.45acp die shaving brass when seating the bullet

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Adamlxlx

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Hey guys,

Not quite sure what I am doing wrong here. I am using a lee 4 die set for .45acp. When I first got them i only had 40 casings lying around so I loaded them up without issue. I had also bought a box of 50 factory blazer rounds for the brass. Shot those and came home to reload. This is when the problem started. There is friction now when seating the bullet. The first 40 rounds went smooth but now it shaves brass every time I seat a bullet. It just doesn't feel smooth anymore. I have tried messing with the amount of flare as well but it still shaves.
Any help would be great.


 
I get "shavings" as well loading 45 and 9 mm. I don't worry about it and have loaded and fired 3,000+ in the last year. Mu guess would have been excess flare resulting in the brass being scraped-off in the seating die.

Are you sure that this is happening during seating and not crimping? In any event, unless there is a lot of brass being removed, I would not worry.
 
You have one or two things going on here.

1. No flare.

2. your seating/crimping die is set in correctly and crimping before the bullet is seated.

Pull one of the loaded rounds and see if the plating/jacket has copper removed from the base.
 
RePete said:
You have one or two things going on here.

1. No flare.

2. your seating/crimping die is set in correctly and crimping before the bullet is seated.

Pull one of the loaded rounds and see if the plating/jacket has copper removed from the base.
Click to expand...

It looks like the jacket has been breached, look at left side of bullet, above the casing you start to see something lead coloured.
 
Does the lee seating die still have a crimp even though it is the 4 die set? The confusing thing is i never changed anything on the dies. I had 40 rounds go fine. Only after that 40 did this start happening. The seating die is adjust as per the instructions
Could i have a faulty die? Should i turn it out until this stops happening?
 
I got a little of this as well on my RL550 with lee carbine 4 die set with both 45acp and 9mm as well. don't think it's a big issue though as all my 45acp shot well(haven't load real thing for 9mm yet, just dummy rounds) and not sure if it's adjustment problem because on the 45ACP, my flare is only 2 thousands of an inch which is very minimum to sit the bullet without shedding anything off the bullet(I did pull the bullets confirm that). Also, after sitting, I do check the OAL to make sure it's fine and didn't see any crimp on my cartridge before it moved onto the crimp station. I wouldn't be too worry about it. as long as it shoots fine and reload fine(we have to inspect the case beforehand anyway), we are good. during my 45acp test load shooting session, I did inspect all the ejected cases to see if there were any damage from pressure or anything else. Everything was normal.

Adamlxlx said:
Hey guys,

Not quite sure what I am doing wrong here. I am using a lee 4 die set for .45acp. When I first got them i only had 40 casings lying around so I loaded them up without issue. I had also bought a box of 50 factory blazer rounds for the brass. Shot those and came home to reload. This is when the problem started. There is friction now when seating the bullet. The first 40 rounds went smooth but now it shaves brass every time I seat a bullet. It just doesn't feel smooth anymore. I have tried messing with the amount of flare as well but it still shaves.
Any help would be great.


Click to expand...
 
Please don't give out WRONG answer.
please see LEE's site: http://leeprecision.com/reloading-dies/hand-gun-dies/4-die-set-pistol/
It clearly said that seating and crimping are separated. otherwise, why we need 4 stations, rather than just 3? On Dillon 550, the only time some people will use seating and crimping together in one die is to squeeze out one station for powder check.
I also called LEE helpdesk just to be sure and they confirmed that in the 4 die set, the seating die is only for seating. otherwise, why bother to have a factory crimp die again in the same set?


Seagull said:
Yes it does.
Click to expand...
 
luckey said:
Please don't give out WRONG answer.
please see LEE's site: http://leeprecision.com/reloading-dies/hand-gun-dies/4-die-set-pistol/
It clearly said that seating and crimping are separated. otherwise, why we need 4 stations, rather than just 3? On Dillon 550, the only time some people will use seating and crimping together in one die is to squeeze out one station for powder check.
I also called LEE helpdesk just to be sure and they confirmed that in the 4 die set, the seating die is only for seating. otherwise, why bother to have a factory crimp die again in the same set?
Click to expand...

Nice try!
http://leeprecision.com/cgi-data/instruct/Pistol4.pdf
Step 5 Bullet Seating die
"Your die set includes the lee bullet seat and feed die for use
with the Lee Automatic Bullet Feeder. It has a 45˚ chamfer to allow
for the mechanical feed fingers and improved operator clearance.
Raise the ram to the top of its stroke and hold. Screw the bullet
seating die in until it touches the shell holder, then back it out
three full turns. Lightly finger tighten the lock ring. Bullet depth
is adjusted by screwing the adjusting screw in or out to suit. Bullets
should be seated deep enough to work through the gun’s action.
See maximum overall length on charge table. If a crimp is desired,
screw the die in slightly and test until the proper crimp is formed.
Cases must be trimmed to the same length to provide a uniform crimp.
Excessive crimp causes the bullet seater to deform soft nose bullets."

It would have saved you the phone call if you actually read the instructions.
 
The 3rd die of a 4 die set is the same as the 3rd die in a 3 die set, and can be used to crimp. I had this previously, and found that I had the die set incorrectly. Check youtube, you'll see how to set the die properly by checking crimping and seating separately instead of together (on the same die).
 
that's confusing. so LEE's helpdesk is no good? When setting up my dies, I was going through all Dillon and LEE's videos and sites as I found some discrepancies between those with the manual that comes with the die set. So, I wasn't sure the manual was correct.
I have a pretty knowledgeable guy who is working on my defected 40S&W die. I will send him an email and call to confirm.

Seagull said:
Nice try!
http://leeprecision.com/cgi-data/instruct/Pistol4.pdf
Step 5 Bullet Seating die
"Your die set includes the lee bullet seat and feed die for use
with the Lee Automatic Bullet Feeder. It has a 45˚ chamfer to allow
for the mechanical feed fingers and improved operator clearance.
Raise the ram to the top of its stroke and hold. Screw the bullet
seating die in until it touches the shell holder, then back it out
three full turns. Lightly finger tighten the lock ring. Bullet depth
is adjusted by screwing the adjusting screw in or out to suit. Bullets
should be seated deep enough to work through the gun’s action.
See maximum overall length on charge table. If a crimp is desired,
screw the die in slightly and test until the proper crimp is formed.
Cases must be trimmed to the same length to provide a uniform crimp.
Excessive crimp causes the bullet seater to deform soft nose bullets."

It would have saved you the phone call if you actually read the instructions.
Click to expand...
 
Alright. seagull is right. got hold of another helpdesk which told me differently this time and said the first person may be mistaken that I was talking about rifle seating die. ???
anyway. I guess I will be backing my seating die a little bit then. Thanks! good thing is that the brass is free, so no loss. :)

luckey said:
that's confusing. so LEE's helpdesk is no good? When setting up my dies, I was going through all Dillon and LEE's videos and sites as I found some discrepancies between those with the manual that comes with the die set. So, I wasn't sure the manual was correct.
I have a pretty knowledgeable guy who is working on my defected 40S&W die. I will send him an email and call to confirm.
Click to expand...
 
Flared or not there's no way it should be shaving like that. I'm thinking that there's a nasty burr inside the seating die where the lead in "funnel" meets the bore of the outer barrel. A bit of work there with something to slightly radius and polish should turn it more into a forming tool and less of a metal file. A Dremel with a rubberized abrasive point would be a great option. Otherwise a bit of 600grit sandpaper rolled up around a 1/4 inch down or a round slip stone. Follow it up with a little patch of the same 600 grit wet or dry sandpaper with some oil on your finger tip to smoothen things and then, this is the tricky part, turn the paper OVER and polish the surfaces to a nice finish with the BACK side of the 600 grit paper. Yep, it works. There's enough trace abrasive on the rear of "Wetordry" silicon carbide papers to do a lovely job of this. Easily as good as polishing compound..... which, if you have a Dremel with a felt wheel and some of the green compound, would be the thing to use for final finishing too.

Check the finish on the inside of the bore of the seating die. If it's not smooth then give it a bit of work too.

My own Lee .45acp dies don't do this but I can see where if something went even slightly wrong or the die got past the final polishing out step for whatever reason that the conical lead in could be meeting the parallel bore with a rather sharp edge.
 
since you are using a 4 die set, I am assuming you are using a taper crimp not a roll crimp at the final stage.

Start by not making the flare too big as in the seating position it will shave off the top of the brass, also use the seating die to straighten the brass not to crimp it. finally letting the taper crimp do its job.
 
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