Lyman M die

[Steve in TN]

I'm ordering a M die for my son's 30/30 so he can shoot cast boolits. Will this M die also work for 30/06? Or will have to get another die for 06. thanks, steve

[easy ed]

M die should work on any .308 sized bullet.

[Morgan Astorbilt]

Lyman sells a short one (30S) for the .30-30, and a long one(30L) for the .30-06. It's my understanding, that if you get the short one, when you try to use it for the '06, you won't be able to bring the ram to the top. They should have made a long bodied one with a longer expander stem to use for both.
Morgan

[rmb721]

I have both a Lyman "M" die and a Lee Universal Case expanding die. I much prefer the Lee and I am not a great Lee fan. The Lee covers from 22 cal to 45 cal.

[twidget]

I'm ordering a M die for my son's 30/30 so he can shoot cast boolits. Will this M die also work for 30/06? Or will have to get another die for 06. thanks, steve

I have the short one and use it for .30-30 and .30-06. No need to get both unless you plan on switching back and forth a lot.

[1hole]

Not only will it work but I think it is an improvement over conventional expanders for all reloading. I have gone to a universal decapper and use the M dies for everything because they distort necks less than pulling a standard expander through so concentricity is improved.

[DanM]

My .30cal. Lyman M die is marked 30R. It works for all my .30 cal rifle cartridges. 300sav, 7.5 Swiss, 7.62x54R, 303 British. Would be fine for 30-30 or 30-06.

[Dale53]

The Lyman "M" die is fundamentally different than a typical expander.

First of all, it isn't pulled through the case neck but merely inserted as deep as needed. This means considerably less drag and doesn't tend to pull the case neck forward - this is GOOD.

It is a two step expander. The main diameter expands the neck to the correct diameter for proper case neck tension. Then the mouth is opened up a couple of thousandths larger to start the bullet without lead shaving. It also "pre-aligns" the bullet so it tends to seat straight. All of this is GOOD.

I admit that I don't have them for every loading situation but I wish I did...(I load a lot of different calibers and just don't have them for all).

Dale53

[oso]

My .30cal. Lyman M die is marked 30R. It works for all my .30 cal rifle cartridges. 300sav, 7.5 Swiss, 7.62x54R, 303 British. Would be fine for 30-30 or 30-06.

The 30R refers to the expander plug for 30 cal cases that screws into the L (long cases) or S (short cases) threaded piece that takes the lock ring and threads into the M die body. For .303 Brit or for .312 sized cast boolits in 30 cal cases I use the 31R expander.
The real difference in the L and S is the length of the threaded piece that takes the expander plug on the bottom and the lock ring on top. Lyman says use the S for the 30-30 which is a longer case than the .308 Win for which they say to use the L. I found that using the L for the .308 Win didn't have enough thread to engage the lock ring effectively and the S piece works better. The longer S piece is not threaded its full length, so it cannot be backed out sufficiently to use for the 30-06 unless the M die body is backed out of the press a bit. With the you could screw the M die body down to the shell holder

[oso]

My .30cal. Lyman M die is marked 30R. It works for all my .30 cal rifle cartridges. 300sav, 7.5 Swiss, 7.62x54R, 303 British. Would be fine for 30-30 or 30-06.

The 30R refers to the expander plug for 30 cal cases that screws into the L (long cases) or S (short cases) threaded piece that takes the lock ring and threads into the M die body. For .303 Brit or for .312 sized cast boolits in 30 cal cases I use the 31R expander.
The real difference in the L and S is the length of the threaded piece that takes the expander plug on the bottom and the lock ring on top. Lyman says use the S for the 30-30 which is a longer case than the .308 Win for which they say to use the L. I found that using the L for the .308 Win didn't have enough thread to engage the lock ring effectively and the S piece works better. The longer S piece is not threaded its full length, so it cannot be backed out sufficiently to use for the 30-06 unless the M die body is backed out of the press a bit. With the S you could screw the M die body down to the shell holder for the 30-30 and back it away (and back out the plug) for the 30-06, with the L you could use a spacing washer between the 30R expander plug and the L piece and screw it almost all the way down into the M die body for the 30-30 and just back out the L piece for the 30-06.
The M die body has its own lock ring with a set screw. This would have been simpler if Lyman just made the S piece and threaded it fully. The unthreaded portion of the S piece is reduced in diameter to pass through in inside threads of the M die body, thus new threads can't be cut by us.