oversize .45 Colt dies

20 October 2002, 17:22

<jsirm>

My new hornady .45 Colt dies do not size the cases enough to seat a .452 Bullet beyond hand tight. Has anyone else had this problem, what did you do? for now I can try not sizing my cast bullets and a very heavy crimp. I used brass with both winchester and Black hills headstamps. the sizing ring is obviously oversize. Any advice on dies will be appreciated. Thanks
Ian

21 October 2002, 00:53

arkypete

jsirm
Check you case mouth flaring stem. I learned a number of years ago, with straight walled cases, to chuck the case mouth expander into a power drill and polish down the diameter of the shank portion of the expander.
I do this with the powder through case expanding dies used on my Dillon presses. Solves most of the neck tension issues.
Jim

21 October 2002, 03:58

Mauserkid

Call the die manufacturer. I have heard of this from time to time.

It may be an old die set too. The old standard dia. for a 45 was .454, instead of .452.

Make the call.
Later..

21 October 2002, 15:08

<jsirm>

I forgot to mention that I did rule out the expander die, I have been using my .44 expander to flare the mouth and the bullets still slide right in.
thanks

21 October 2002, 16:09

JerryO

quote:
Originally posted by jsirm:
I forgot to mention that I did rule out the expander die, I have been using my .44 expander to flare the mouth and the bullets still slide right in.
thanks

Time to get the dial caliber out and do some measureing.

bullets are really .452? OK.

case neck walls are .011 or so?

then .452 + .011 + .011 equals .474. Resized case needs to be .002 less, or around .472

If brass is used enough, and has been trimmed, it can get thin. Old brass can get hard (springy) and spring back also.

I have seen some post on a 9mm (in the distant past) that had to large a carbide ring. I think it was on a dillon and the guy just called them up and got a new die.

ie. call hornady and have them send a new resizeing die. They should be happy to if you tell them what size your cases are being resized to.

JerryO

[ 10-21-2002, 07:13: Message edited by: JerryO ]

22 October 2002, 06:52

Sean

The same thing happened to my Dad. I started reloading some 45 Colt and the bullets seemed too small. So I checked everything to make sure that it was all the right caliber, and it was. My Dad called Hornady and they sent him a new die. They said that some of their dies in 45 Colt were made for .454 inch bullets.

22 October 2002, 07:46

<jsirm>

Hello, I am happy to say that I called hornady and they immediately knew what my problem was and they are sending me a new sizer die. I think the .45 Long Colt dies differ from the .45 Colt dies (the latter being .452).
Thanks, I thought this would be more of a hassle, but I must say that hornady has great customer service.
Ian