Shaving lead

H

HistoryJunky

New member
I recently started loading for my .40 Smith and Wesson. I have some hard cast lead bullets I picked up at a local gun show. The brinell hardness was not labelled. They are 180 grain flat point.

I noticed when I load them into cases a lot of them tend to go in rough/shave lead. I am using Lee Carbide dies. I don't have a ton of reloading experience and am at a bit of a loss.
 
For lead bullets (of whatever softness down to pure lead) you need to have the expander/flare
set to where the bullet will freely start into the case about a 1/2 dime's thickness.

Then use the seater/taper-crimp die to reduce the flare to SAMMI mouth diameter spec
(0.423" for the 40S&W) Pick up a digital set calipers (cheap) if you don't already have one.
 
If you are "forgetting to use the flare die" entirely, you can shave just about ANY bullet, or just murder the cartridge brass or both when seating bullets.

Skipping that step or skipping the use of that die entirely makes it extremely hard to build working handgun ammo. SOME brass may "let you" and SOME bullets may "let you" but eventually, you'll destroy bullets and wreck brass and the ammo may not even chamber and the bullets don't have a lot of chance to be accurate or consistent with a portion of them missing, making them out-of-round and odd weighted on one side.
 
You should also inside chamfer each case mouth after sizing. A necessary step for rifle round loading that should also be done for handgun.
 
Lol, I will have to go ahead and disagree with that, snuffy. Hundreds of thousands of rounds in, chamfering pistol and revolver brass is something that I absolutely do not and will not do.
 
Lol, I will have to go ahead and disagree with that, snuffy. Hundreds of thousands of rounds in, chamfering pistol and revolver brass is something that I absolutely do not and will not do.
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I agree Seven. If the case is flared, I see no reason to chamfer also.
 
Sevens and Dahermit, I'll up you one more, and say with a Lyman "M" die, you don't need to chamfer or deburr bottleneck cases either.
 
I personally think you should read a couple of reloading books pull your rounds and redo them being more educated. For safety reasons not picking on you mate.

My O2

Thewelshm
 
Sevens and Dahermit, I'll up you one more, and say with a Lyman "M" die, you don't need to chamfer or deburr bottleneck cases either.
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With a single stage or turret press, a Lyman "M" die is a good thing to have. But for those of us who progressed to progressives (for handguns...O.P.is discussing a .40), because of our high volume shooting, the Dillion powder system is more than adequate in the flaring function to prevent bullet shaving.
 
Disregard chamfering; that only results in a knife edge ridge around the case mouth which is not needed. If using a progressive press, as has been indicated, the powder drop flaring die can be adjusted to apply a correct flare. Otherwise, if using single stage or have an additional die station on the progressive, as others have said, get the Lyman M die flaring tool for the caliber needed. Install the M die in the station before the powder drop but use only if a flare cannot be attained by the powder system.
 
I have only ever heard fantastic reviews of the Lyman "M" expanding die, but I don't have one and the complete success I have had without one... makes me not feel like I need to explore one.
 
Well OK Sevens, just go ahead and be that way then. ;) But if you ever want to load rifle calibers with cast bullets, I can about guarantee you will want to explore the M die. The good thing about them, if for instance you are doing several .30 calibers, like from .308s to the mags, one die is adjustable to accommodate all.
 
You should also inside chamfer each case mouth after sizing. A necessary step for rifle round loading that should also be done for handgun.
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I know of no one who does this with pistol cases.
 
Lol, I will have to go ahead and disagree with that, snuffy. Hundreds of thousands of rounds in, chamfering pistol and revolver brass is something that I absolutely do not and will not do.
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I was going to go into more detail with that post, but then came a knock on the door! GET OUT THERE ,,-- GET THAT LAWN MOWED OR WE'LL DO IT FOR YOU! I told her to KMA, I'll do it when I feel like it!!

SOMETIMES in some cases I will chamfer the inside of revolver cases and in one semi-auto. After trimming! OH MY gosh another hearsay, trimming revolver brass!:eek: Back in my sillywet days ,(Ya know IMSHA?), super accuracy was demanded from every load. Cases were trimmed, inside and outside chamfered and polished. I was pushing maximum loads, the cases would stretch, needed rimming.

That one semi-auto case is the 357 sig. It's super short neck doesn't react well to belling. It needs all the case neck tension you can give it. Belling it means you then give up some of the case neck tension, yeah I know crimping will eliminate the bell , but chamfering eliminates the necessity of the bell to get the bullet to seat without scraping the crap outa the driving surface.

I suspect the OP should stop, read-up on reloading how-to then maybe adjust the belling die again.
 
Well, basically you are trying to push a cylinder (bullet) into a tube (case) that is a few thousandths of an inch smaller than the cylinder. So, you need to provide an "entry" to the tube to allow the cylinder to start entering the tube without gouging the sides of the cylinder with the sharp edges of the tube...

You've heard of a bunch of different tools to do this and what you use is just a personal choice but you need a tapered start into the case (I have used all the "dedicated" reloading tools for applying a flare and I also used the striking end of a punch/chisel, a pair of long nose pliers, a tapered section ground into a 3/8" bolt, and even a bottle necked case; insert the bottle necked case into the case to be flared, push and turn I've also chamfered the case mouths and primer pockets to remove crimps with my pocket knife :eek:).
 
Thanks for all the info. I went back through my ABCs of Reloading again.

Ran 50 more brass through my Lee Powder-through Expanding die. The projectiles I have then seated and spun freely before I loaded them.

All came out fine with no resistance or shaving.

Now just need to get out to see how they run in my gun.
 
Flaring is almost the only possible explanation.

I suggest that you flare only as much as necessary to fit your bullet into the mouth of the case. it's unnecessary to force a larger flare. it's also unnecessary to expand a pistol case to any extent beyond normal, as your bullet will expand your brass as necessary. That isn't a cast in stone declaration, but a hard bullet will swage the brass out a bit.
 
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