Belling Dimension

[KentG]

Quick and dirty,,, what is the min/max for the belling dimension at the powder charge/bell station on a 650??

[George]

Enough belling to seat the bullet cleanly without shaving jacket, or lead. That is all that is needed, no more. This is a setting arrived at by trial and error, not measurement. Start with little to no bell/flare, then test seat a bullet, if it is difficult, or shaves material, increase the bell/flare a little. Repeat until satisfied that you have enough, but NOT too much.

The exact same thing goes for flattening out the bell/flare at the crimp station. This is a dynamic adjustment that cannot properly be reduced to a specific measurement per caliber. You can specifiy a range, but that will be just that, a "range of values", not a specific value.

This type of thing as a hard and fast measurement and a poltergeist have one thing in common, they are both figments of your imagination ;-)

[KentG]

I know from loading 45 what you mean but I was hoping for a good starting point. I figure about .015-.020" is good to go but would like to know what long time 40 loaders find that wont let the bullet fall off center when running the ram up when your in a good steady loading "zone".

[George]

Again, that will vary by what the shape of the bullet base you are using is. Seriously, I have never tracked a dimension like this for ANY pistol caliber I reload and I reload 7 different ones not including 3-4 variants within several calibers. This is also variable according to brass thickness. A good "starting" point will always be found by pushing the ID of the case mouth out to the same as, or a thou, or two over what the case mouth OD was before belling. This way of establishing a starting point is now based on the case wall thickness of YOUR batch/brand of brass which is a always good thing for any setting like this :-)

[wide45]

George is right. I've never contemplated measuring the amount of bell. You will know in short order if you have too little. I have used the seating die as a no-go gage. No point in belling more than what will go into the die.

[TreblePlink]

Trial and error are about the only method. Too little bell and you shave lead and lube, and fill up your seating die with the debris, which causes erratic OAL. It can be a little tighter with jacketed bullets, but must not shave copper. Too much bell leads to working the mouth of the brass which will reduces brass life.

[KentG]

George is right. I've never contemplated measuring the amount of bell. You will know in short order if you have too little. I have used the seating die as a no-go gage. No point in belling more than what will go into the die.

I had a pretty big bell to start and moved it back to about .015" and if goes into the seating die just fine. Should be ready to load about 20 or so for inital function check and chrono.

MG 180jhp

4.9gr vv320

1.19"OAL

.419" crimp

All Lee Dies.

[Carlos]

If you plan on re-using the brass, then bell as little as possible. Around here, we don't pick up brass, so the amount that the brass gets "worked" in the reloading process is meaningless to me.

[KentG]

If you plan on re-using the brass, then bell as little as possible. Around here, we don't pick up brass, so the amount that the brass gets "worked" in the reloading process is meaningless to me.

Im not sure about 40 yet but 45 brass takes quite a bit it seems. I have reloaded 45 brass that almost has the headstamp worn off and still seems to do OK with a fair sized bell.

Good thing is 40 brass seems to get left laying around a whole lot more than 45 so Im hoping to not have to worry about maximizing realoads per piece of brass

[benos]

+2 to both of George's posts.

be

[XD Niner]

I believe Dillon recommends 0.010 inches in the video that comes with the XL650. That seems to work very well for me and anything over 0.005 inches seems to be acceptable for me when reloading .45ACP.

Edited December 28, 2006 by XD Niner