Building my .44WCF/.44-40 die setup
This is going to be a long-winded rant, hope someone enjoys it. I plan to add to this thread as I get things changed and upgraded. I WELCOME any and all suggestions and input, but will least appreciate suggestions to buy more expensive presses or go off-press where I'm not yet willing to. [smilie=l: This thread is LEE Precision heavy, my apologies to the folks that I know will be seriously bothered by that. I plan to go blue when I get a bit more flush. For now, I'm happy to fiddle and tinker. :lol:
This will sound weird, but the venerable .44WCF cartridge is literally the only round I reload right now- outside of my hand-loaded all brass 20ga BP loads. That will change someday. I shoot the .44 in a Cimarron-Uberti 1873 Winchester clone with 24" barrel, and my every day carry Cimarron-Uberti Colt clone with 7-1/2" barrel. Side note- I've worn the latter pretty much out internally and let the barrel get a little freckling, so I am planning to send it off for rebuild by Jim Finch of Long Hunter's in Amarillo soon. I believe I am going to have the barrel shortened or replaced to 4-3/4"- just going to be handier as a carry gun. I also only load black powder. I'm planning to get more guns in the same caliber for my hunting and homesteading family of nine, so I foresee burning a lot more ammo. What I need is a reasonably fast production setup on a tight budget, and I want the most accurate ammo I can reasonably make- with some compromises between those two things. One is that I'm not using a drop tube because I use a Lee auto-disk powder measure, which moves with the turret on my current setup consisting of a Lee Classic four-hole turret press with Lee sizing, seating, and powder-thru expander dies, finishing up with a Redding Profile Crimp die to finish up. The Lee turret press has served me very well, and saves so much time and space over a single-stage. Only thing I had to mod was to add a homemade spring arm to make the primer arm tip reliably.
Now to the dies. In my experience, .44-40 just isn't as hard to reload in itself as many make it out to be, and boy do I get sick of folks repeating the myth that it is. I still have yet to crush a case. What I HAVE found is that it IS hard to set up for, mostly because of discrepancies in manufacturer specs. Most modern .44WCF guns use larger bores than original 1873 rifles did, but chamber and die specs haven't evolved and standardized as they should. Modern .44-40 revolvers tend to have tight chambers that are very unforgiving of the slightest bulge in the thin case mouth, and in some cases I've heard they won't allow the user to chamber a bullet that is appropriately sized to the bore. I bought Lee dies out of the gate because I wanted to use the powder-through die with the auto powder measure, but I would have been much better served I from what I have heard to buy that die separately and get a set of RCBS Cowboy dies, as supposedly they don't overwork the brass as much by resizing the throats WAY below the necessary size as the Lee does. I need to confirm from someone though that the RCBS Cowboy sizing die is actually better in this regard before pulling the trigger on a set of dies just for the one.
Current components: Mixed brass, mostly Starline though. Whatever GOEX powder I have come across, fixing to switch entirely to Swiss 1.5f or 3f. CCI LP primers. Accurate/John Kort 43-215C boolits, cast in wheelweights. Homemade lube, as oily as I can make it. Beeswax and olive oil.
Current dies, in their positions in the 4-hole turret:
1. Lee die. Size, decap, prime on downstroke. Sizing is necessary because of differences in the chambers of my two guns. I modified the die by grinding the base to drop the shoulder of the case a bit, which helped with chambering in the revolver. The Lee sizing die leaves the necks much smaller than is necessary, which is annoying, but only because it overworks the brass- not really a problem otherwise.
2: Lee Powder-through expander with pro auto-disk measure, expands, flares and charges. This is working ok, but the expander plug is undersized for my boolits, and the curved flare makes seating boolits straight difficult. Many folks swap out the plug for a .44 mag one to help with the diameter issue, but I bought several and they were all within .001" of the original plug. An option would be to make a new properly-sized (and shaped!) expander plug in the style of the Lyman M/NOE plugs. Wish NOE would offer plugs for the Lee powder-through dies again. I'm going to be expanding using an NOE plug in a Lee universal expander die when I switch to the Loadmaster press- more on that later.
3. Lee die. Boolit seated, powder compressed with boolit, crimp started to keep boolit in place. Compressing powder with boolit is less than ideal I know, and I hope to change that in the future, but I'm not currently willing to go off-press to use a compression die. I had to customize the seater plug to support the nose of the boolit and eliminate deformation. I crimp just enough to keep the boolit from backing out, which it will otherwise do.
4. Redding Profile Crimp Die, finish crimp. This die is worth every penny, and most of my tight chambering issues are gone after switching to it. I used the Lee Factory Crimp Die for years, and I know many folks love them, but I will never go back to the Lee FCD for this cartridge.
I am currently rebuilding a Lee Loadmaster (including all of the mods and extras from mikesreloadingbench.com) and as I set it up I'm looking forward to the fifth station. I really wish I could add a powder compression die, but so far I haven't figured out a way to add it and still keep my separate crimping die. There's enough stations- problem is, some of them are pretty well fixed in what you can do. The Loadmaster primes on the upstroke on Station 2, which has it's own limitations, including elimination of the charging option on that station. I'm not at all bothered by the "risks" of using black powder in the Lee measure, but there is no way in hell I'm priming while charging, even if the Loadmaster didn't have it's dubious reputation when it comes to primers and priming. Current plan is to add a separate Lee universal expander die with NOE plug in station 2- I have these items on the way. I will be using a bullet feeder on the Loadmaster, but will start out without a case feeder as the stock feed tubes are too tight for the rims of .44-40 brass- which are significantly larger than those of .45 Colt believe it or not. Eventually, I'll make new feed tubes of copper after the example of Roy Bertalotto of rvbprecision.com.
Anyways, here's a summary of the Loadmaster's die setup limitations in it's factory configuration: 1. If decapping is done on the press, it must be done on Station 1. If priming is done on the press, it must be done on Station 2, and is on the upstroke. It's best to have a die in this station as well, to get perfect alignment for priming. The powder measure must be located at Station 3, which leaves the very limited options of two completely free stations at 4 and 5. I really love my Redding PCD- but I have heard good things about RCBS Cowboy dies and the seating/crimp die. Might be worth a try to see if I can do those two tasks in one die, thereby making room for a powder compression die at Station 4. Maybe another reason to get those Cowboy dies. That new Six-Pack Pro 6000 is looking mighty nice right now.
So here's the summary of the die setup I'm going for first on the Loadmaster:
1. Size/decap. I may go to decapping off press prior to wet tumbling. I see an APP in the future. And another case feeder mod headache.
2. Prime, expand with NOE plug.
3. Charge with Pro Auto-Disk measure.
4. Boolit seated, compressing charge.
5. Finish Crimp.
Nuff for now. I know some of this was a bit redundant, but if anyone found it enjoyable or maybe even helpful, let me know. I'll have an update within the next couple weeks after the Loadmaster parts, expander die, and NOE plug come in and I get some stuff put together. Maybe I'll also figure out how to post pics on here...
