Do Lee 40 S&W Work for Cast Boolits

[Four-Sixty]

Hello,

I'm considering getting set up to reload 40 S&W. Do the lee dies expand the case mouth enough to seat cast boolits well?

I have a set of the Lee 9mm dies and find they do not. (I have seen the thread on the expander plug not being adequate, so I'll probably get a separate expander.)

I'm hoping Lee did not have the same shortcoming with the 40 S&W expander die that they do with the 9MM die. I'm mostly considering Lee because they're cheaper.

What do you say?

[wrinkles]

My lee 9mm and .40 dies expand the cases just fine for cast bullets.

[geargnasher]

The Lee dies expand the case mouths just fine, where they totally fail is in expanding the neck large enough and deeply enough to prevent swaging the boolits so small when seated that they lead the bore.

Read this thread and you'll see the shortcomings. Pay particular attention to the picture in post #19: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=93108

Gear

[Four-Sixty]

Thanks for the input Gear.

I have even had problems with my boolits popping back out of the case.

I just measured half way up the 9mm expander, and find it's only .354".

Maybe that's why they don't work!

[Four-Sixty]

Would the Lee Universal Expanding Die be a good solution for properly expanding 9mm cases?

[Del-Ray]

I would think not. I have one. And all it does is bell the case mouth, nothing else enters the case to expand it more.

Is swaging of lead bullets just a problem with the softer leads? I've shot plenty of 9mm cast and seated with a LEE die, and never had a problem. Though my lead is harder then a preachers-, er.... Never mind.

[462]

The Lee Universal "Flaring" Die does nothing different than the flaring die that comes with their handgun die sets. Neither of them truely expand. For that, you need a Lyman "expander" M-die.

I ran into problems with Lee seating dies putting the squeeze on fat-for-caliber boolits. Switching brands eliminated the problem.

[blikseme300]

Hello,

I'm considering getting set up to reload 40 S&W. Do the lee dies expand the case mouth enough to seat cast boolits well?

I have a set of the Lee 9mm dies and find they do not. (I have seen the thread on the expander plug not being adequate, so I'll probably get a separate expander.)

I'm hoping Lee did not have the same shortcoming with the 40 S&W expander die that they do with the 9MM die. I'm mostly considering Lee because they're cheaper.

What do you say?

Short answer: No, the Lee expander dies do not work well with boolits.

My solution was to machine my own expanders. These mimic the workings of the M-die but are powder-through. Easy to do if you have access to a lathe.

Some people use the .38 expander for 9mm but I have not seen a similar fix for .40S&W.

PM me and I can make you expanders for the 2 calibers. Vacation coming up next week so will be easy to accommodate you. I am very cheap for fellow casters.:lovebooli (Think beer money.)

Bliksem