Improving the rifle loading setup and cast boolit question?

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Having successfully cast a long time now for loading lead pistol boolits, I'm looking to improve upon my rifle cast boolit setups.

The dies populating a rifle setup are much less in quantity and there's room to add a thing or two. I'm talking about reloading rifle in bulk, via a progressive.

In my general approach to reloading rifle on the new press, I'm planning on lubing, resizing, trimming on the "first pass" through the press. I'll then tumble and store the brass ready to load when I have bullets or boolits.

In the second pass, I'll prime, add powder, a bullet/boolit and seat it. Currently, I've not reloaded a bunch of cast boolit rifle, but I'm looking to increased my rifle accuracy with cast boolit success a great deal. This where I want to improve the process.

I think good success is to be had with most seating dies, but I think there's room on the press and room for improvement in the neck of the case. I think there's better choices and lesser choices when it comes to reloading rifle boolits.

Question 1 and my main question: What I'm looking for is where/what brand type case neck expansion is the greatest improvement likely to be seen. Is it the Lyman M die series? If so, where is a good place to read up on these?


Question 2: Additionally, is adding more expensive "match grade" seating dies show any significant improvement in accuracy over a standard die when using cast boolits?

What say you?

[W.R.Buchanan]

Dave: The RCBS seating die is a cut above others when seating J bullets. It is easy to use as you drop the bullet in the window on the side of the die and it just gets placed in the correct position. Regular dies don't do this as well.

There will be a learning curve associated with using cast boolits as the size is larger and the lube will gum up the works, however as far a placement accuracy goes it will do a better job than a regular seating die. I use mine for .311299's.

I use the regular seating die with the seating stem removed to crimp the bullet in a separate operation.

On my C&H H press I do Powder charge in the left station bullet seat in the middle and crimp on the right. Bang, bang, bang. Done.

I prep my cases same as you do by resizing/depriming, then trim, (now to be superceeded by using a RCBS X die to resize) and then tumble. now I have cases ready to prime charge seat bullets in and crimp..

We can call this the "two stage loading process" from now on!

I don't see going any appreciable amount faster for loading rifle cartridges unless you go to a Progressive press and then you loose some of the close inspection you do naturally with the 2 stage process.

The progressive (Dillon 650 would be my 1st choice) would be the ticket for doing large quantities of .223 ammo that accuracy was not the primary consideration, or loading any thing for high volumn usage.

Randy

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Randy,

What you did not mention is how you handled the case neck to accomodate the lead boolit. How do you do that?

[Dan Cash]

I load a lot of .30-30 cast on a Dillon 550. This is match ammo and is fired in 2 different rifles so it gets run through a trimmer each time. Therefore, I resize and decap on a separate press. Station 1 on the Dillon holds a Lyman M die to prep the neck when the case is primed. Powder charge, bullet seat and crimp are performed at each of the subsequent stations as normal. I am using a sliding chamber seating die which gives minimal run out and is worth the cost, even for lever action shooting.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

Dan,

What brand of sliding chamber seating die are you using?

[geargnasher]

Depending on whether or not your fodder is to be shared among two or more guns of the same caliber, I'd recommend a bushing neck sizer, a Lyman M die (for either jacketed or cast, use the appropriate oversized spud for cast), and a good straightline seater die.

Gear

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

gearnasher,

I don't own a M die in rifle calibers. Do they have interchangeable spud diameters like the multi caliber pistol M die does?

[canyon-ghost]

Neck sizing dies from RCBS for me. My 22 hornet likes them.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Dave: I just bell the case mouth slightly with a Lee belling die, that way I still have some grip on the Boolit. All I am looking for is a bell that is bigger than the boolit so it doesn't get shaved while seating.

My crimping operation closes the bell and locks the boolit in place. Most don't, but I do, as I feel it also promotes better burn consistancy with the powder I use (5744) as well .

No real proof, that it is better I just do it. I might add that I crimp every bullet/boolit I load. I can do it, so I do do it. It's done for different reasons for different cartridges, but I feel it makes for a more consistant product on all reloads. The only time I would not consider crimping is if the cartridges were being used strictly for target shooting and loaded single shot. None of the bench rest guys ever crimp anything.

Randy

[Dan Cash]

Dan,

What brand of sliding chamber seating die are you using?

It began life as a home made seating die for .30-06. It is now a home made die for .30-30 with the die body shortened and a different nose punch. I would think one could do something similar with a Redding or Bonanza .308 die.