Mecham In-Line Bullet Seating Dies

[Tom Myers]

Does anyone know if Mecham Tool & Hardware is still in business?
Their website is still operating but any phone calls go to a message box.
I have been trying to contact them to order die parts for their excellent in-line seating die for the last week.

[MT Chambers]

You might want to check out RCBS, Redding, and especially Vickerman for these dies, I have some from all of them, not sure about Meacham.

[country gent]

Last time I ordered from them was close to 2-3 years ago. Don't know otherwise

[ian45662]

Did you leave a message? I just bought some bushings for my neck sizing die a couple months ago


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[Tom Myers]

Did you leave a message? I just bought some bushings for my neck sizing die a couple months ago

Yes, I did leave messages.

I had forgotten that Mecham and Vickerman makes the same, or nearly the same style of in-line seating dies.

I lost the shell holder extension for my 40-65 and 45-70 in line seating dies. Vickerman has the extension for sale, but the image on the Vickerman website show that the extension is simply a pusher with no provision to pull the cartridge back down from the die. That works if the chamber mouth leaves the cartridge with a small enough case neck that will not stick in the alignment sleeve of the die. Oh well, I can call them this morning and see what can be arranged.

That still leaves me with needing a couple of 0.482 - 0.483 neck sizing bushings to match my custom 0.464 sized bullets. If I can't get those, I suppose I can anneal the one I have and hone it out to the diameter that works and then re-harden it.

This sudden need for the neck-size, in-line-seating was the product of some experimenting with beageling out the N.O.E. 462 535 grain clone of the Lyman Postell bullet to 0.464" to be a slip fit in the fired cases.
Experimenting with home-made expanders and such showed that loads with 0.002" neck tension and near zero bullet axis ~ cartridge case alignment shoot extremely well in my Pedersoli Sharps.
If I can put together the correct accessories of theMecham neck-sizer and the Vickerman in-line dies, the loading process can be streamlined and consistent. So the "quest is on".

Another by product of these experiments has been the discovery of the N.O.E. bullet body and neck sizing die system. (Beautifully crafted, precision components)

The beagleing of the N.O.E. Postell bullet produces a bullet measuring 0.4645"-0.4650" on the body bands and 0.4525"-0.4520" on the bore ride portion. (Actually, the bullets have less as-cast diameter variance than before beagling.)

I made up a couple of travel limiting sleeves, from pvc tubing, to slip over the N.O.E. pusher ram and then first, using the nose sizing bushing and the short limiting sleeve, the Postell nose is sized to 0.4505" right up to the first driving band.

Next, the bullets make a trip through the Star Sizer-Lubricator die that has been honed out to 0.454" and all lube grooves are filled with NASSA BP lube.

Finally, the bullets are brought back to the N.O.E. die and using the 0.462 body sizing bushing and the long limiting sleeve, the front driving band of the Postell bullet is sized down to 0.462", a sliding fit in the 0.4625 freebore of the Pedersoli Sharps throat.

A lot of work, but 100 bullets weighed and sorted to within + - 0.5 grains, all with the exact same length and radial dimensions, loaded into 100 neck turned and annealed cases with axial run out of less than 0.001" will be a real confidence booster when attending the scheduled BPCR Gong and Long Range matches.

[Tom Myers]

Duplicate

[ian45662]

What tool do you use to turn your necks?


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[kokomokid]

Tom, I use a universal ext made by Hornady (392171) and it works fine with my vickermans has a set screw to hold your shellholder.
I would think that neck size would be the berries if you can keep run out low. Never worked for me as well as a full size die screwed off base 3-4 turns and allowed to free float. Always had a little run out unless I neck turned.

[Tom Myers]

I use the Forster Hand Neck Turner tool.

I have discovered that using the 45-70 RCBS sizer and neck expander dies leave the case neck at the correct inside diameter to be a perfect fit to the 45 cal. mandrel on the forster tool.

Also, annealing the case necks and then copper brushing the inside of the case neck before sizing, expanding and turning results in much more consistent and cleaner results when turning the necks.

[Tom Myers]

Tom, I use a universal ext made by Hornady (392171) and it works fine with my vickermans has a set screw to hold your shellholder.
I would think that neck size would be the berries if you can keep run out low. Never worked for me as well as a full size die screwed off base 3-4 turns and allowed to free float. Always had a little run out unless I neck turned.

I'll check out the Hornady extension.

When I partially full length sized the cases, they all had zero run out on the neck until the bullet was seated and then run out was not good. I tried a lot of variations but the only thing that has worked for me so far has been annealing, neck turning, bushing sizing the necks for 0.001" neck tension and then using the in line seating dies..
That worked well, resulting in about 90% of the cartridges with 0.0015" or less bullet run out.
The only problem with my setup is that my bullets were all sized to 0.462" and recent experiments have led me to believe that bullets sized to 0.464", filling the fired case necks will result in more consistent and accurate results at the target..

[kokomokid]

I always found runout problems to start before bullet seating. I now use a redding inline seater on annealed brass that has been expanded with a .459- gage drill adapted to a Lee expander. After spring back it gives me .0005 neck tension measuring brass before and after seating my cast bullet 45-70. I have gage drill expanders mader up in .0005 increments and find them hard round and slick.