Reloading 44-40 rifle brass

[mzlldr]

I have recently purchased the John Kort designed mould from Accurate Moulds , and aim to produce .429" bullets to use in my 1976 Navy Arms rifle . The rifle slugs out to .430" . I haven't found any Makers marks on the rifle as yet , but believe that it may be a Uberti. I own an old set of Lyman 44-40 dies , but the case neck expander will be too small in dia. for the bullet I want to use . It has been suggested that I use a Lee 44 Special ,or 44 Mag , expander, but I don't know what size these are . All advice in this regard will be appreciated . Thks and regards to all , MZLLDR

[Outpost75]

Normal convention is that the cylindrical pilot below the flaring cone should be 0.001-0.0015" smaller than bullet diameter. Tighter will damage soft bullets.

[44magLeo]

I have several sets of 44 Spec/Mag dies. I measured all the expanders once, I just don't recall the specs.
On your current set measure your expander. Lyman uses the M type expanders. I like that style best for cast, they even work well for Jacketed.
I would measure the one you have, With a .429 dia. You should use one about .428, If yours isn't perhaps Lyman has one the size you need that will fit in your die.
If you have a 44 S/M sizer die you might try uusing it as a neck sizer to size the neck down to the depth of your boolit and measure the inside diameter of the mouth. You may find this sizes the case enough for the boolit. Then use a m style expander for the 44 S/M If this works and the cases freely chamber it might extend case life.
Even if you had to full length size in your 44-40 die every couple of loadings it might help.
In my 44 Mags I found that using the 310 size die that is only a neck sizer did increase accuracy. It may in your case.
If Lyman doesn't have what you need NOE makes M type expanders that fit in Lee's universal expander die body intead of Lee's tapered plugs. Noe also makes these expanders to fit thier own die bodies.
Leo

[fralic76]

I load for 44-40, rifle and revolver. I use the Lee die set and don't have any problems. I use cast bullets that are sized to .429

Sent from my SM-G975W using Tapatalk