really basic question

[daveefish]

i'm lookin at an ad in the midway catalog that say "lee universal cast bullet expanding die" what does this die do? thanks dave

[RayinNH]

Dave, it flares the case mouth slightly so that the case doesn't scrape the sides of the boolit as you seat them. A very handy tool to have...Ray

[daveefish]

how do you then close it back up? dave

[mooman76]

When you seat the bullet it either crips it or you can adjust the die enough to just straiten it back out.

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

After you seat the boolit, the seating (contains a crimper) and/or the crimp die will remove the flare you put in it with the Universal Crimp Die. The Universal die is used to provide a larger range of flaring adjustment for cast boolits.

Regards,

Dave

[daveefish]

looks like its something else to put on my list! dave

[jballs918]

dave,

keep in mind alos that this is a very light flare. just enough to get teh cast boolit started

[buck1]

I love mine!!

[Throckmorton]

why a seperate die for this when most die sets have an expander built in? at least they do for pistols.
hmmm
might be aimed at the rifle crowd maybe?

[9.3X62AL]

Throck--

Most modern pistol die sets sort of "assume" jacketed bullets, esp. autopistol die sets. Their expander stem dimensions are sometimes undersized for lead boolits.

Most die sets for neck-and-shoulder rifle calibers contain no tooling for case mouth flaring at all--so rifle die sets even more strongly assume jacketed bullet use. I suspect this "tooling gap" was the niche to be filled by the Lee tool, and it's a fine, useful item. Some of Lee's stuff makes me scratch my head, but the Universal Expander Die isn't one of those items. It fulfills a definite need.

[USARO4]

I have one of these and find it very usefull for loading cast in rifle and handgun cartridges. Lee makes some tools that are real winners.

[Dave B]

Lyman has one called an "M" die . I like it a little better than the Lee, but you have to have one for each cal.