45 expander problems

[murf205]

My 45 dies that I load 45AR ammo with are acp dies and they will roll crimp. The problem, I think, is an expander button that is a bit too large in diameter. Here are the pics of the expander and my boolits in the mic. The bullets shoot pretty good out of my 625-3 S&W but when I place the boolits in the case, I can push them to the seating depth with finger pressure. The throats in this revolver are a tight .432 and these boolits are sized to .4515 as you can see. My question is: is this expander button excessively large ? Does anyone have a set of dies that you can mic to see? I have a new set of carbide dies ordered. These old Lyman dies I'm using are steel. Thanks Murf291463291464

[Winger Ed.]

I had a similar thing happen with using an old, non carbide die set .38Spec. dies for .38S&W.
The expander went in too far before it flared.

I was going to grind it off so the flare part would hit sooner, or higher up on the case.
Instead-- For them, I dug around, and made a 9mm expander work.

If the same thing is happening in your case-
I'd wait for your new dies to come in before I started chopping on the old ones.

[ReloaderFred]

Murf,
I believe that's a typo on the cylinder throats (.432").

What brand of .45 AR brass do you have? I've found a little variation in wall thickness between brands of both .45 AR and .45 acp brass.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[murf205]

Fred you are correct. I should have typed .452. Thanks. The brass Is Starline.

[Char-Gar]

If I can read the mic correctly, the expander is .450 and that is not too large. My question is how large are the inside of the case mouths after they come out of the sizing die and before expanding. If the expander is .450 there should be about a .0005 springback, leaving the mouths .4495 or so. A .4515 bullet should not be able to shoved down with thumb pressure. I am questioning if the expander is doing any expanding at all.

Also how old (times fired) is the brass. Brass as it gets older and need annealing often does this kind of stuff.

BTW....My old Lyman expander is .452 and I shoot .452 bullets and all is good.

[243winxb]

RCBS .450" Dillon .449"

[murf205]

I measured the brass as it came out of the sizer and it is .469 outside and .470 outside with a .4515 boolit seated in it. The brass has 2 firings on it. 45 AR brass is pretty scarce right now or I would try some new stuff.

[ReloaderFred]

That's not a lot of neck tension, so it's no wonder they slip in. I size all my .45 bullets to .452", which gives good neck tension in .45 acp, .45 AR and .45 Colt.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[DHDeal]

Sounds to me like the sizer is a little large.

[murf205]

I am starting to believe that the sizer is indeed too large. It wouldn’t be the first time an older Lyman sizer was too large. My 358 Norma Lyman sizer doesn’t size the neck with enough tension either. I have to use a 350 Rem die (RCBS) to get a snug fit in the neck.

[murf205]

Well, $32 worth of new Lee dies fixed that problem. BTW, Midwayusa got it here in 3 days.