Carbide woes in .44 mag

I have been gearing up to have my own reload set up this month so I'm all set when I move out when school starts back up. I've been using my dads equip for a long time now and though I have my own dies for most of the guns in calibers I only own I do not have dies for the more common things I have. 45LC and 44mag carbide dies from RCBS were on the list and I got those out of the way this month. I was getting tired of using 4 dies to reload .44 mag so I was excited to have a 3 die set that would make things go alot faster and smoother.


I set the dies up in my dads lyman turret press and started to FL size and decap. Right out of the gate I realized something was not right. The carbide ring was sizing them down more than they needed to be. I have a wilson case gauge in .44 mag and I dropped the pcs of brass I sized in there and they went in. This was a tight gauge as brass sized from my dads dies and even factory ammo did not want to seat all the way in the gauge. ANYWAYS the brass is being sized .005 smaller than the brass sized by my dads set. If you run your fingers from the case head to mouth you can feel the "drop" or "step" or whatever you want to call it. The inside of the case mouth is then .420 before being expanded and the other cases run through my dads sizer are .010 bigger in most cases (no pun intended). So even though I like the idea of having rounds that would feed very smoothly into my revolvers I don't want to be OVERWORKING my brass and shorten case life.....I found a lee carbide sizer and ran some cases through there for a 3rd comparison and they seem to be on the same level as my dads die set. You can feel that transition but its not as extreme in those cases as they would be in mine. You can see it to the point I would take a picture and post it if I thought it would come out well. sigh....I really don't want to have to buy another .44 mag die set cause I still need to get 45ACP & 357mag

As long as your fired brass will rechamber in your gun, there is really no reason to full-length resize them. Back out the die so it sizes the case only to the depth the bullet is to be seated, this would be like neck sizing a bottle-neck case. It's doable.

I thought about not resizing them...or just doing the bottle neck idea. I have 5 .44 magnum firearms...4 revolvers and 1 lever action and I've tried the not sizing trick and it just flat out does not work. 5 rounds out of 50 don't want to chamber completely and the rest are tight. I sometimes compete in combat pistol matches with my .44 magnum and need that ease of loading and unloading. without resizing its just hard to do.

I'm just worried of overworking my brass. My dad and my good friend who also shoots lots of .44mag says I'm worrying over nothing. But I just don't want to over work my brass is all AGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH:Fire:

Call RCBS

They have top drawer customer service. If they aren't right they will make them right.

I just bought my first 44mag dies. Thay are Lee carbides. They noticably reduce case diameter, maybe a little more than necessary.

Neck sizing works well for CB loads but when shooting full power jacketed loads it might leave you with cases that are overly snug in some chambers.

Most all revolvers I have used have at least one chamber that is bored tighter than the others.

Your cases will probably die from case mouth splits first, and that's from belling the case mouth and crimping it repeatedly.

Accuracy issues aside, the resizing issue is probably moot as regards case life compared to belling and crimping. Shooting the same brass indiscriminately in varying firearms with varying chambers and headspace dimensions probably doesn't maximize case life either compared to using the same firearm.

Who really wants to separate brass by firearm unless it's an oddball piece or superaccurate shooter? Most of mine don't qualify as such.

I would also suggest calling RCBS and telling them you want something that doesn't squeeze down so much if it really bothers you.

Either way, light loads will probably extend case life more than die modification will by itself, but whatever makes you happy.

You worry too much!

I own six .44 magnums, and use a set of Lee carbide dies to load all my .44 ammunition. Yes, case life is shortened by over resizing the brass, but reliability is paramount. Unless you are willing to keep your brass segregated, accept a few less loadings per case. Some of mine have been loaded 15 times.