another M die question ....

[Digger]

Getting geared up for my .308 and am going to pick up a 31 M die but have the two choices ... long or short ? .
Slugged the bore , grooved out to .310 .... and was advised to pick up the 31 M die for .311 size boolit.
It appears that there are 3 different choices if I was going to go the 30 M die route ... short , medium or long .....but not in the 31 category ..
thanks
digger

[462]

Keep in mind that the expanding plugs are machined for jacketed bullets. The 30R plug is for .308 caliber jacketed bullets, the 31R plug is for .311 caliber jacketed bullets, i.e. .303 British. For .30 caliber cast bullets, use the 31R plug.

The long or short refers to the length of the die body, not the plug. The long die body is more versitile than the short. I use a long body to size from the short .30-30 to the long .30-'06.

[Digger]

Thanks for the information there "462" ! ... will follow your advice ...:wink:
digger

[stubshaft]

I have never used an "M" die for jacketed bullets. My old 1963 Lyman Cast boolit manual says "the "M" die expands the neck of the cartridge case to the correct diameter for your cast bullet".

[dragon813gt]

Measure the plugs and you will see that they're sized for jacketed. They do work wonders with cast. But they are still typically undersized for cast bullets. I still use them and they cured the swaging issues I was having when seating bullets.


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[462]

I have never used an "M" die for jacketed bullets. My old 1963 Lyman Cast boolit manual says "the "M" die expands the neck of the cartridge case to the correct diameter for your cast bullet".


It may be that Lyman wasn't making M-dies for bottle-neck cartridges, back then. All of my factory-made bottle-neck expander plugs were too small, so I had custom expanders made. However, I've only had to have one custom handgun expander plug made.

[A pause for the COZ]

This should help decide.

http://www.lasc.us/Brennan_LymanMDies.htm

[geargnasher]

It may be that Lyman wasn't making M-dies for bottle-neck cartridges, back then. All of my factory-made bottle-neck expander plugs were too small, so I had custom expanders made. However, I've only had to have one custom handgun expander plug made.

Part of the problem is that the Lyman staff has sized their cast rifle boolits to groove diameter since the dawn of time, made them of linotype, and made their expanders appropriate for that. If you are sizing to throat diameter and ignoring groove dimensions as many of us do, you need bigger boolits and bigger expanders, as well as bigger case sizing dies, so we have to improvise. Remember, Lyman says 1600 fps is the limit for microgroove barrels, that's because they don't know how to size for them.

Gear

[Digger]

So according to the article in LASC website ... .308 takes the "short , M2 body" , ... not the long .... please correct me if I am wrong.

[L Ross]

Well now the 308 is a 7.62x51m/m and the 30-30 is a 7.62x51R and the 30-30 works fine for me with the standard long body so I would think it would work for the .308 also.
Also didn't 462 say the long body worked for him with the 30-30?

Duke

[462]

Also didn't 462 say the long body worked for him with the 30-30?

Yep, I did and it does.