Hi Guys,
I have a Rossi 454 lever action rifle that I'm itching to get shooting. The rifle came with a set of lee carbide 45 colt dies and were told they will load the 454 casull just fine. How do I set up the 45 colt dies to load the longer casull case? A bit of Internet research says to get dedicated 454 die set but it may be a little while before I can afford to purchase a set.

Set the size/deprime die aganst the shell holder
Raise the flare and seating die, by the difference in case length.
If you have a seperate crimping die, treat it like the flare and seat die's

Tailgunner is right.

Set up the dies the same way you use 38 Special dies to load .357 Magnum and 44 Special dies to load 44 Magnum.

Lost Sheep

From Lees help page> Interchangeable dies

Frequently, dies from one caliber may be used to load other calibers. Due to the locations of crimping shoulders, the operation may only work for dies of the shorter caliber to the longer. You may notice a label depicting the shorter die in your set for the longer version of the cartridge, we do this to reduce costs.

Even though some dies are interchangable, in many cases, different shellholders are necessary. You can see a complete list of shellholders under "Case Preparation" then "Shellholders and Calibers".

45 Colt - 454 Casull *
44 Special - 44 Magnum
38 Special - 357 Magnum
30-30 Winchester - 30 Remington
357 Magnum - 357 Maximum
38 Super - 9mm Largo
44 Russian - 44 Special
40 Smith & Wesson - 10mm - 41 Action Express
32 Smith & Wesson - 32 S&W Long - 32 H&R Magnum **

*The 45 Colt expander die will also work for the 454 Casull by backing the die out approximately two turns to compensate for the difference in case length.

**Our dies allow the use of .308 bullets in the 32 H&R Magnum. The other bullet diameter commonly used is .311 and that is the expander that comes with the set. To use .308 bullets, it is necessary to purchase an additional expander and turn it down to .308. This can be done using a drill press and emery cloth or if you buy the additional expander from the factory, we will do it for $10.00. http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/faq/index.cgi