I am running and I cheat to the hard side just to avoid problems.

Soft bullets are more difficult to mold and load correctly than a hard bullet .... period.

[44man]

I agree, Bass. I always make sure my boolits are perfectly straight and set into the flare. I then seat very slowly. I have seen guys slam the handle down so fast and hard, half the boolit would be crimped on the outside of the case. My friend bought a box of .45 ACP's and none would chamber. I took one look and told him to pull all of them and save the brass. I never seen lead on the outside of the necks before then but have seen it several times since.

[Springfield]

Seems to me that any lead that was soft enough to size down with brass tension would bump back up again when fired and not be noticeable. But then I just Cowboy shoot and am not looking for world beating accuracy. I also flare my 44-40 cases more than some to avoid any of the aforementioned distortion. I cast my CAS bullets with an 80-1 lead tin mix and have had no problem with distorted bullets or accuracy.