45 LC reloading question
- Thread starter KnotRight
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Chihuahua Floyd
Happy to be here
Pretty much same same. Are all of the dies the same manufacturer, maybe duplicates, or extras like a special crimp die rather than the combination bullet seating/crimp die?
if you can ID the individual dies it would help.
CF
if you can ID the individual dies it would help.
CF
Not really. It's a straight wall cartridge. The real issue is some of the old 45LC brass is balloon head and shouldn't be used in a modern gun. Only thing I can think of is if there are multiples of the normal dies found in a 3 die set
I bet you’ve got a couple extra seating dies for different shape bullets, post up some pics.
If those are 45LC then I been doin’ somethin’ wrong, very wrong!
Balloon head? I'll probably never come across any old brass, but what is this?
@KnotRight curious what dies you have there as well. Sizer is carbide? Like the others said, straight wall nothing special.
Charlie R
You can't take ammo home!
Apologies, it was late, wrong thread. Have moved it.
Sounds like someone (prior to you) may have added a carbide sizing die and a taper crimp die to the set. 45 Long Colt was normally roll crimped but with the advent of plated bullets you should be using a taper crimp die to prevent damage to the plating. The carbide sizing die is self explanatory...
If you section modern brass, the "head", where the primer is housed is solid all the way around the primer and then some. The old balloon head cases were manufactured a different way with the case head being much thinner and the primer pocket just an extrusion into the inside of the case. Given two cases of 45LC, one balloon head and one modern, the older one has a significantly higher powder capacity but that's at the expense of case strength. So long you stick with modern brass, you'll be fine, but when shooting a cartridge whose lineage extends back to that period, keep it in mind. Other rounds from the black powder days were made the same way.
Thanks for that explanation, excellent!
OP
These are the 45 LC dies that I got.
From the top down Lyman TC 45 Colt FL, Lyman Exp Die M-1, RCBS Seater #3, RCBS Taper Crimp and a Lee 45-Colt 84 die.
Also please note the 3 shell holders. Thr top one is different in that it has a long tube and will not fit into an RCBS or the like press. The 3rd one is smaller than the regular shell holder. And I have no idea what the piece is above the seater arm.
Should I go and buy a new set of dies?
From the top down Lyman TC 45 Colt FL, Lyman Exp Die M-1, RCBS Seater #3, RCBS Taper Crimp and a Lee 45-Colt 84 die.
Also please note the 3 shell holders. Thr top one is different in that it has a long tube and will not fit into an RCBS or the like press. The 3rd one is smaller than the regular shell holder. And I have no idea what the piece is above the seater arm.
Should I go and buy a new set of dies?
Unless you can positively identify each die then yes, I would go buy a new set of RCBS and move on with life. Save the taper crimp die and let the rest ride......
I think you’re good to go in the order you have them laid out. A traditional 3 die set would be the top 3, deprime and size, expand, then seat/rollcrimp.
I dislike the numbering on Lee dies, but assume it’s a roll crimp die so you can choose to crimp with the seating die or crimp as a fourth operation with either the roll crimp die or the RCBS taper crimp die.
Need to see the bottom of the shell holder, but there are extended shell holder specifically so you can swap from 45LC to 454casul without messing with your dies.
That said, I probably have a set of Lee 45LC dies around here that I’d let go at a lower than fair price. Need to confirm, but shoot me a pm if you wish and we’ll work it out.
I dislike the numbering on Lee dies, but assume it’s a roll crimp die so you can choose to crimp with the seating die or crimp as a fourth operation with either the roll crimp die or the RCBS taper crimp die.
Need to see the bottom of the shell holder, but there are extended shell holder specifically so you can swap from 45LC to 454casul without messing with your dies.
That said, I probably have a set of Lee 45LC dies around here that I’d let go at a lower than fair price. Need to confirm, but shoot me a pm if you wish and we’ll work it out.
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Keep the dies and learn to use them, there's everything you need and in my opinion a couple you don't. Set the taper crimper aside as well as the Lee crimper. With three left you should be ready to run; a carbide sizer, an expander and a seater/roll crimp die. The seater/roll crimper can be hard to adjust since it does two functions at one time. The easy way is to set the die to seat the bullet to the correct length, then screw the seater plug out and set the crimp by screwing the die body down, once set reinstall the seater plug and run it down to touch the bullet that was first seated correctly. Simple as pie.....right
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The piece just above the seater plug looks like the part of one type of a Lee FCD that contacts the case mouth to crimp the case. The long object between the seater plug and the three bottom dies looks like the expander/powder-drop-tube for a Dillon 550.