This is my first rifle to reload, probably a weird one to start on. Anyway the RCBS expanding die doesn't seem to bell the mouth of the case like it does with my pistol die. Is that how it should be? I can take the expanding part out of the die and work it all the way into a case. Just wondering if this is how it should be or if I have the wrong expansion die in my set somehow.

Wes

No one has an answer for this one?

Well I have another question already. The RCBS 45/70 die set I have is part # 20904 which is supposed to have the 3rd die be a seater and roll crimp in one. The die has no marking on it other than it says RCBS Seater 4 on it. It doesn't seem to crimp at all though. I can take the seater plug out of it and put the cartridge all the way in and it is in there freely no forcing or anything. Did I somehow get the wrong die in my set or am I missing something. I know people said you should crimp these bullets in a seperate step which is fine, but if I have the wrong thing I want to get it fixed. Hopefully someone can answer both these questions for me.

Wes

Wes
Not sure what you have there. I've got three different 45-70 expanders Lyman, RCBS and Redding. The Lyman is the better.
I have polished the body of the Lyman expander to tighten the grip of the case on the bullet. All of the expander dies are firm going into the case, with an extra effort to flare the case mouth.
The expander on all of my dies tapers up to the mouth flaring portion.
I always over flared the first case in new batch of cases, it looks like the mouth of a bugle. Then I remember and trim all the cases to a uniform length.
Jim

Wes
Did you buy an old 45-70 die set?
The old dies were a bit generous in their tolerances.
Jim

I have a RCBS (3) die set & it nicely 'bells" the case mouth for lead bullets. It's either not set up right or the expander has a problem. Take it out of the die & it should have a stright portion & near the top it should have a step or taper.

Well you guys got my expander die fixed. I guess I was expecting the expansion part to come much sooner than it did. After taking the expansion piece out I saw that the step Fred was talking about is almost an inch up the shaft. So it bells like I would expect now, my seater/roll crimp still does not seem to crimp though.

Arkypete...these dies are brand new from Midway a week ago so I don't know how old they might be but I wouldn't expect them to be very old.

Wes
I started loading for the 45-70 in 1975 the Lyman dies were usable. When I could afford them I bought the RCBS die set, which gave me two benefits, one I got a tighter resizing die and a crimping die. So now I had the RCBS die sizing the cases, Lyman 'M' die expanding the case mouth, the Lyman seating die, and the RCBS crimping die.
Over the years I had been replacing my older die sets with Redding. These Redding dies are head and shoulders above the others they replaced. So now I use Redding sizing die, Lyman 'M' neck expander, Rcbs seating and Redding crimping.
No other company has come up with a better expanding die then the Lyman 'M' die.
Jim