HELP! Currently loading pistol ammo!

thebaron

thebaron

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I am currently loading up some .45 ACP and am running into a problem (or so I think)

I am at the seating stage:

When I seat the bullet (230GR FMJ) it gets slightly deformed/slightly crooked.
Also, there is a bulge in the case where the bullet sits.

Is this normall or is the case supposed to stay flush/bullet straight and no deformities whatsoever?

Could it be that I am not expanding the case mouth enough?

Thanks for the urgent help!
 
Yes its normal to get a bit of a bulge, also seat so as the round chambers all the way , can test on a removed barrel, it should drop right in. Other than that, try and hold the bullet upright as much as possable. One other thing the case mouth may not be expanded enough, adjust the die to expand the case mouth so the bullet is not hard to start seating.
Frank
 
... I've always found the 45 ACP to be "difficult" to load .... however, try seating your "expander" a little deeper, and adjust your seating die (probably upward) fractionally . Try the adjustments, on just a few at a time, and do the operations slowly, that way you can feel any abnormalities as they occur, and adjust accordingly. The 45 ACP head spaces on the mouth, which translated means, that you cannot do a really tight "crimp" on the bullet. ..Also, check with the re-loading manual, and hopefully illustrations/trouble-shooting guides there will also be of help. (Over-greasing of the cases causes horrible dents/deformities ...'learnt that the hard way !) ..... David K. PS I haven't reloaded 45ACP for years and years, so take what I suggest with a grain of salt, I'm just working from memory ....
 
Here are a few ####ty webcam pics.

Here you can see that the bullet is slightly crooked and the case on the left side is slightly bulged.

bent.jpg


And here you can see how the bullet is deformed. It is almost shaped like the tip of a #####.

bullet.jpg
 
What kind of bullet is that? It looks pretty soft to get mangled by a 45 case. I would suggest more belling would be in order. Did you mic a few to see what size they are? They should be .451 .

Did you happen to load lots of lead before starting with the jackets? You don't have a buildup of lube/crud built up in the seating die that is pushing the bullet out of kilter as it is seated, by any chance?
 
joe-nwt said:
What kind of bullet is that? It looks pretty soft to get mangled by a 45 case. I would suggest more belling would be in order. Did you mic a few to see what size they are? They should be .451 .

Did you happen to load lots of lead before starting with the jackets? You don't have a buildup of lube/crud built up in the seating die that is pushing the bullet out of kilter as it is seated, by any chance?
Click to expand...

It's a Winchester FMJ (They come in a bag) Yes, I mesured them all to .451 and No, I have never loaded anything but jacketed bullets in the die, in fact, they are brand spankin new dies! :confused:

I guess my problem is that I need to bell a little more :redface:
 
If that "#####" goes all around the bullet(hard to tell in the picture) you might back off on the crimp also. If it is just deforming one side,??????

Might have a bum die. Start by adding more belling.
 
joe-nwt said:
If that "#####" goes all around the bullet(hard to tell in the picture) you might back off on the crimp also. If it is just deforming one side,??????

Might have a bum die. Start by adding more belling.
Click to expand...

It's only to one side. Probably from going in crooked. I will try to add some more bell to them tomorrow night and post the results.

It's quite frustrating! :mad:

Thanks for your help!
 
That's not normal.

I had a set of .32 auto Lee dies that did that. I returned them for another set of Lee dies and all is good now.
 
Some dies come with a seating stem for flat nose wadcutter and not round nose bullets, some come with both. Look inside your die it should be rounded , if not that may be you problem.
 
Are you using a turrent head type of a reloader. Sometimes the die in a worn turrent is not lined up with the case when you push it up into the die?
 
Forgot to mention if it is not a turrent head type reloader the shell holder may be wrong one or not be lined up with the die when you push up. Seen this with older worn relaoders. Try to resize a empty case to see if it is out of round. If everything lines up it is probably the die.
 
Looks like your using a 44 cal crimping die or smaller and check your overall length with an accurate micrometer.
Driller
 
Try not to set any crimp on the seating die - and screw down the expander a bit to increase the belled in the case mouth. If the problem goes away, then you are setting too much crimp on the seating die. After the bullet is seating OK w/o crimp(and the overall length is OK) - then you can unscrew the seating stem a couple of turns and adjust the die down by quarter turn to start the crimp. Wish this help
 
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