Flaring pistol cases

[Great Crouton]

Quick question on pistol brass flaring:

The instructions that came with the die says "flare only enough to easily accept a bullet" but not sure how much that means. Do I flare just enough for the base of the bullet to easily start its way into the mouth of the case or do I flare the entire distance I expect to seat the bullet (ie, flare to where I think the base of the bullet is going to end up when I've seated as far as I want it to go).

Thanking you in advance,

GC

 

[Spawn-Inc]

flare it until the bullet seats easily. not the entire depth of the bullet you want it seated to. actually it wouldn't even allow for that (lee dies anyway).

 

[arcstarter]

you want to just flare enough to allow the bullet to seat without crushing the case or shaving any lead/jacket off

 

[Great Crouton]

Ok, so minimal flare. I'm just widening the mouth, that's it. Thanks

 

[dogzilla]

The more you flare, the sooner you will start getting cracks in the case mouth

 

[Great Crouton]

Ya, it mentions that in the instructions and that makes sense. The more you work the metal, the sooner it will fail.

 

[Suputin]

You want to use as little case mouth flare as you can. Just enough to allow the base of the bullet to start into the case without catching the case mouth or shaving the bullet. Excess case flare will quickly result in split cases.

 

[ambishooter]

If you are reloading hardcast (lead), most of them are already had tapered base. Just a little flare is all you need to seat the slug. Too much flare will render your casing unusable a lot faster. I am using once-fired casing and I can re-use them to as much as 5-8 reloads.

 

[Great Crouton]

Bullet casting will be my next step at some point but for now, I'm buying them.