Sizing 41mag loaded rounds ?s.....

[lefty_red]

I'm having a fit with reloading my 41 magnum. About half of my loaded rounds will not fit into the cyclinder of my BH. I only expland/flare the mouth of the case just enuff to fit a bullet into it. I feel that I'm seating them good, and I'm putting on a light taper crimp, or as much as my LEE CARBINE dies will. It was suggested to me to remove the decapping pin from the resizer and decapper dies, but the rounds won't even fit into it. What to do, beside get rid of it and pick up a 45LC/45ACP convertable?

Jerry

[Frank46]

Jerry, I would not under any circumstances try to resize any loaded rounds whatsoever. What you have is basically a bomb there and safety is paramount. May i suggest you get an inertia bullet puller and use that to remove the bullet and powder from your ammunition. I would also suggest that you full length resize
your cases the reload them. Have you checked the overall length of your cases as well?. They may need trimming to a consistent length, to get consistent crimps.
Frank

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive done it without trouble. I doubt if its much differnt then running a round through a factory crimp die as the lees size some when used anyway. I once ran over a thousand .223s through a small base die with the decapper out of it to get them to run in my ar. Have you tried a differnt bullet. One of my old .41 blackhawks had a shorter then normal chamber in it and was pretty fussy about how long the bullets were. Also what you may be running into is seating dept problems. if you seat to deap and the case mouth is bumping up against the driving band it will cause the case to bulge slightly and give you fits. Another thought is that your not seating your bullets squarely take a little extra care to make sure you start your bullets into the case straight. Another cure my be to trim a touch off your cases to make them just a tad shorter if you have a short chamber that my take care of the trouble.

[lefty_red]

Case lengths are all uniformed and ok. Brass is all trim, and this problem occurs with both new and twice fired brass. The rounds were not "off the charts" so no pressure issues. I use a hand press and inspect all of my rounds at eash slow manual stage.

If its danerous to resize a loaded round, why does LEE sell/include such a die with their Deluxe kits?

Jerry

[KevMT]

I'm having a fit with reloading my 41 magnum. About half of my loaded rounds will not fit into the cyclinder of my BH. I only expland/flare the mouth of the case just enuff to fit a bullet into it. I feel that I'm seating them good, and I'm putting on a light taper crimp, or as much as my LEE CARBINE dies will. It was suggested to me to remove the decapping pin from the resizer and decapper dies, but the rounds won't even fit into it. What to do, beside get rid of it and pick up a 45LC/45ACP convertable?

Jerry

Had similar problems with my 41 mag BH too. When I checked the diameter of my loaded rounds I was still within SAAMI specs but it seems the chambers were a bit undersized. I bought a .411 case reamer for a forster case trimmer and the problem has been solved. When I first had the problem I was perplexed because factory winchester silvertips chambered fine. When I pulled one of the silvertips and measured it, it was only about .4085 in diameter.

KevMT

[fourarmed]

Good advice here. If you have a big bunch loaded that won't chamber, you might as a last resort try a Lee FCD (haven't done this myself) or a Redding profile crimp die (I have done this). I know the PCD will size down the area just behind the crimp so that it would certainly fit in a standard sized chamber.

[versifier]

I suspect you might have your crimp die set too heavy. This can cause a slight bulge just below, enough to make the rounds difficult to chamber if the chamber is on the tight side. You can either remove the decapping stem from your sizing die and insert the rounds enough to iron out the bulge, or get a FCD so you don't have to bother removing and replacing the decapper every time. I have had to do this with .38spec's, .357's, .30carbs, and .44spec's, never a problem. I have had bad luck with .40 S&W cases, though, the bullets were falling out after - big mess.
I do not personally believe that there is any danger involved - the only explosive part is the primer, and the only part that could come in contact with it is the shell holder, which has a hole through the middle. Not to say that you shouldn't pay very close attention to it, every step in the loading process that involves seating or seated primers has the potential to get Murphy involved.

[Dale53]

versifier;
I have had this exact same thing happen in the past when I tried to crimp too heavy. I would guess that the Lee Factory Crimp die will solve this (as has been suggested) or even trying the full length die (as has also been suggested).

This should not be a factor in this particular instance, but using .32 S&WL in .32 H&R Mag chambers, .38 Special in .357 Mag chambers, and .44 special in .44 Mag chambers can leave fouling that will cause the same problem (inability to chamber). However, since there is no .41 Special, this shouldn't be a problem in THIS case...

Dale53

[montana_charlie]

I'm having a fit with reloading my 41 magnum. About half of my loaded rounds will not fit into the cyclinder of my BH. I only expland/flare the mouth of the case just enuff to fit a bullet into it.

You might check the chambers to make sure they are all the same size.

Since you are not full-length resizing, a case fired in a 'big' chamber won't want to fit in a 'little' one. If you find they vary, have all of them reamed to the same dimensions as the largest one in the cylinder.

I had that very problem with a .357 single action a few decades ago.
CM

[RugerFan]

Jerry,
What is the front band length on the bullets you're loading? Most revolvers are .10", but my .41 mag SBHH won't chamber a bullet with a front band any longer than .08". Personally I would use a roll crimp instead of a taper as well.

[lefty_red]

Well, I used trail and error and adjusted my crimp. I think I was crimping too hard and making them buldge. I think only about five out of the last 400 I've reloaded won't fit know.

I've got two hard to load cyclinders in the BH. I'm sending it off to have it and the throats done the last of next month. They stick even with factory loads.

I found a Lee FCD for the 41. I sent off an order today for it from Midway.

My BH accepted/ejected all types of bullets equally. No biggotary here.

Thanks for the help.

Jerry