Leading on the outside of case mouth

[Wasalmonslayer]

I have access to a small lathe.

I can make a custom one if needed.
What kind of neck tension should I shoot for 2 thou, 3 thou???

These work fairly well for me and are relatively cheap.
I use them for pistol and jacketed stuff and have worked well for me so far.

Usually I shooter checked 311041’s with 18 grains of 4198 in my win mod 94’s and love it!
But I ran out of checks so here I am tinkering with plain base.
They are kinda fun to shoot it’s like a big B.B. gun

Just a small hiccup to work thru and this may be the new rounds for JR to start shooting to learn rifle skills.

 

[Ian]

.0015" interference fit is good for plain based WW bullets.

 

[Wasalmonslayer]

Good to know

I will make a new one and give it a go.

Thanks Ian

 

[fiver]

the 1.5 to 2.0 range has been a good one for me too.
I'm real lucky with the 30-30 in that my Hornady neck sizing die, sizes my 30-30's to just under .309 ID and doesn't even touch the expander ball on the way out.
so all I have to do from there is bump the case mouth against my 8 mauser ball expander to flair it and load.

 

[KHornet]

Have 2 M dies, 6 NOE expanders, and a Lee. All work fine,
but all require fine adjustment to avoid over belling.

Paul

 

[Ian]

the 1.5 to 2.0 range has been a good one for me too.
I'm real lucky with the 30-30 in that my Hornady neck sizing die, sizes my 30-30's to just under .309 ID and doesn't even touch the expander ball on the way out.
so all I have to do from there is bump the case mouth against my 8 mauser ball expander to flair it and load.

I honed the neck out on a Lee sizing die so the case comes out .309" ID. I also installed the larger of the two EZ-Expander mandrels that come with the Lee 7.62 Soviet die set (.310"), just to deal with oval case mouths or mouth/neck dings from range brass. Works great for sizing, then I hit it with a .310" RCBS expanding spud for a little flare and load away. BTW, I use .311" bullets for my Marlin, so the sizing and expanding setup is for that size, not .310" bullets.

 

[fiver]

see there are a lot of way's to get there.
I look at dies as holes in steel they just happen to be a certain diameter.
spuds and such are the same way.
when I load my 358 win I use a set of old steel 38 special dies, pacific brand airc.
I just use them to size and flair the case neck like it is a real short 38 special.
my 44-40 cast bullets are seated in a 45 colt die then the flair is ironed out with a bump in the 44-40 crimp die.

 

[Eutectic]

I think most reloaders started with jacketed bullets. I also think most of that most started with a two die set for rifle loads. I didn't.....

68 years ago my Dad bought me my first big gun. It was a Trapdoor .45-70!! That same year (1950) my Dad started teaching me reloading with his hard eye on me. So I started with the .45-70 and cast bullets a longtime ago. A good bunch of you were still a gleam in your Daddy's eye probably.

My Dad shot factory loads in his Model 86 to replenish brass. He started me with once fired cases. They were now MY cases! He taught me to decap with a punch he had made with a hardwood block and an 8 oz hammer. Then I used his small homemade cleaning tool for the primer pockets. Then......... And not mentioned in 25 posts.... he showed me how to emery the inside edge of the mouth. Not deburred but polished smooth on edge. Then I washed them in soapy water. Years later I mentioned the type of tool we might use now to deburr. "Not smooth enough."
His Lyman dies were from a 310 tool that he bought when he got home from the war... But he started me on the then new Tru-Line Jr. He taught me to partially seat the bullet then rotate the case 180 degrees and finish. He said the dies were too loose..... He told me the singleshot bunch he shot with in the 30's would load at the range sometimes using the same case! They would turn the 310 tool with die vertical and half turn the seating.My buddy who worked for RCBS as a reloading consultant years ago was taught to rotate the case by me when he started. 74 years old and he still does.!!

Unless you have custom dies today...... They are still to loose in clearance. I still remember showing my Dad my .44 Magnum RCBS dies when I first got my RCBS A-2 press. He had me wash the dies in solvent as was his method when they were new..... He looked at the expander plug and handed it back.
"What's wrong?" I asked. "Ain't no step.... May seat straight and it may not!" He words always stuck with me. So I looked at the ,44 jacketed loads I had loaded. Rolling them in my fingers. The bulge when the bullet base was was uneven as you rolled it!

So a flare is a good thing on a brass trumpet for tone but maybe not the best thing for a cast bullet case. "M" dies are pretty specific as to case, bullet diameter, and tension you desire. So one set of dimensions won't span the board. Newer M-Dies have a screw on sizing tip. I machine these from drill rod and harden them for long non-scoring life. Lyman must make the dimensions for jacketed as they are too tight which may shave lead. Dimensioned right they seat bullets closer to a concentric centerline that a flared mouth. (I still look at the sides of the neck for even) You have half a chance with the round ready to go into the die with things held concentric. If you run a bullet up setting in a flare do you think the die will hold it perfect for seating??? kind of a pipe dream I'm thinkin'....... I've even made step bushings for sloppy clearance dies like .32-20 to put over the round to center bullet with neck and then seat turn and seat! I'll lessen the seating stem clearance in the die body as well.

A .32-20 "M" die comes setup for .308" bullet diameter. Know what would happen with my .3135" bullets when you tried to seat them??? Yep.... you guessed it!

Pete

 

[Ian]

The Forster seating die takes care of seating misalignments. The sliding sleeve will just barely, with some scuffing, accept a very slightly flared case mouth and .311" bullet. My biggest battle with concentricity was won when I quit using factory bottleneck rifle FL resizing dies without modification. When you crunch the neck down to from fired .314" ID to .304" ID and then ram an expander back in it, the neck and body tend to get a little wongo to each other.

 

[quicksylver]

HI!! guys!!!I've been Having this happen for the last year or so. lead flakes on the out side of case necks ...just figured they came from the skirt you get when you size a PB bullet. usually they will flick right off..what does seem to stick is tin that gets soldered on. But that too comes off with a cloth ..neither of these seemed to hurt the accuracy so I didn't bother to inquire any further..BTW...it happens with my .30-06's .308's and 30-30.'s.
I use a Noe expander in a Lee body..2 tho under..

 

[quicksylver]

one last note... if you are really careful taking the case out of the chamber you may discover a "skirt"of lube and lead sticking up around the inside of the case neck