I am new to reloading rifle cartridges. Recently I began loading some Laser Cast 170 grain RNFP bullets for my 30-06. Each time I seat a bullet I get a ring of lead shavings coming off the bullet. Is this normal. This does not happen when I reload lead pistol bullets becase the brass is belled by my powder drop. Thanks for your imput

Well, you have pretty much answered your own question. You need to bell the mouth of the case slightly before seating lead bullets.

I like to Lyman M die for this purpose. It works great for loading cast bullets.

R F

R Flowers is right on.

Get yourself a belling die, Lyman M as R Flowers suggests, or RCBS as I use...

A trick you can try is to find a larger caliber FMJ bullet, turn it point down and slightly seat it into the mouth of the 30-06 case. In my case, it was a military 8mm FMJ bullet. It will gently flare the mouth a little, easing the transition of the lead bullet into the neck. I later on bought the Lyman "M" die. A note here also, you can get just the expander button seperate, you don't need the whole die to load another caliber, at least you used to be able to do that. Places like midway will try to sell you the whole die, I would imagine you'd have to go to Lyman direct to get the expander seperate.

Lee makes something called the Univeral Expanding Tool for about $10. It's just a beller, rather than an expander, but it is something close to universal.

I used a pulled .50 BMG bullet for a lot of years and that's about universal, too. Fastest method is a heavy center punch. Mine weighs 6-8 ozs. Slide the case up the taper, tap it on the bench, drop the case into the bucket. It'll do 10-15 a minute without hurrying.

Thanks for the responses. I will get myself a Lyman M Die or an equivalent.

Take your deburring tool and chamfer the inside of the case neck and you'll be ready to go. It just takes a good start and things will go in fine.

A quick follow-up question. The bullets I am loading are sized .309. I notice that the jacketed bullets that I have loaded in the past are .308. Is it that 1 thousanths of an inch that is causing the shaving or is it the fact that the lead bullets have a flat base.

When I have loaded jacketed bullets the interior of my case necks were chamfered and the bullets were boat tails. I am still plan on getting a belling Die I was just curios at the cause. Thanks again

1 thou should'nt make that much diff (probarly shoot tighter groups ) but you def need the expanding die just a slight bell at the mouth & chamfer & you should be right

quote:

Originally posted by noise maker:
I am new to reloading rifle cartridges. Recently I began loading some Laser Cast 170 grain RNFP bullets for my 30-06. Each time I seat a bullet I get a ring of lead shavings coming off the bullet. Is this normal. This does not happen when I reload lead pistol bullets becase the brass is belled by my powder drop. Thanks for your imput

You MUST BELL any cartridge case mouth that you will seat lead bullets in. Even bottlecked rifle cases. Get a Lyman "M" die for this purpose!! SHAVED BULLETS WON'T SHOOT!!

Merely chamfering the case mouth is not sufficient. In regard to the diameter of cast bullets, often a cast bullet will shoot better if it is up to .003" or so over barrel groove diameter (but not always!!). So the fact that your bullets are .309" might actually make them perform better than if they were .308".

Another factor I have discovered to make cast bullets shoot better is to use large charges of relatively slow-burning powders instead of the light loads of fast powders such as those recommended by Lyman. Slower powders, in sufficient charges to give the MV you want, have several advantages: One is that they develop lower pressures and accelerate the bullet more gradually, causing less deformation of the soft bullets. The more pristine a bullet is when it leaves the muzzle, the more accurate it will be. In addition, slow powders occupy a lot more space in the case, giving more uniform ignition and burning than a small charge which wanders around loose in the case. (There is a reason why compressed loads are often extremely accurate!!)

To avoid leading your barrel, and get the accuracy you want, the peak pressure of your load cannot exceed the limit imposed by the hardness of the bullets you are using. There are several sources for this "max relationship" between lead hardness and allowable pressures data. I believe this info is still in the Lyman Reloading Manual, or at least, it is in the Lyman Cast Bullet loading manual. Another source is the book, "Jacketed Velocities With Cast Bullets", a cast-bullet manual written by Veral Smith, the LBT (Lead Bullets Technologies) man.

You would be amazed at what can be done with cast lead-alloy projectiles. If one wishes, one can use cast bullets for up to 99% of all shooting applications, rifle or handgun!!

Thanks again, I am really impressed with the amount of knowledge members of this forum possess and your willingness to share it. You have saved me a lot of trial and error time.

quote:

Originally posted by noise maker:
A quick follow-up question. The bullets I am loading are sized .309. I notice that the jacketed bullets that I have loaded in the past are .308. Is it that 1 thousanths of an inch that is causing the shaving or is it the fact that the lead bullets have a flat base.

When I have loaded jacketed bullets the interior of my case necks were chamfered and the bullets were boat tails. I am still plan on getting a belling Die I was just curios at the cause. Thanks again

Your cast bullet should be at least .309" and I personally prefer .310" for all my 30 caliber cast bullet shooting. I'm even beginning to experiment with bullets sized to .311" with some promising results. Most of my cast bullet shooting is with the .308 Win. and 30-06, and some 30-30. Used to be almost exclusively witht he 30-30, but my old eyeballs can't see the iron sights very well anymore and Winchester 94s (non-angle eject) don't take very well to scoping.
Paul B.

Do you have to "bell" the case mouth if the lead bullet is gas checked?

quote:

Do you have to "bell" the case mouth if the lead bullet is gas checked?

The answer is still yes. The lead is softer than the softest copper jacket material, it'll still peel a rig off from the driving bands.

An excellent explanation and some very good data for select cartridges with GC bullets can be found in the first half of Lee #2.

For plain base bullets, the best data source I know is http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm

I agree that GC bullets are better served with relatively slow powders, but I have not had any luck with PB using slow powders. Might be something I am missing.