444 Marlin reloading idiosyncrocies

[dthunter]

Hi gunnuts!
My friend has had some trouble with loading his 444.
As of this time, it only seems to affect the "visual appearance" of the loaded round.
He resized (redding dies), expanded (just enough to easily clear the base of the bullet),primed and powder charged his cases.
But when he seated his bullets(265gr. Hornadys I believe), the bullets sort of 'ostrich necked' his brass.
I hope this discription made sense! Lol!

It seemed like his dies sized his cases too small, and when he seated the bullet, the bullet expanded the case much larger than the diameter of the rest of the case!
It looked rediculous!
He tried another set of dies to see if this helped. But it didnt.

Have any of you gunnutz experienced this before?
Is this just a quirk of this cartridge?

 

[bcsteve]

I'm not too sure what you mean by your description but some bulging is normal if its what you're talking about.

 

[dthunter]

Sorry if my description is lacking.

It seems like the outside diameter of the sized case is almost the same diameter as the bullets being seated. Resulting in a ridiculous looking cartridge when the bullet is seated.

It almost looks like he seated a .458 diameter bullet in the case!
If this is normal, wow!
It almost seems like a design flaw from the cartridge design.

I have never seen this before, except with the .357 Maximum, and heavy bullets.

It doesnt seem to have an effect on accuracy or anything though.

 

[Rory McCanuck]

I get the same thing with mine. I swear if the bullet had a serial number on the side, you could read it through the brass.
Doesn't seem to effect accuracy at all.

 

[dthunter]

I think its a poor choice in the design of the cart. Diameter.
But it still works fine.

It bothered my friend so much, that he sold his 444, and bought a 45/70.

 

[444shooter]

I have seen it happen with the 458Win and 45-70 too. I found it more prevalent with Lee dies. Never affected accuracy though.

 

[ben hunchak]

Some Marlins require .432" cast bullets that are used in Microgroove rifling which would bulge cases more in your instance. You should expand the case all the way down until the top of the expander flares the case mouth slightly, this should make some diff.

 

[bcsteve]

No major bulge for me.

 

[dthunter]

Hmmmm, I wonder if some die manufactures just grind thier dies to size too much.
BCSteve has no problems here.

I havent had this problem much with my 45-70.
But I have had a few heavy bullets show off thier bulges on the outside of the case. Just visible.
Maybe the taper on a 45-70 is less condusive to show this bulge than the 444.

Either way, it doesnt affect performance. And thats the only truly important thing to consider.
Thanks guys for your input!

 

[periculumnexnecis]

As long as it cycles properly, i would not worry.It happens mostly with heavy cast bullet in my case, i use lee dies.

Good luck.

 

[DOUGLAS D]

Something doesnt sound right there and I'm willing to bet the problem is the seater die adjustment.
If you friend is making a round that bulges out front he's likely over crimping the case.