Lee 6.5 Carcano dies & cast bullets

[corvette8n]

I am having trouble loading cast gc commercial lead bullets using Lee dies.
The bullet measures .267 in dia. When I try to load the bullet it gets stuck in the top of the seating die, seems like the dia of die is too small. I havent tried any jacketed bullets yet. I am trying to load a plinking round for my 6.5 Carcano.
Any suggestions.

[sundog]

Corvette, not an uncommon problem. I have had to relieve several dies so that a cast boolit would pass through. Your die was made for a nominal .264 jacketed bullet, leaving almost no clearance to be sure it seats straight. You can very carefully use a round chain saw file to open it up just enough to clear your real boolit. Or, you can wrap some fine grit sand paper/crocus cloth around a dowel or screw driver shank and hone it out.

I've also had to reshape the seater stem, as in some case it would leave a ring or ridge impressed into the now. Chuck the seater stem into a drill, hold a pice of sand paper over the boolit nose, and give'er a spin. It cuts the edge off the seater stem enough not to dig into the nose. Or, turn the stem over and use the flat end against the boolit. sundog

[HORNET]

corvette,
You may also want to try dies for a different caliber. I have seated .269 dia boolits in my 6.5x .257 using 7x57 dies. The RCBS 6.5 dies won't accept anything over .2675 without shaving lead.:bigsmyl2:

[Buckshot]

...............Yup, you're gonna hafta hone out your seater die. The 160gr jacketed RNHP stuff Hornady put up for the 6.5 Carc is a full .269". You may find that you'll also need the same diameter for cast Boolits. Be sure to slug the barrel.

You may find the skinnier common .264" jacketed slugs shoot well, regardless. Then again maybe not.

...............Buckshot

[sundog]

Well, interesting that this thread should have come along just now. I just finished a batch of new Nosler brass in 22-250 with jacketed bullets breaking in a new barrel recently. Last night I started neck sizing and priming for the next 'go-round', this time with cast. Soooo, naturally I couldn't stand it and had to load some to shoot out back, just for grins and giggles. Guess what? I'm gonna havta hone out the Lee seating die, more like clean it up just a little so that real boolits have enough breathing room to seat without getting scoured. Like I said in my earlier thread, it's not all that uncommon. sundog

[Buckshot]

.............Corvette8n, I failed to metion that Hornady dies for the 6.5 Carcano are made to handle the fatter slugs the Carcano wants. Don't know if you wanted to spend the extra money for them. Also makes your Lee dies obsolete except for jacketed slugs in the Swede, as those rifles perk along fine on .264" dia slugs (jacketed).

What model Carcano do you have?

................Buckshot

[versifier]

Check out BruceB's thread on "No Damage Seating of Cast Boolits" in the Reloading Equipment section.