A recently purchased Enfield No.2 Mk1* tanker pistol in 38 S&W has put me back on the path of casting and I have a couple questions concerning Lyman M dies.
In the past when I was working with the 8x58RD cartridge I used a Lee die to flare the case mouth before seating the as cast .326 bullet for the over sized 8x58RD barrel. At the time I could not help but think the gas check end of the boolit was being compressed by the brass when I seated the bullet in a case that was FL resized by a standard reloading die.
By the design of the Lyman M dies as I understand it, it expands (sizes) the neck in a more controlled way as well as flaring the case mouth in one step. This type of neck sizing is desirable over the standard pull thru button supplied with most standard dies due to run out and neck lengthening issues.
My question is, would a Lyman M die of say .324 be a good way to size the full neck length thus reducing undue compression and deformation of the boolits base when seating. I realize this might not be as much of a problem with GC boolits but in looking for a proper .361-.363 PB boolit for the 38 S&W I was concerned about swaging down the bullet when seating it in the case. These 200gr boolits will be fairly soft when cast and I think they will be even more likely to squeeze down a couple tho when seated in the case that has been sized to .358
Maybe this is not an issue with softer alloys as any reduction in size will be somewhat bumped up when the cartridge is fired. Or perhaps a full bore diameter bullet such as the 200 gr bullet designed for this cartridge application might seal the bore just fine even with a slightly smaller base.
I realize the cartridge chamber will determine how much the case neck can be expanded without turning the O.D. of the case neck. Do any of you guys used over sized neck expanders to lessen boolit base swaging by the case???
Is this splitting frog hairs or a real concern for accuracy???
Thanks, Smokepole50