Hey guys, I have been reloading for a lot of years with very little trouble. Recently I picked up my new Marlin 1895 in .45-70 and just started the reloading process tonight and my first attempt at seating a bullet resulted in a crushed case. Now I have found very little info on setting up the die properly other than the same old bottleneck case method. My question is if the die is set properly will it slightly expand the case mouth or do you need to rely on chamfer to seat jacketed bullets?The dies are Lee and I am using Sierra 300 grain HP. Any tips on set-up or quirks to reloading the old classic would be much appreciated. Thanks
.45-70 Gov reloading help!
- Thread starter shorttrac
- Start date
Slooshark1
CGN frequent flyer
You should have an expander die that will flare the case mouth. This should let you seat your bullets without buckling the case. I would also recommend that you get yourself a Lee factory crimp die rather than trying to roll crimp with your seating die. It does a much nicer job in my opinion.
Good luck and let us know how you make out.
SS1
Good luck and let us know how you make out.
SS1
The set of dies are a 3 die set I would hope. The middle die expands the case mouth after you resize the case in the first step. That and chamfering the case mouth works for me. Also how are you lubing the case mouth..
The Lee dies come with a "powder through expander die" that you carefully flare the mouth with just enough so the bullet will seat without crushing the case. It's the die with the aluminum nut on the top with the hole trough it. You screw it in a little at a time while raising the casing in your press. It has a tapered mandrel inside with a ridge at the top that puts the flare in the mouth. Check often as you don't want to go too far and really flare the case mouth excessively. Looks like this:
Thanks a lot guys I was not aware of the expander die. It is there exactly as you show in the pic. Never reloaded strait wall cases before. Also I loaded up the first batch of 4 Sierra 300 and 4 Speer 400. Is it normal for the base of the bullet to be slightly protruding from one side? Sierra's seem to do it but Speers don't? They chamber fine but still seems odd. When I say protruding I mean you can slightly see and feel the base of the bullet through the case but only on one side. If I get a moment I will try to post a pic
Only on one side is odd. Often with full sized brass you can "see" the bullet in the brass as it bulges it all the way around. If it's only on one side I'd say there might be something in the case or perhaps the bullet started seating crooked, pushed out one side, and straightened part way through. If it chambers and the brass isn't split or anything it would be fine to shoot.
5point9straight6
Regular
- Location
- Deep River
At the beginning I had similar issues. I'm using RCBS dies. I had to adjust the expander or belling die to bell about 1/4 inch down the case before bullet seating worked without issues.
I don't even full size my brass... I put the decap rod down as far as I could, and only push the case in as far as it takes to pop the primer out... Then I expand the mouth just enough to begin sliding the bullet in...
I had the same issue with my Lee dies the bullet being seated to and protruding from one side of the case, that is why I have Redding dies now and bullets are concentric with the case, no side bulge.
I had this happen as well - actually last night which was the first time using my Lee dies for 45-70. Only happened to one case- an odd ball from another batch. Didn't happen to the rest which were Starline.
All in all I actually found the Lee classic loader easier and a lot more fun (until I broke the decapper pin).
All in all I actually found the Lee classic loader easier and a lot more fun (until I broke the decapper pin).
