.454 Casull RCBS Dies Crushing Brass Help Needed...SOLVED WITH YOUR HELP!

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Northman999

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Fellows,

I'm reloading 454 Casull for my Puma 92 and I'm runing into problems with brass being damaged or destroyed as I seat bullets. I'm using Hornady brass, 300gr Hornady XTP-Mag bullets (.452 dia) and a new set of RCBS dies. I'm new to both pistol cartridge reloading and straight wall case reloading. This brass is 1F, but I was having exactly the same issues the first time I loaded it.

Here are pics of the two types of problems I'm having.

454Busted_Brass01.jpg


454Busted_Brass02.jpg


On the left is brass simply being torn away by the bullet when seating. This is happening about 10% of the time. If I hit the inside of the case neck with an RCBS deburring tool pretty aggressively it happens less; but then I'm also thinning the edge of the case neck which would seem to deminish the effectiveness of crimping (I think, anyways).

On the right is the other thing that is happening; bullet seating, but just under the bullet, the brass seems to be collapsing. This is happening about 30% of the time I seat bullets.

Also, fairly regularly, when I seat bullets, the brass is cutting shavings off the bullets, so seating is pretty tight.

My gut is telling me that I've got a problem with the setting on my expander die, but reading the instructions over three times and it seems to me I'm doing it right. At the very least, reading the instructions over and over again is not clarifying what I may be doing wrong or what corrective action may be.

I'm sure you pistol/straight wall case reloaders can see right off what's going wrong, so please help me out here.

Damn 454 Casull brass is about $1 per!
 
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Wrinkles!

It also appears that you may be trying to crimp before the cannelure ? May be just pushing the top part of the brass straight down the shank of the bullet causing your wrinkles Also will second the thought that you may need to flare the case mouth a little more ! If you need to seat long perhaps get a profile crimp die for .45 lc and try that ? Just a thought for what it's worth .
 
Okay, I'll flare the case mouth more.

My crimping is in the cannelure - these bullets just seem to have a fairly long cannelure, so some sticks out anyway.

I don't think I'm really crimping too much - 1/5th of a turn less on the die and I get no crimp at all.

Thanks for the replies!
 
The one on the left def. needs more belling...the one on the right is a crimp problem, are you crimping with the bullet seating die??? I ask because the brass looks altered down toward the case head as well. If you are reloading on a single stage reloader, try seating the bullet and crimping in separate steps ie: set seating die to seat bullet with out the crimp coming into play at all. Then screw seating stem right out of the die and set die to crimp, once this is making good ammo, you can try eliminate this step.
 
ben hunchak said:
The one on the left def. needs more belling...the one on the right is a crimp problem, are you crimping with the bullet seating die??? I ask because the brass looks altered down toward the case head as well. If you are reloading on a single stage reloader, try seating the bullet and crimping in separate steps ie: set seating die to seat bullet with out the crimp coming into play at all. Then screw seating stem right out of the die and set die to crimp, once this is making good ammo, you can try eliminate this step.
Click to expand...

I'll try this too, Ben, thanks.
 
Ben hit the answer, belll and then seat, then crimp. I've been shooting the .454 for 20 years and quickly realized that seating and then crimping was the answer. Justget yourself another seating die for that purpose only.
 
So I headed back to the reloading bench with everyone's advice, and adjusted my expander die to flare the necks of my brass significantly more. I also seated and crimped my bullets in separate operations. The results were a very nice batch of identical cartridges with no tearing or crushing of brass.

454GoodLoad01.jpg


Thanks, fellows!
 
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