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EGW U-Die


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On advise of others on this forum I made the purchase

of the EGW U Die in .40S&W- ALL GONE!! If you have

this problem as I did make the purchase. Get rid od the

bulge- I was using the dillon-great die but IMO no good

for Glock brass- I can know shoot Glock brass out of

lonewokf bbl! Thanks to all- :cheers:

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I carefully filed the body of my Dillon die down to the tungsten insert & it works fine on Glocked brass. I believe someone else posted the same thing in a previous thread.

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This makes me wonder if it might not be worth putting the brass thru the EGW-U die first - before cleaning. Then use the regular die in the press during actual loading. This would allow the brass to be sized and checked in advance of going into the progressive press.

Edited by Graham Smith
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This makes me wonder if it might not be worth putting the brass thru the EGW-U die first - before cleaning. Then use the regular die in the press during actual loading. This would allow the brass to be sized and checked in advance of going into the progressive press.

I too use U-die for 9/40. I clean brass first and use case lube, U-Die in station #1. Makes loading O'so smooooth.

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  • 3 weeks later...
This makes me wonder if it might not be worth putting the brass thru the EGW-U die first - before cleaning. Then use the regular die in the press during actual loading. This would allow the brass to be sized and checked in advance of going into the progressive press.

Close to the approach I've taken.

I've got 3 U-Dies (9MM, .40 & .45) using 3 of the 4 holes in a Lee Classic Turret. I do clean the brass 1st and then, run through the appropriate U-Die. I used to remove the HOS by tumbling loaded rounds a few minutes but since starting using U-Dies as above I just run them through again after sizing. Once done, they barely touch the Dillon sizing die and there's need no lube when loading. After burnishing with the EGW dies & re-tumbling, cases come out shinier than new. The little LCT set up this way makes it quick & easy and the double tumbling requires none of my time to speak of.

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This makes me wonder if it might not be worth putting the brass thru the EGW-U die first - before cleaning. Then use the regular die in the press during actual loading. This would allow the brass to be sized and checked in advance of going into the progressive press.

No, clean it first.

You stand a chance of scratching the die with grit that's remaining on the cases.

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This makes me wonder if it might not be worth putting the brass thru the EGW-U die first - before cleaning. Then use the regular die in the press during actual loading. This would allow the brass to be sized and checked in advance of going into the progressive press.

I actually did this. I put the 'U' die in a toolhead by itself and had 'o' cases that would not drop in the chamber guage. I then tryed the 'u' die with the other dies and found a small percentage of cases that would not chamber guage. About the same as the Dillon.

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  • 2 months later...

I was having some frustrating malfunctions with my new SVI, where the breech didn't fully close, and the loaded round was wedged so tightly, I had to step off the line and have help to clear the weapon. This was really worrying me, how much I had just invested in this new gun, but I was shooting one of Ted Bonnet's steel matches the weekend before last, and had several of these malfunctions, after several had occured, I asked him to help me trouble shoot the problem, and he pointed out a rigde around the casehead on some of the rounds causing the malfunction, and sure enough they wouldn't pass a case guage. He suggested it was most likely an infamous problem associated with using .40cal range brass, wich he called "Glock Bulge."

I went home an loaded several hundred more rounds being carefull to put each case through the guage after re-sizing, but before seating the primer. I found I was having to toss about 20-40% of the brass I'd policed off the range (I'm using a set of Dillon Carbide dies in a 550b). I again put each loaded round through the case guage, an culled out another 5-10% that didn't fall effortlessly into the case guage after loading, and seperated them to be used in practice secions only. Sure enough, any round that had passed the case guage, functioned flawlessly through my gun in the local club match last weekend. About 60% of those I had culled out caused malfunctions when I tried shooting them in practice.

All this extra work, was more than I wanted to do on a regular basis in my loading, and the percentage of brass being lost was simply unacceptable to me, so I did a search here for "Glock Bulge", and read several threads noting a number of folks who had successfull outcomes, by switching to EGW's U-die, so I called and ordered one. It arrived in about four working days. I replaced the Dillon Carbide sizing die in my toolhead with it, and pulled about 20 cases out of the trash, that had been discarded for not passing the case guage after being resized with the Dillon Carbide die. I resized each, low and behold, every single one of them passed the case guage after being resized with the EGW U-die. I proceded to load-up about 400 rounds using the new EGW U-Die, and every single one of them passed the case guage! I shot about 200 of them in a local club match yesterday, and they all functioned flawlessly!

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I have U dies in 38 super and in .40, and Lee standard dies in .40 as well. When I get .40 cases of Glock or unknown origin, I tried the standard Lee .40 die and after resizing the cases with that die, they all gauge 100%. The U die does the same thing, but is slower and harder to align the case ( read crunch more cases :rolleyes: ). If you want the U die go for it, it is a great tool. I would say to try the standard Lee .40 sizing die first, and if that doesnt do it for you then buy the U die..... :)

My .02$.....

DougC

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Not intending to confuse, but. If I'm loading jacketed bullets that mike at .400 I always use the undersized EGU die. When loading bullets that mike at .401 (moly coated lead) I use a standard re-sizer/decapper. The combination of the undersized brass and the wider bullet leaves a very pronounced waist. I prefer not to work the brass that much. A regular sizer and the .401 bullets leaves essentially the same shape as a .400 and a "U" die. Just my take.

I'm no engineer or metalurgist...just an idiot savant. :goof:

Jim

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I've had pretty good luck using a single stage press as a "prep station". Putting cleaned brass through this with a EGW-U gives me a good way to deprime and resize the brass before it goes into the progressive. It also offers a chance to look the brass over as I go and discard anything I don't like the looks of.

Just for giggles, I set up a used Lee Pro 1000 press as my prep station yesterday. I put a universal decapper in position #1 and the EGW-U die in position #3, then just loaded up the tubes with cleaned brass, put on some tunes, and started cranking. Except for some problems with the light brass not falling down the ramp consistently, it worked pretty well.

I'm not sure if I want to keep this setup or not since it is not as easy to look the brass over as I go this way. But it sure is a lot faster than using a single stage press and having to manually move the brass into and out of the press.

BTW, I found that putting the brass into a zip lock bag and giving it a shake with a couple sprays of case lube, then spreading it out to dry a bit makes for a much smoother resizing.

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I put a U-die in every one of the toolheads I use for competitive loading. With the 650 I use the Dillon die in station 1, U-die and 2, powder in 3, Redding CSD in 4 and Dillon crimp die in 5. Best die set and arrangement I have ever used. With the U-die in station 1 you will crunch a few cases.

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Thanks for the heads up guys, I haven't "Crunched" any cases as of yet, and my rounds do have a detectable waist with 185gr Precision mollies, but it doesn't seem excessive to me, less than 0.002" with my Dillon caliper, so I'll stick with the U-die I already have for now, since it seems to be working for me. I'm not too conscerned with overworking my brass, since I'm using mixed range brass, and not marking my brass in any way as I did with my SuperComp brass. So I have no way of knowing how many times a case has been loaded and fired, and my reserve is constantly being replenished with a small percentage mix of once fired, that factory shooters leave behind. Of course I'll continue to cull out and discard cracked, deformed, brittle, or grossly discolored cases as I detect them. My goal is production of adequate quantity of good reliable ammunition, with minimal effort, minimal expense, and minimal waste. I figure my equipment at this point is capible of performing better than I can, and the best investment I can make in my shooting at this point is spending my available budget to buy more reloading components, and to simply go shoot more.

Edited by JDBraddy
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I put a U-die in every one of the toolheads I use for competitive loading. With the 650 I use the Dillon die in station 1, U-die and 2, powder in 3, Redding CSD in 4 and Dillon crimp die in 5. Best die set and arrangement I have ever used. With the U-die in station 1 you will crunch a few cases.

I'd be interested in this setup. How'd you move the powder measure linkage bracket that's attached to the primer feed?

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Just loosen the powder measure and turn it to line up the rod, that is if you have the rod with a bend in it. If you have the straight rod just bend it about 30* about 3" below the top and install it.

That works, I'll do the same to my 38 Super tool head.

Thanks

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  • 3 weeks later...

I bought the U-Die as a result of the recommendations. When in station 1 of my Dillon 650, I would have to watch for crunching cases so I can see how putting it in 2 would work with no powder check. But the problem is, either with the U die in the 650, or running it through my single stage first with the U-Die and then normal dillon resize (don't know why) in 1, powder in 2, etc. I still get about 5-10 per 100 that do not fit in my Bar-Sto barrel chamber but do fit in the Dillon case gauge and the stock G-35 barrel.

Very frustrated that the U-Die doesn't work 100% of the time for my Bar-Sto. It does work for factory Glock barrels and the Dillon case gauge 100%. Any suggestions? I have been single staging it for now, but that is getting old quick since I have the same Bar-Sto failure to easily chamber whether or not I single stage the brass with the U-Die first or have it in position 1 in the 650.

Any useful helps or tricks would be greatly recommended.

Thanks, Lumpy.

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I bought the U-Die as a result of the recommendations. When in station 1 of my Dillon 650, I would have to watch for crunching cases so I can see how putting it in 2 would work with no powder check. But the problem is, either with the U die in the 650, or running it through my single stage first with the U-Die and then normal dillon resize (don't know why) in 1, powder in 2, etc. I still get about 5-10 per 100 that do not fit in my Bar-Sto barrel chamber but do fit in the Dillon case gauge and the stock G-35 barrel.

Very frustrated that the U-Die doesn't work 100% of the time for my Bar-Sto. It does work for factory Glock barrels and the Dillon case gauge 100%. Any suggestions? I have been single staging it for now, but that is getting old quick since I have the same Bar-Sto failure to easily chamber whether or not I single stage the brass with the U-Die first or have it in position 1 in the 650.

Any useful helps or tricks would be greatly recommended.

Thanks, Lumpy.

Lumpy,

You might be describing a crimp problem. What do you use and how is it set up?

Jim

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