Hi Im fairly new to reloading I’ve been reloading 9mm, 223 and 38’s for about 6 months now and just received all my dies and bullets for 45 long Colt yesterday.

So heres my question.
I only have 50 45lc cases that were already cleaned and tumbled ready to be reloaded did all my steps including the expander die, had powder in ready and to seat the bullet. The bullet Im using is a bushwhacker lead 200gr RN 45, being the fist bullet im going to set I back out the seating depth out all the way so I can just slide the bullet and shell in the setting die and find the correct depth to seat at. While pushing on the press im getting so much friction between the case the bullet and the die that the bullet is seating it self half way up the die. Ive done 38’s with lead bullets and had no trouble seating them. What am I doing wrong? Should I be lubing the bullets before I load them? I know that helps with leading in the barrels but this is a gun that I only shoot probably 200 rounds a year through.(will increase with reloading)

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time

DC

When you say "the bullet is setting itself halfway up the die" do you mean that the bullet is getting stuck in the die and not seating in the case?

quote:

Originally posted by craigster:
When you say "the bullet is setting itself halfway up the die" do you mean that the bullet is getting stuck in the die and not seating in the case?

No it’s seating the in case its just seating the bullet randomly. Ill try some other things with I get home. Lucky me it’s only a half day at work today!

Error on my part "setting" supposed to "seating".

When in doubt STOP. Start over.
First thing I would do is disassemble the die. Then clean it throughly. Put it back together. Then follow the die makers instructions to set up the die in your press.
All should be ok.

muck

Measure the diameter of the bullet base and compare it to the inside diameter of the sized case. Your cases are probably being sized to accommodate jacketed bullets. For instance, RCBS "Cowboy" dies size for the larger, lead bullets. The Lyman "M" die is a good solution; it will expand the sized case to a larger diameter. I'm assuming that have neither the RCBS "Cowboy" dies nor the Lyman 3-die set (it has the "M" die).

What I'm guessing here is that you are attempting to seat a .454" bullet in a case that has been sized to for .452" bullets.

What brand and type of dies do you have, 4 die or 3 die set?
The bullet shouldn`t be seating unless something is stopping the bullet from going deeper in the die. Try removing the seater from the die and see if the bullet still contacts some point in the die body. There are different seating plugs in some brands for various shaped bullets, SWC vs RN, RCBS and Lyman I know have this feature. The wrong plug shape MAY be causing the bullet to hit the prematurly.
The friction between the case and die could be because of over expanding the mouth. I don`t see it causing the bullet to start to seat though.

I have re-read your post.

Your statement that you have reloaded other calibers with lead bullets caused me to overlook your implying that you are loading unlubed bullets. This brings up the question of the sizing of the bullets. Perhaps you need to give a more complete description of your process and the components.

Thanks for all the replies. I took the die apart and cleaned it well. Tried again and it worked fine... I don’t know why maybe it was because it was a brand new die but everything is operating smoothly.

Thanks again
DC