.45 reloads not always Staying seated

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kbialick

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I'm having an issue where my .45 reloads are not staying seated ... I'll make a bunch and when putting them into the ammo box I notice 3 or 4 out of 100 the bullets are falling half way out .... I'm using a hornady lnl with a 4 piece Lee die set seating and crimping in separate steps. 200 Missouri bullet hitek coated swcI set oal to 1.250 and my crimp was originally at 471 but I have to actually seat my die all the way til it bottoms out just to get 469 but both crimps don't seem to make that much of a difference it will still occasionally happen. I have checked the case sizing and it is always a consistent 468 and my expanding die barely 476 just enough to start the bullet.

I also have another question as I stated before with adjusting my crimp I set the crimp the way instructions stated ... turn down until touches bullet then turn another half to full turn .... so when I do that I get around 471 to 4715 crimp so when I tried to get a tighter crimp to see if that fixed my issue I was able to turn it about 3 more turns easy without seeing much of a difference in the crimp had to actually bottom out the due to get the 469 crimp is this normal?

Thank you for your help in advance
 
45 What? Colt? ACP? Sounds like ACP so I would suggest, as a starter to back off the crimping die so that the taper crimp removes just enough flare for good chambering (use the Plunk Test). If too much crimp is applied lose bullets can result form buckling the case...
 
Did you measure the diameter of the bullets?
I doubt if they are U/S, but I would start there
& eliminate all possibilities.
 
Sorry I ment Acp ... I've been doing 471 on the crimp just a half turn past touch I tried more just to see it if would crimp tighteraround bullet I don't usually crimp that much .... yes I have measured bullets they are .452.
 
You did make sure the cases aren't split?3 or 4 out of a hundred would be a lot but anytime a bullet seats to easy first thing to look for.Are the others tight push against the edge of the bench.A heavier crimp is not the answer.Have you loaded any other bullets with these dies?
 
I wouldn't shoot any from that batch until you figure out your problem.
If they can fall out of the case, they can get pushed into the case during the feed cycle and pressure can/will rise sharply, danger!

You need your bullet to expand the case as it is seated, causing the case to grip the bullet (bullet tension). Bullet tension is the primary force that holds the bullet securely. If you expand and flare too much, the case will not get any grip on the bullet as it is seated.

Reset your expander/flare die until the bullet barely starts in the case. (barely)

Crimp does not make up for the lack of bullet tension.
 
Mixed brass? Thin brass on a few?

Expander diameter to big? Should be .450"

Sizing die oversize?

Measure brass neck, before and after seating the bullet. Should expand .002" after seating.
 
I had same thing happen, it was a combination of a Lee resize die and Remington brass. No problem with RCBS or Dillon dies. Lee makes good scoops.
 
Here are a couple things you could try:
If you are using mixed headstamps, exclusively concentrate on the heavier cases that might also be thicker and result in better bullet tension. Here are a few headstamps that are generally heavier than average for the .45 acp.
wcc84 (military)
cbc (magtech)
s&b (sellier & bellot)
tzz (israeli military)
speer
pmc
wcc84 match
and a few generally lighter than average:
fc (federal)
win
gfl (fiocchi)
r-p (remington)
drt
ppu (privi partizan)
blazer
hornady
wcc82 (military)

From the lighter than average list, the gfl, r-p, and win headstamps will usually be heavier than the others in the list and are probably average.

Secondly, if your bullets have a bevel base, try seating them without a flare. I've been using the hi-tek red coating with the 200 gr swc .45 bullet and the coating seems to act like a lubricant resulting in what appears to be reduced bullet tension. However the bullets will seat without a flare and without shaving the coating. Doing this seems to increase bullet tension but takes additional time to efficiently align the bullet without a flare.
 
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turn it about 3 more turns easy without seeing much of a difference in the crimp had to actually bottom out the due to get the 469 crimp is this normal?
Click to expand...

Here's your answer..

4 piece Lee die set
Click to expand...

Ask Lee.

I use Lyman and RCBS, and they don't do that. Ask Lee if its normal, for their dies, or not.
 
So after all this advice I received which I do appreciate I went back and did some experimenting and from what I found on the rounds that didn't seat tightly the poly coating was shaved off .... so I started adjusting dies out my crimp back to its original setting and actually increased expansion on the expanding die I realized that I didn't expand enough and when seating I was shaving lead off the bullet. So I pulled a few bullets after fixing the expander die and not one had the poly coating removed and even had to smack a little harder than usual. Live and learn hopefully this gets to help someone else out
 
Thanks for coming back and posting your findings. Always nice to see how these things shake out (and frustrating if the poster doesn't tell us). Thanks.
 
Please, don't confuse expanding (the expansion of the case ID to be 0.001-0.003" smaller than bullet diameter) with case mouth flaring/belling. One die does both, but they are very different things.
At least you looked into things.
I think one of the worst pieces of advice given to reloaders over the last 10 years has been to use minimum case mouth flare so you don't over-stress the case. Since no one nows what this minimum case mouth flare is, they tend to use so little that they damage most of their bullets. This has led to the OPs problems for many thousands of folks and I doubt very many cases have been saved.
Use enough, and then add a bit more.
 
A seating die stem that matches the bullet nose profile is a big help too by centering the bullet nose more positively. That reduces the number of scraped bullets.

My Lee .45 seater stem had just a round hollow in the stem that pushes on the nose of the bullet. I 'skinned' a lot of plated SWCs with that die.

Bought a Redding .45 auto seater die that pushes on the shoulder of the SWC. No more skinned bullets. RCBS also makes seater dies/stems that push on the shoulder of the SWC.

The positive alignment reduces the amount of flare you need.

You might even be able to find a Lee SWC seating stem or die.
 
I just bought a seater stem for my Dillon 550B that seats on the bullet shoulder of SWC bullets to allow for reloading swaged bullets & avoiding shaving the soft swaged lead.
 
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