Ok, I'm having nothing but problems trying to resize Harnady Belted Magnum Basic brass to .458 Lott.

My HORNADY resizing die keeps crushing the mouth of the cases as I'm starting them in the die.

What's going on here? Is the die just to small for the brass? The whole idea of the brass is to "customize" it to what you need.

I can see not being able to run it down to .375 in one operation, but 458??? I should probably mention that I called Hornady TWICE before ordering and they insured me I would "simply" have to run it through the "regular" Lott resizing die.

Please let me know if I'm missing something here.

The mouth of the case should be the same OD as the case just in front of the belt. I've taken belted basic as well as 06 cylinder brass to 375 and smaller in one pass.

I do have to insure that it is perfectly lined up so it will start in the die. I will insert the case and raise it until it touches the die then move it around with my fingers until I feel it slip in. You have no neck to guide it so it must be lined up perfect. Do you happen to have another belted mag die? if so try it just insert enough to start the taper.

Only issue I ever had with basic brass is my die being too short and deforming the mouth against the top of the die.

Are you using a Full Length die or a Neck Sizing die? When necking down cases from 375 to 30 caliber I have to use a 338 Full Length die, a neck die won't work. I learned this from talking to Hornady about it. Then from 338 the 30 caliber neck die will work. Go figure.

Something about the Full Length dies have a better forcing cone.

Woods

I'm using full length dies, they are the Hornady Custom Dies.

Ramrod

I am able to get them sized now that I've picked up some forming/resizing wax and am "fiddling" with it like you said to insure that they line up right.

My problem now is that now they won't fit on my Forster trimmer .458 pilot! I measured and the inside diameter is only .442...

Another thing I've noticed is that the case appears to have a small, but noticiable neck rather than taper steadily from base to mouth. Abruptly going from .501 to .477 outside diameter.

I wonder if this is because I am sizing cases that are .086 longer than normal. They fit into the die without bottoming out.

Thanks Again

quote:

Forster trimmer .458 pilot! I measured and the inside diameter is only .442...

The Hornady die set as I understand it is a 3 die set. You need to run the case in the expander before it will fit your pilot. Depending on the length of the expander you might have to to it in a short step then trim then expand the full neck.

What you see is the sharp neck body taper junction. The case will fully form the taper on your first firing. You can load normally and fire.

Thanks you very much for all your help. I was thinking about using the expander die, but wasn't sure is woult expand "deep" enough for the trimmer.

I was wondering about fire forming it, thanks for letting me know. Just curious, will this die put that neck shoulder junction in every time? I never noticed that with my revolver cartidge dies, maybe they are just too short to notice.

I don't have a lott case handy. If my swiss chees memory is working. While the Lott and 458Wmag diagram show a tapered case from belt to mouth when you run the case into the sizer it will actually give you a neck with a transition to the body. I believe you will always see that line. I also think it will smooth our with firing. Hopefully a Lott shooter or at least one with a case can comment.

A lott has a body taper most revolver ammo don't