.38's bulg after loading on 550B Dillon

[Max It]

HI Guys,

One of my favorite reloading jobs is .38/.357's

HOwever I am having some grief of late

The ammo comes out with a bulg around the bullet end

The press dies dont seem to take it out

I have checked the depth of the sizing / decapping die and it is touching the shell plate.

What am I missing?

Much obliged,

Max

[redwoods]

Take a pic and post it. Also, measure your bullets, it should be .357-.358 for lead bullets.

Randy

[Max It]

Take a pic and post it. Also, measure your bullets, it should be .357-.358 for lead bullets.

Randy

Hi Randy,

bullets are .358 and cases after first station of the press (sizer/decap) is .378 however bulge after loading makes them .380??

Pics? I am not that good at uploading, maybe later but thanks,

[High Lord Gomer]

I had that problem when I was seating the bullet and crimping on the same stage (3). I bought another crimping die, set the die at stage 3 to only seat, then only crimp on stage 4. The problem went away completely.

[Max It]

I had that problem when I was seating the bullet and crimping on the same stage (3). I bought another crimping die, set the die at stage 3 to only seat, then only crimp on stage 4. The problem went away completely.

Gomer,

I have a 4 station set up with Redding Dies

But you gave me an idea; namely that I have only lightly crimped the top of the bullet because if i went lower it made a groove. Maybe I will try all the way down and see if that smooths it out.

[High Lord Gomer]

For me, it was crimping before the bullet was fully seated and then, as the bullet was seated farther, it pushed the top edge of the case mouth down and caused it to bulge outward. I'm not familiar with the Redding dies. Is it possible the 3rd stage is seating and crimping? Or maybe the 4th stage is seating it farther when it should only be crimping?

[anachronism]

I'm missing something. Are you saying that you have an oversized ring at the case mouth, just below the crimp? If this is the issue, back off on your expanding die, you're getting too much flare, and the crimp die can't remove the flare below the case mouth. The flare on a case should barely allow the base of the bullet to start in the case. If this isn't the issue, please let us know.

[Max It]

Good points;

I will check flare at the #2 station

and seating and crimping.

[Max It]

I'm missing something. Are you saying that you have an oversized ring at the case mouth, just below the crimp? If this is the issue, back off on your expanding die, you're getting too much flare, and the crimp die can't remove the flare below the case mouth. The flare on a case should barely allow the base of the bullet to start in the case. If this isn't the issue, please let us know.

HI, Flare is minimal. HOwever I have run out of bullets to load. Back later.

[High Lord Gomer]

So, Max....did you get more boolits?

[Max It]

Hi Gomer,

The culprit was oversize boolits; i resized down to .358 in my Ideal #45 and they work fine. I had been cheating by using the unsized boolit with liquid Alox. No more. No prob.

Thanks for asking,

Max It