Westwindmike

Well, I went to Precision Delta and their prices for jacketed bullets are way out of my budget and much more than cast. So far, Missouri Bullets have the best prices for me. I have no need to move up to plated, coated or jacketed.

Just to follow up on the sizing die. Lee couldn't get it apart either so they sent me a new die for the cost of shipping. Great customer service!

Been reading good things about them. Where would I get a promo code? They have a place on the online order form for one.

I've been casting and reloading for years, but I don't cast for .40s&w. I just got a KT Sub in .40 and it is a blast to shoot. I did find some used dies, but now need a cheap boolit source. So where do you order your boolits from that won't kill me on shipping? Only need a box of about 500 to start with. Thanks!

Watching this thread, have friend ready to drive rivets in his.

That is from the bullet seating plug not fitting the bullet shape exactly. Won't hurt anything, but if it bothers you, take the seating plug out and lightly polish or reshape it to fit your bullet better. I've shot thousands of cast boolits with the same ring on them. Have fun in your reloading, and never stop learning!

But, here is the other thing. Your Hornet brass has been fired in multiple guns. Unless you kept them separate, you will probably have to FL size the first time. But possibly Caster's dime trick might size them enough to fit them all.   Caster? What do you think?

This works. It's what I do with my 7-30 Waters brass.

I've been using a 50/50 mix of alcohol and wire pulling gel. You get a huge bottle of it for about $6 or so at Home Depot and a bottle will last years. Spray it on cases in a plastic bag, dump them out till the alcohol evaporates and size. Works well. Then tumble them for at least 30 minutes and they are ready to load.

I never have either. The pin/collar was rusted badly and even soaking in Kroil couldn't get it loose. Lee should receive it today. Maybe they will send me a new die.

Well, I got the bullets sized and then broke the decapping pin on the Lee sizing die. Been using Lee for 25 years and never broke one. This one was in a used die I bought and was frozen and would not move. Sent it to Lee and hope to get it back soon. Want to try some of my reloads in the KT Sub 40 I just traded for.

The bullet sizer I got probably should have been .401 but after getting the rust out of it, it was .402. I've never had any trouble shooting up to .003 over bore though. Will test fire some tomorrow.

Found one. It seems to be sizing them at .402. When I load a dummy round, they chamber fine in the gun but will not go fully into the cartridge gauge. Factory round passes "plunk test". So, are my boolits too big?

A friend just gave me some lead boolits for my 40 S&W project, but they are "as cast" and a bit oversize (.405). Does anyone around Murfreesboro have a Lee push through bullet sizer die in .401-.402 that I could borrow for like 10 minutes? Just need to size these 100 boolits so I can load them. After that, I will probably just buy commercial cast boolits as I don't want another caliber to cast for. Thanks!  

Wouldn't it be easier to use on a bench if you made it sit horizontal and pushed down to resize. That's what I'd do.

I've seen flippers that were just a thin piece of spring steel that pushed the case off on the down stroke. Might check Youtube for that.

Back in the late 70's/ early 80's I was a cop. I can't count the number of cops, firemen, ER nurses and doctors, that I drove home rather than arrest them. We had a lot of discretion back then. The cop in Butte should have done the same thing if he recognized him for who he is. National heros don't get arrested!

What about Granger in Nashville for the plugs?

I don't know about no smoke involved. Every time I cast there is lots of smoke as I flux and burn off impurities. Maybe you could make yourself a small portable casting outfit and just go to a local park or picnic area. Set up on one of those concrete tables and go to it. You would look like someone cooking burgers on your Coleman stove. Just an idea. I always cast outside. Too many fumes and such for an inside setup.

Thanks everyone. Guess I'll just keep partial resizing for now. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Because no matter how much you back it off, it still sizes the body a certain amount. To get the neck sized without touching the shoulder, I now have it backed out about half a turn, but the body is still being sized quite a bit.Just trying to extend my brass life.

I've been shooting my Contender Carbine in 30-30 and it does present some reloading challenges(at least for me). You can't just full length resize the cases or they will headspace on the rim and not the shoulder. That was fine for my Marlin, but not the Contender. So I don't want to touch the shoulder for now anyway.   I have been "partially full length" resizing the cases, but was wondering if I could get away with just neck sizing. The fired cases won't just drop back in the chamber everytime. I think the body needs some resizing too.   But, to the question. Could I use my Lee 308 Collet Die to neck size the 30-30? Same diameter neck. The 30-30 is longer in the neck than the 308. I tried it a few minutes ago with a smoked case. It looks like it sizes the neck about 3/4 of the way down the neck.   Any suggestions? Caster, any ideas if this would work?   Thanks.

I found this writeup on CastBoolits about forming CM brass.   Making 6.5CM from LC 7.62 I decided that I could make some 6.5CM brass from very readily available LC 7.62 brass. I bought some once fired Hornady 6.5CM brass and am very disappointed in it, from my searches my issues seem to be the same as many others. I think some of this brass was shot out of something with a loose chamber as well. From everything I have read it seems the primer pockets are a bit on the loose side after a few firings even with moderate loads. I have read a lot of people using 22-250 brass and just fire forming to 6.5CM but I found out doing this leaves you with a 0.030" short neck. I bought some LC for $.14/ea that was already swaged, tumbled, and annealed. I just happened to have an extra die and a .310 bushing laying around (have no idea why). I lubed up the casing, ran it through the 308 FL bushing die with the .310 bushing and pulled it out and put it in my 6.5CM FL bushing die with a .288 bushing (the die wasn't screwed all the way down, about 2 turns from caming over). I then screwed the die all the way down to where the press would cam over and pulled out a formed 6.5CM from LC 7.62. I trimmed the case down but not to final length as I thought I had a .264 expander but don't. I'm waiting on it to show up so I can do final work. I need to turn the neck down since the now formed 6.5CM neck is .018" and I want to turn them down to .013-.014" then I'll trim to final length and shoot them. The brass seems a bit heavier (which I'll weigh once final trimming) so I will start out on the lower side of the data so I don't end up with pressure issues, I suspect I'll lose about 2gr of volume. I will end up with better brass and something that should last quite a while. Here are a few pictures, not final ones as I need to get my expander yet to turn the neck and final trim.

I just looked up what a 6.5CM is. Is it a Creedmore? If so, it looks like an easy process. Just run the 308 though the CM die and trim.

I've been reading that brass can be "too clean" when expanding and the brass sticks.