44Man, I need your experience!

[High Desert Hunter]

I have been using RCBS 44 Mag/Spl loading dies for the last 15 years, never had any issue until I tried cast bullets over 300 grains. I recently started casting the Lee 429310RF, and when seating the bullets, the seating plug shaves the top 1/4" pretty bad. I am looking for a recommendation for a seating die, or plug that fits the RCBS die body that won't shave the WFN bullets. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Tatume]

If you want to talk to someone privately that is what you should do. It's called PM for private message.

[Outpost75]

Standard RCBS seating plug is for SWC with meplat smaller than your 300-grain bullet. Change to a plain flat wadcutter top plug or turn off the flange projecting on the one you have, so that it is a plain, flat face.

[High Desert Hunter]

Wasn't looking to keep it private, in the event someone else had the same issue. I will have to check with RCBS and see if they offer a full wadcutter plug for my seat die. Figured 44Man may have known of a custom aftermarket supplier. Didn't mean to stir up any dust, just know that he has a lot more experience with the 44 than I do, now if it was my 45 Colt......

[dubber123]

Outpost75 has your answer. Temporarily you can fill the seater with hot glue to just past "full", leaving a little crown of hot glue above the edge of the seater plug. It will conform to your boolit of choice, and is easily removed.

[DougGuy]

Fill the seater with JB Weld will do it, machine it flat will do it, I had my son make me new flat seaters for Lee dies to load the RF boolits.

[joesig]

I was hesitant to respond being this was addressed to 44Man but seeing there is other traffic...

If this is the only boolit you'll be seating, it may pay to make your own "custom" seater plug with what you have and some JB Weld. (I think I have heard of using beeswax too. Probably much more forgiving of mistakes and easily reversible!)

Some Lee tumble lube on the nose and I think I used a good coating of lanolin inside the die as a mold release. JB Weld in the seater cavity and insert boolit.

I have unscrewed the seater plug and put it in the top of the die to hold for the balancing act of placing the boolit nose down into the seating stem as the JB Weld cured. Maybe invert the die in the press, seating plug facing down. Dummy case/boolit in ram and raise. That would allow for better alignment.

I have used similar for nose punches for the RCBS Lube-A-Matic.

[High Desert Hunter]

Thanks for all of the inputs! In the future I will remember not to seek "sole source" information. Thanks again.

[daniel lawecki]

Hot glue also works and is removable and can be shaped.

[High Desert Hunter]

I am going to try the hot glue, I also dropped a line to RCBS customer service. These bullets are extremely accurate from my Super Blackhawk, wondering if they will be even better without a ring around the nose. I tried a similar commercial cast bullet in Alaska, that must have had a slightly narrower meplat, and weighed in at 315 grains, in my non-scientific penetration tests, they were within 3" of my 454 Casull with 335 grain bullets with only a slightly narrower wound channel, this was in wet newsprint with a Cabelas catalog every 8" or so that was dry, without looking at notes, the 454 hit almost 40", the 44 was at 36, and my 45 Colt with the same bullet as the 454 was at 35, the 45/70 with a 525 grain bullet exited the 48" of media, the 45/70 was loaded to 1400fps, the 454 to 1500fps, the 44 to 1350, and the 45 Colt to 1200. Wouldn't hesitate to shoot any North American big game animal with any one of them.

[44man]

I just got here and it is OK to ask in public. I don't like RCBS revolver dies. I use Hornady now and have BR collar dies for the .44 with inline seater but Hornady equals custom dies.
You CAN make the seater plug fit better but the expander is still wrong with RCBS dies.
Your biggest problem is uneven case tension on a great boolit.
The seat plug on Hornady dies will not damage a nose at all. Expander is perfect. Plus you have an inline seat die, keeps boolits straight.
I will NOT buy Lee or Lyman dies. But Reddings for a rifle are good even though I had to send sizing dies back to stop sizing rifle necks too much. They solved it with collar dies.
My RCBS dies came in handy to make BPCR compression dies and GC seaters.
Yes, long ago I used RCBS ONLY until I found how a revolver works.
You would do yourself a favor by getting Hornady New Dimension dies. Prices have gone way up but I buy nothing else for any gun or rifle.

[44man]

Brass is a pain in the butt so you must learn what it does. Brass is the reason for anything you get at the target. Boolit is next to steer the cylinder to alignment. Your dies might destroy accuracy even though loads look good.

[High Desert Hunter]

Thank you sir! I don't use the expander plug, as I load on a Dillion 550, I like it due to the amount of case tension I get, have never had any discernible bullet creep with the 44 or 45 Colt, the 454 is another story. I will shop around for a set of Hornady Dies.

[44man]

You will be pleased and do use the Hornady expander. It is correct.

[white eagle]

I have been using RCBS 44 Mag/Spl loading dies for the last 15 years, never had any issue until I tried cast bullets over 300 grains. I recently started casting the Lee 429310RF, and when seating the bullets, the seating plug shaves the top 1/4" pretty bad. I am looking for a recommendation for a seating die, or plug that fits the RCBS die body that won't shave the WFN bullets. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

If I understand you correctly your seater is reforming your boolits
what I do is file the cup part of the seater off and flat
problem solved although it will be for cast only

[44man]

My last set of dies came with an extra, flat nose seating punch. Not had to use it since the normal punch has worked for every boolit. Even have an extra decapping pin.
I load soft for the 45-70 BPCR and need all kinds of punches. I make them from brass and shape the nose fits with epoxy. The Hornady seating punches are real easy to make.
The RCBS expander can be fixed by polishing it down and cutting it shorter. It goes too deep to where brass is getting thicker and expands too much. Takes a cut off wheel to shorten, then round off the edges and polish.
I let the boolit base do the final expanding. Not a good place for dead soft boolits though.