Tool for necking up brass

SuperCub

SuperCub

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I have been working on necking up some new 338WinMag to 375cal. The custom RCBS dies I have here are not all that well designed for this task as the shoulder of the sizing stem is fairly square. As it is, it's pretty hard to do and required ALOT of lube inside and out of the case. :mad:

I discovered that the re-sizing stem in my LEE 375H&H dies is nicely tapered and would work great, but the 338 brass will not go into the H&H dies w/o pushing in the sides of the case body due to the taper of the H&H.


HMMMMMM :confused: (scratch scratch) ------------> IDEA!! :D

I took the sizing stem from the LEE 375H&H dies and screwed it into a LEE Universal Decapping die.

IT WORKED GREAT! with min lube on the inside of the case neck. The die does not touch the case body at all. I had the entire 50 finished in less than 10min :dancingbanana:

It looks to me that all LEE resizing stems are tapered in this fashion and this setup would work for all kinds of calibers that needed the neck sized up.


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Yes, very good idea - thanks.

So, you're trying to make a "poor man's 375 Ruger"? Did you not know that the 375 Ruger is the best 375 ever conceived? Such temerity!
 
Andy said:
Did you not know that the 375 Ruger is the best 375 ever conceived? Such temerity!
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I talked to Bevan King the other night about the 375/338 he is doing for me. We also chatted about the 375 Ruger and he flat out said the "he would never own a 375 Ruger reamer". I guess I'm not alone in the dinosaur league. :D


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Good work on the expanding idea, SC. If you didn't have a Universal Decapping die, coudl you have exhanged the expander balls between the LEE and the RCBS?
 
I think RCBS dropped th eball- I am sure they *know* that the dies woudl be used to expand mouths, they shoudl have included a better took for the job, a differnet expander.

Call them up and YELL at them;)
 
Gatehouse said:
I think RCBS dropped th eball- I am sure they *know* that the dies woudl be used to expand mouths, they shoudl have included a better took for the job, a differnet expander.
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True, but they probably want to sell the special die for the job from their custom die line-up.



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Andy said:
Yes, very good idea - thanks.

So, you're trying to make a "poor man's 375 Ruger"? Did you not know that the 375 Ruger is the best 375 ever conceived? Such temerity!
Click to expand...

Considering the 375 Ruger can be bought, brand new, for about $1000, having a
rifle custom built for you is probably not the "Poor Mans" alternative. :)
 
todbartell said:
Considering the 375 Ruger can be bought, brand new, for about $1000, having a
rifle custom built for you is probably not the "Poor Mans" alternative. :)
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Correct! ....... I think I'm gonna come in @ about $1ooo to $11oo for mine with dies and brass included, maybe a bit more with odds and ends.




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todbartell said:
does than include the price of a chambered barrel and donor action, rings, and sights? :)
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Pretty close, but then I don't have the final on the barrel job. It will prolly go over the $1100 mark by a bit.

I got the 700 action at a VERY good price and the B&C stock for next to nothing.


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SuperCub
Everyone has there own preferences for dies but one thing I've come to appreciate with Hornady dies is the highly polished elliptically shaped expander in all of them.
I once returned a brand new RCBS 358Win set that would not neck up 308s without lots of crunching and grinding. The same store had a Hornady 358Win set in stock. When the store owner and I compared the expander buttons he had absolutely no issues with my exchanging dies. The RCBS had that same squareish expander. That was 20 years ago and RCBS still haven't got it right I guess:confused:. I do ALOT of necking up brass (as I guess you and others here do too) and all of my hornady dies do a wonderful job and my Lees do OK too.

338 to 375 is less of a hop than when I bump 308 to 358. It shouldn't be work at all.

That 375 Chatfield sounds like a good one. I'm looking forward to your range reports - when the time is right.

My2cents
 
I've done 30/06 brass up to 35 Whelen with RCBS dies and it was a bit of a hassle as well. I may have to buy a Lee resizing stem in 35cal for that job as well.

I only tried Hornady dies once and they were in 375H&H. I didn't like that sliding collete thingy on the seating die that I had to push up to get the bullet in place. Maybe it was just that particular caliber, but I've avoided them since. If the Hornady dies in 35 Whelen have a tapered expander, maybe that's the route to go.


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I believe all Lee dies (except collet dies) have a tapered expander. They call it the EasyX expander.

Say what you like about Lee, but the old man sure has a lot of ideas nailed down tight.
 
If the Hornady dies in 35 Whelen have a tapered expander, maybe that's the route to go.
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All Hornady dies have the their tapered ellitical expander. You can see it in this typical cutaway pic below. By the way that sliding sleeve is supposed to obviate the need for fingers aligning the bullet. Guess it wasn't workin for you for some reason.
rifle.jpg
 
Whelen B said:
By the way that sliding sleeve is supposed to obviate the need for fingers aligning the bullet. Guess it wasn't workin for you for some reason.
Click to expand...
I think it was working OK, but it was the combination of a long die over a long case/bullet in a short press. I had to push it out of the way to get the bullet in.

I have an RCBS Ammomaster now and am quite sure there would be room under theose Hornady dies as the press is made to handle 50BMG, which is way too big for me. :)

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