Thats me. I have Lee dies and did not know they do not expand a bottlenose case for seating. Is this correct?
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Thats me. I have Lee dies and did not know they do not expand a bottlenose case for seating. Is this correct?
Correct!
With copper jacketed bullets the dies included in the Lee set work great. For cast lead bullets, you'll need to add a Lyman or NOE expander to seat the bullets without scraping lead off the slugs.
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Yep.
For cast with a gas check, sometimes you can put a deep-ish bevel inside the case mouth with a inside de-burring
tool, and sort of sneak by without having to do a separate step to expand the neck.
It works for me with .30 cal. sized to .309.
Do you have the instructions for your die set? Also, Lyman has a very extensive lesson course on cast bullet reloading in their "Cast Bullet Manual", and the information also appears in many reloading manuals.
DG
I guess I needed a reminder. The last I remember, I was getting wobbly rounds in my .303. That led me to M dies and all of my rifle sizing inserts are in the bottom of the cans where I store all my dies, as opposed to in each turret. I bought a new rifle and had a die set, already. I had an empty box of brass and prepped everything. Seating the first J, and knew something was wrong. I picked through my M inserts and see I am missing that one. Its on order, no way I am gonna chamfer and hope for the best
Brassrat, Glad to hear you have taken up the hobby ! I was going to reccomend the "ABCs of reloading" books. I read the one Rodney James and Dean Grenall (I think I have his name wrong). FB
I use Lee dies for bottleneck but I also lost the depriving/expander stems a long time ago - hate them - I deprime all my brass with a Lee universal de-priming die and have accumulated Lyman M dies for the calibers I reload.
Things are hard to come by right now due to the shortages - but if I were to be starting out - I would go with the NOE expanders and I think dollar wise you would be farther ahead than M dies unless you are only reloading one bottleneck cartridge.
If your loading jacketed bullets, just chamfer the inside of the neck a little. I’ve loaded thousands this way using all types of bullets and every kind of brass and never had a single issue. If loading cast, then an M-die.
lee make a universal expander die works fine for seating lead boolits without damage.
IIRC, none of my bottle neck dies flare the case mouth; Lee, RCBS, Hornady, Herters...
I'd kinda like to see posters differentiate between flaring (just a tapered flare), expanding as a Lyman M die and expanding like the button being pulled back through the case neck when sizing. This old mind has to sometimes stop and figger out what the poster means... :-?
You May want to refer to them as "bottleneck" cartridges ... 30-06 , 30-30 , etc. the bullet diameter is smaller than the case diameter .
Bottlenose is a type of Dolphin , a sea dwelling mammal of the Delphinidae Family...
Remember the TV show and the Film " Flipper "...Flipper was a Bottlenose Dolphin .
Don't want you using incorrect terminology... someone might think you a noobe :D
Who you trying to fool ... you aren't no noobe ... I realy like your avatar !
I'm a huge packrat with an obsession for left range brass ...
Gary
Lee as most manufcturers of dies When you resize bottle neck cases the decapping rod has an expander on the rod. The die squeezes the neck smaller than it needs then as the caseis with drawn the expander opens the neck to the right size for jacketed bullets.
As mentioned deburring the inside of the neck just enough to break the sharp edge lets jacketed seat easily.
For cast boolits that are a few thousandths over jacketed size are a bit different story. Belling the case mouth to a bit over the cast size lets the boolit enter the ase without shaving the boolit.
The Lee Universal Expander does this ok. Using a Lyman M ttype expander works better. The Lee UED with the M style plugs like NOE sells is a good oiption.
The M style plug has the end just a bit smaller than your boolit, then it has a step that opens the mouth to just a bit over the boolit size. With this step going into the case about 1/32 to 1/16 " Thi leaves the neck open just enough to set the base of the boolit into the case. When seating the boolit goes in straighter and with out shaving.
Perhaps a pic with help. This is of the Lyman M die. You can see the two diameters and the step.
Leo