Gentlemen,
Does anyone have experience seating lighter bullets in a 500 Black Powder Express or 500NE?
I have several 500 BPE doubles that prefer a 350gr bullet. I have a set of Hornady 500NE dies, and they worked great seating LBT 350gr slugs. I had a custom mold made to cast wide flat nose 350gr slugs out of Meister Hard Cast lead. I have an endless supply. These bullets will seat 1/16" longer with the Hornady dies bottomed out. This causes them to miss the crimp groove.
I contacted Hornady, requesting a longer seating stem, and they said they wouldn't make one for me.
Will a RCBS seating die for 500NE allow me to seat the bullet deeper? They appear to have more adjustment. I am looking for first hand experience before I purchase another die. I contacted RCBS and the guy confused the 500bpe with the 50~110 aka "500 Express".
Thanks, ND

Call Dave at CH4D and see if he can make it work with his dies.

Thanks Mike!
I forgot about Dave. I have a set of his 450NE dies.
Thanks, ND

Nitrodave,

Try putting a spacer between the adjustment screw and the seating plunger. A small machine screw nut would probably work perfect. If that doesn't do it send me a PM and I'll see if I can help you out.

Sam

Thanks Sam!
I'll try that.
ND

I look forward to your resolution Nitrodave. I just jumped on the last set of Hornady dies as I've been looking for a while. I have a Leeson 500BPE that likes 350's. I won't be able to use them until October when I return to the States but now I'm a bit concerned. Again, look forward to the solution.
Jeff

Jeff,
The Hornady 500NE dies work fine with 350gr LBT hardcast bullets. My issue began when I tried seating my own cast 350's.
ND

Dave,

My spacer idea might not work if it flops around inside die. Hornady dies are goofy how that seater works. In my dies the seater adjustment screw has a hole thru it. I think you could put a machine screw thru this hole and have a nutt at top and bottom to hold screw in place. This will keep the adjustment solid.

Sam

I have RCBS 500 NE dies; load all manner of cast bullets for 500 BPE, as well as NE; with no issues.

The RCBS dies look like they have way more adjustment in seating depth. These Hornady dies have a weird seater plug that floats up with the bullet until it hits the adjustment knob at the top of the die.
Good first hand info DPCD. This is what I needed to know.
ND

Thanks for that Nitrodave. I'm looking forward to loading my own again.
Jeff