.44 Meplat/size to big to work in die

[hunter64]

I have looked thru the archives and haven't found any discussion on this problem, or I am not searching with the right words so please excuse if it has been discussed before.

I have a set of RCBS and a set of Lee .44 Mag dies. I just cast up some .44 mag bullets from a Keith GB last year with a .432 diameter 255 gn bullet. I sized the bullet to .431 as I have two model 29's that love .431. When I went to seat the bullet it was a no go.

It frustrated the heck out me trying to adjust the die to seat and crimp. No matter what I did it didn't work so I decided to go with seating the bullet and then crimping.

Same problem, I finally took the bullet seating plug out of the die and tried it and sure enough, the bullet sized to .431 did not go thru the hole into where the bullet seater part will work. I tried both seats of dies and neither one will work with this bullet. I have always sized to .431 but for what ever reason this bullet's profile will not work and is to big.

For the heck of it I sized some to .430 and no problems at all, I could seat and then crimp or both at the same time with either set of dies.

Is there a way around this, can one simply open the crimping groove in the die two thou to allow the bullet to pass thru and work as normal?

[462]

Hunter64,
I had to enlarge a seating to accept a fat 429421 boolit, for a .44 Special, so it can be done. In my case, the crimp ring is almost non-existant, but the case tension is such that a crimp isn't necessary.

Most dies are dimensioned for jacketed bullets, and we have to become inventive when working with fat boolits.

[Ford SD]

i had a similar problem with a 44 cowboy bullet .432 dia

seating die at random would change the seating depth

it's a long reloading session when you have to double check the length on every round (would seat it deeper -.020 then ok -.050 then ok -.065 then ok at random through rounds loaded

what a pain and at that point you are not shure what will happen with a bullet pushed deeper into a case a couple of thousand plus/ minus ok not 60 deeper

i found it to be a combination problem

Problem 1
bullet was at a high BHN app 25 (bullet would not size down when seated)

Problem 2
was lead build up in the top of the die making it smaller
wiped inside of die
then used some 400 grit wet/ dry sand paper on a dowel ( only on top part)

and changed size 0.005 in about 5 min (all lead you could see it on the paper)

checked die by pushing a un size(over sized) bullet through die now .436
432 falls through where before it would stick

also now using softer lead mix
it might not be your problem but I hope it helps

[hunter64]

I think I will open the crimp ring just a bit. Maybe a wooden dowel with some sandpaper wrapped around it and go slow.

[Edubya]

hunter, what press are you using? Not that it would make a helluva lot of difference, I'm just curious. I'm trying to imagine this happening in one of my Dillon 500s. I have gone to the Dillon dies because they are so easy to clean and to swap out from FN to RN on the seating dies and are (to me) far superior to anything else that I have tried.
Are you using the FH seating die? It might be too small for your LFN meplat.

EW

[hunter64]

hunter, what press are you using? Not that it would make a helluva lot of difference, I'm just curious. I'm trying to imagine this happening in one of my Dillon 500s. I have gone to the Dillon dies because they are so easy to clean and to swap out from FN to RN on the seating dies and are (to me) far superior to anything else that I have tried.
Are you using the FH seating die? It might be too small for your LFN meplat.

EW

Press didn't make any difference, I tried it on three of them before I discovered that it was the actual dies crimping shoulder inside that was to small. I put a piece of sandpaper around a 3/8" wood dowel and slowly opened up the shoulder 2 thou. Works fine now and with the one die I seat and picked up a Lee FCD for .44 mag for crimping. I have always done seating and crimping in separate steps.

[462]

Hunter64,
Glad you got the problem fixed.

Now, so that you don't end up with another problem, pull a boolit after it's been through the Lee Factory Crimp Die. Many times that die will down size a fat boolit and negate all you've done to produce it.