7.65 Mauser Help Loose Bullets in Case

Guys, I am a little new to reloading. I started with lee loaders for my 45/70 and 38special and recently got together a real loading setup. I did this especially so I could reload for my 1891 Mauser it's a good hunting rifle but was too expensive to shoot with factory loads, the last Norma I bought was 43$bucks- ouch!

So... I have been casting lee 185gr 312 gc and using lee alox lube. When I loaded them up they are loose in the case necks. I am using the lee pacesetter die set with factory crimp die. I am not using the roll crimp in the bullet seater and using only the factory crimp doe to crimp it has been the only thing to lock them into the brass. Without it they are really really loose. They are still a little loose after crimping. I thought it was my bullets so I bought some Hornady 150gr j bullets tonight and loaded them, they were also loose. Even with crimping.

I then thought it was maybe my expander was too big so I pulled it out and resized a couple pieces of brass and then seated a bullet no problem although I could tell it was a little tighter seating the bullet. I also used the sizing die to just add a little neck tension to the loose cases it worked really well.

Do you guys think my expander in the sizing die is too tight? I put a mic on it and it measured .310 but I am not great with a micrometer. I am little lost.

Is your sized GC larger than the as cast bullet diameter? Sometime when you size say a .312 bullet in a .314 die the GC will stay bigger and open up the neck and then the bullet doesn't have neck tension.How are you putting on your GC's and sizing the bullet before the Lee Alox Tumble Lube?Also how are you expanding your case necks?Try seating a "dummy bullet without the GC and see what happens.You shouldn't have to use the FC die to hold them in.Just and idea.

HMP

I have been seating all of the cast bullets without gas checks as reduced loads I dont have any gas checks yet. Some of the cases I didn't bell some I used a lee loader and just gave them a quick tap it wasnt much. Either way they were loose. It also didnt matter which bullet style I seated cast or jacketed both were loose.
I also have noticed that the expander is really hard to retract from the cases, harder than other calibers' cases I have run through my uncles press. ???

Take the expander out and give it a polish.it would seem it is over sized to me.If you ran it on a drill you could use some wet dry paper and carefully take it down a couple thou'.

HMP

Sizing down to .312 for a 7.65 Mauser cast bullet in a 1891 Argentine is probably way to small. Mine didn't show any consistent accuracy until it was in the .314 or .315 range.

Try an unsized 314299 and also for single round target shooting --- I would also recommend using a collet die and size the neck just a thou or two.

Before I did this and shot the fatter bullet in mine --- it would not hold in a 6 inch Black at 100 Yds --- now it will shoot 10 shot groups a little over 2 inches.

Wally

Sounds like to me you need a bigger boolit. Just because Lee says that it is a .312 doesn't mean that it is actually a .312. At any rate most of the old milsurps shoot better with a BIG boolit, about as big as will easily slide into a fired case then size just enough to hold them. Thats been my experience anyway.

Sounds like you need to anneal the case necks, which is fast (Try only a few) and doesn't require modifications to the expander/decapper or the mold. If that doesn't improve things, try Beagling (search Castpics* or our archives for this) the mold. That too requires only a few minutes of your time, and can easily be reversed. If that's promising, also consider a new mold, e.g., one of the group buy "fat .30's" or a used Ideal/Lyman #314299. I'd modify the expander only as a last step.


*bottom of your screen

I will anneal some of the the case necks and see if it helps, but all of this brass is once fired so it should be ok already.

I also think the bullets are dropping about .313-.314 from this mold.

Measure the inside of your sized case with a caliper. You want it normally .001" to .002" smaller than the bullet. How are you belling the case?

Did you actually measure the diameter of your bullet? Lee molds sometimes are on the small side and this could be your problem.

When you bell open the mouth of the case, only bell it enough to start the boolit,,,this is a subtle touch,,,,you dont want to over bell the case.

You are correct that anneling should not be necessary with such new brass.

leadman is also correct about the inside dia. being 0.002" smaller....another way of looking at it is that your boolit has to be 0.002" dia. greater than the inside of the case mouth.

Measure the dia. of your expander,,,,also measure the dia. of the cast boolit....sometimes the cast boolit does not need to be sized and can be used as cast.
You should be able to shoot these without crimping, using only the neck tension to hold the boolit in place. Crimp only enough to take out the slight bell.
good luck