45 long colt issues

[spar1790]

Your problem is your inside sizing plug. It is .454" diameter for 45 Colt bullets. RCBS has very good customer service. Call them and tell them you need .451" inside sizing plug for 45 ACP bullets. I'd bet they would send you one free post paid. Good Luck and Happy Reloading
{most RCBS inside plugs have the diameter marked on the top

I have checked the sizing plugs on all the 45LC dies I have. None of them are marked with size only "RCBS 45 Colt" I checked them with my calipers and both are reading around .449-.450. I still must be doing something wrong. So from what you are saying, the problem lies within my sizing die, not my expanding or bullet seating die?

 

[RamRoddoc]

Ok, so reading through one of my reloading manuals I stumbled across an article on 45LC. It stated that older guns "30-40+ years old" were designed for .454 bullets. Newer guns are designed for .452 bullets. Some older dies will not properly seat smaller bullets which is where I believe my problem lies. I bought the dies off of a member and do not know how old they are. I guess I will just buy a new set of dies and go from there.

Aha! Thanks! That's good to know. I checked another caster and they are sizing to .452" also. My .45 colt is old...

Truth has a date and time stamp and mine are more often old dusty ones.

 

[Chuckdog]

How much mouth expansion are you using? Sounds like you may be over expanding the case mouth.

A resized case should resist bullet starting. When expanding the case mouth, adjust your case mouth expander
die so it only opens the mouth enough to cleanly start a bullet inside.

 

[Old_School]

What Chuckdog said.

One other thing that may be happening is that your sizing die may not be resizing the case enough.

As for bullet size, it all depends on the gun and its bore diameter & cylinder throat size. My 40 yr old Ruger OM Blackhawk likes .452" bullets just fine. Ideally you would slug your bore & cylinder throats to determine this size, but it's not absolutely necessary. My Blackhawk throats measure .4525", which is unusual, but just about perfect.

 

[RET E-7]

If you look at the bullets that he is using there is no crimp groove.
The company that he bought them from also has the same identical bullet listed for the 45ACP.
These are the bullets I cast for all my 45 Colts.

If you need help shoot me a PM.

Tom

 

[Old_School]

Really doesn't matter if there's a crimp groove or not, I crimp non-cannelured lead bullets all the time (although usually w/taper crimp). Sounds like his bullets are just sliding down into the case, which means either 1) case is not being adequately resized, 2) expanding plug is oversized or being run into the case too far, or 3) the bullets are way undersized. If the bullets are at least .452", it has to be one of the first two.

 

[Old_School]

PS Ret E-7, is that middle boolit a Mihec HP? Good looking boolits!

 

[RET E-7]

Yeap!

That is one from Miha.

There was less than 50 molds made of this style.

Tom

 

[Red Cent]

Terminology-semantics. Your sizing/decapping die is too big ID. This die does not have an expander die. I believe you are referring to the die that flares the mouth of the case=expander die. That would not be the problem. If you flare/expand the mouth of the case big enough to drop in the case it would not enter any of the dies. You can roll crimp any lead bullet anywhere you want. It will bite into the lead and do good.
New set of dies or one sizer/decapper die.

 

[1006]

Well I am going to suggest two things.
1 measure the bullet--you may have been sent the wrong ones
2 read the seating and crimp dies' directions one more time and make sure you have lowered the die body enough to crimp