Are you on a budget ? ?

[Ben]

Don't have the money for a Lyman M die. That is OK there are other ways to flare the mouth of the case for your cast bullet.
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I remember when I was starting to handload in the early 60's. Wow, it seemed like a small fortune to buy those new $8.00 Herter reloading dies, the .40 cents a pack for the primers and the $1.75 for a pound of Hodgdon Surplus H-4831.

For some today it is just as tough. Money is a real problem to beginners who want to shoot cast bullets.

You aren't going to load a cast bullet ( with any hopes of decent accuracy ) unless you have some mechanism to flare the neck of the case. Using pistol dies, you have an expander die, but beginners loading the 30-30, 308 Win., or the 30-06 usually have a 2 die set and have no inexpensive way to flare the neck of a case prior to seating a cast bullet.

40 years ago , I made tools like this one that I made today. I'll offer this one to a young local reloader who wants to shoot some .30 cal. cast bullets but is on a tight budget and cannot afford a Lyman M-Die, an RCBS Neck Expander die, or the Lee Universal Expander.

I hope that you or a friend that you know can use this idea.

The tool is made from a hardened bolt that was .372 " in diameter. I chucked the bolt in my drill press and took a good quality flat file and shaped the bolt. I fitted a piece of American walnut to the expander plug.

 

[Charles Graff]

This post reminds me of the early days of the cast bullet section of Shooter.com. It was considered a disgrace and a character flaw to buy anything you could make. I bought a "Patch Hog" from Sinclair, which was a gizmo that went over the muzzle of your rifle into which you screwed a plastic drink bottle that caught your dirty patches as they came from the muzzle. I was proud of it and thought I would tell the boys about it.

You would have thought I questions the virtue of the Queen of England or something. Those guys ripped into me for wasting money on something could be done by just attaching a throw away plastic grocery bag over the muzzle with the rubber band off the morning newspaper. I still have the Patch Hog, but use a grocery bag to catch my paths.

 

[Brad]

I have an even easier device for catching patches as they fall from the muzzle. I call it "The Floor". Pretty low tech!

You are right, there is some safisfaction from making something yourself. Ben likes to tinker with things and he comes up with some neat ideas.

 

[Charles Graff]

I used the floor also for a very long time, until one day my favorite cat Beamer got very sick from some solvents I had in my shop. Cats walk across stuff and then lick their feet. He pulled through it, but I now am very careful with solvents in my shop.

 

[Brad]

Good point. Having cats I should be more careful about that. I usually move my trash can under the muzzle and let them fall into the trash.

 

[Rick]

The floor? I thought I was low tech, I hold my hand under the muzzle & push the rod with the other hand and let it fall. Since I want to look and see what might be on it I don't have to bend over for it. Ok, not low tech, lazy.

 

[JWFilips]

My Kitties are not privy to my workshop or loading room ( however they own the rest of the house!) Got to love them critters!!!

 

[KHornet]

No cats and no problems in that regard. Back in the dark ages, I flared the necks with the expanding nipple of the next larger size cal (carefully and by touch) until I could afford an M-die.

 

[minmax]

Ben, once again you have great photos to explain what you are showing. Thanks for the post.

 

[Ben]

Minwax,

So glad that you enjoyed the article.

Ben

 

[fiver]

not having the tools to make a fancy tool like the above.
[and no clue about what an M-die was]
I started just using the next size up de-priming stem to bump a flair on the case mouths of my rifle loads. [8mm on my 30 cal stuff/ 6mm die for 223 etc..]
I still do it this way.

 

[smokeywolf]

Many of my dies are inherited. As Dad almost always has a machine shop at his disposal, I also inherited quite a few flaring or expansion stems/plugs. I have since added dies and flaring stems for calibers that he never got around to and replaced a few that were of unacceptable design or dimensions. I still have a bit to do.
I'm very fortunate to have a pretty comprehensive machine shop, which makes this kind of tooling a cinch to fabricate. I greatly admire folks like Ben, who although possess other tools for other jobs (stock work). Because they don't have a lathe at their disposal for metal work, must show a great deal more resourcefulness and adaptability than I.
For 35 years I've had access to a lathe or had my own lathe. Not having a lathe would now be like not having a car or truck.

As the machine shop and reloading shop are one-in-the-same and nearly always has metal chips and/or spent primers on the floor, the shop is off-limits to Timber the wolf.

 

[Ben]

smokeywolf,

I love your dog.

I buried my 13 yr. old Black Lab, Sissy, 1 yr. ago.

It still HURTS ! !

 

[smokeywolf]

We love him too. He is about half grey wolf and half Malamute; widley known as a Wolamute.
When he was still the size of loaf of bread, Mom carried him in the same sling across her midsection that she carried the boys in when they were infants. Timber is never left alone; not for five minutes. The most alone he ever gets is if no one else is home and I'm in the shop. Although he can't see me in the shop, only 20 to 30 feet and a security screen door seperate us, so he can still hear me.
I wouldn't recommend adopting a wofdog for most. And, they make lousy watch dogs. Throw him a steak and he'll show you where the TV is. While they don't protect propery, they do protect their pack. If Mom wanted to take Timber on a walk (they walk twice a day totalling about 8 miles) through the worst part of town, at midnight, buck naked, anybody causing her any worry would likely end up looking like he'd just had a tracheotomy performed with a chainsaw. Our first and second wolfdogs on two separate occasions, put down Pit Bulls who were charging us and did it in about 5 or 10 seconds.
Timber is our 3rd wolfdog. We've been doing this for 20 years. We like them because just as they require a deeper attachment and commitment from you, they become more deeply attched and committed to you and the rest of your family (their pack).

Sissy was indeed beautiful. Never met a Lab that wasn't a great companion dog and a perfect example of "Man's best friend".

8 years and I still mourn for Sammy, the white wolf.

This was Smokey. He was Belgian Tervuren and Grey (Timber) Wolf and our biggest, at nearly 140 lbs. He was a very sad abuse case that we rescued from a Los Angeles County Shelter.


Pic is under 43 Kb.

 

[Ben]

You have ( and have had ) some VERY beautiful dogs.

Ben

 

[KHornet]

Many years ago, there was an article in a gun digest about loading a cast bullet in a 30-30 with a Nail ground down to remove the primer, a block of hard wood with a hole in it to set the case on to drive the primer out, a piece of rod that would fit in the case to seat the primer on the other end of the wood, and a hammer (not to big a hammer). Sort of a poor mans Lee loader. I had a 340 Sav 30-30, and a C press and 30-30 dies, so really didn't need to try what the article stated, but I was much younger and dumber (I am sure), so I tried it. Had a single cav 311291 that dropped right at 312, and would fit fairly snugly in the mouth of the case fired in the 340. Don't recall the charge, but I loaded I think 3 of them, or maybe it was 5, this was 30 or 40 years ago, went to the range, and fired them single shot at probably 25 yds. They were all on paper and all in the black, but probably much more of a pattern and a group. The necks were sootiy however. It did show me that in a pinch I could load single shot if I had powder and primers with just what I could find around the house. Way back, I made a neck expander like yours Ben, but mine was just a bolt of the proper dia, ground down to what I considered proper size, and I tapped it into the case mouth with a little kids hammer that I found.

 

[Ben]

That would work just as well as what I made.

Ben

 

[Winelover]

This was my first dog, a very gentle Malamute, until any other dog looked sideways at him. He once picked up a full grown English Sheepdog, by the throat, and tossed him around like a rag doll. I had him on a leash when the sheepdog busted through a gate. The owner was a cop. Didn't utter word, when I told him he better control his dog and secure his gate.

 

[KHornet]

I wanted to neck size only K Hornet brass, but I wanted to neck size the full length of the neck. Could probably have ordered a custom K neck sizing die, but would probably have been costly. My solution was to remember that I had 222Rem 310 dies, and to try the neck sizer for the 222 and see if it would work. It added an extra step but it worked like a champ. For blown out neck cases like the various K's, and Ackleys the 310 sizer dies might be the answer for some, and you can often pick up just the 310 sizer dies in various cals on EBay, for well under ten bucks.