trouble loading 38 cal HBWC's

R

rebs

New member
when loading these hbwc's I have to align each one so it will go in the seating die. I think it is the shell holder spring tilting the case off center on the last station which is my seating station.
Does anyone have a fix for this or does any company make a seating die that tapered so there is a little more room for the hbwc to slide in it ?
 
What press has a shell holder spring that can tilt the case? Not found on my RCBS or Dillon and my old CH spring loaded rails did not act to tilt the case.

I have an old CH seating die with a very wide flared mouth that lines up wadcutters pretty well. I am using Hornady seaters for other calibers and they have a wide opening into a centering sleeve, which lines up stubby 9mm and .45 bullets well.
 
I suspect your problem is the case is not flared enough to get the bullet far enough down in the mouth of the case. If the case is flared/belled too much it will scrape the sides of the crimping die which I don't like and of course the crimping will overwork the case mouth and cause it to crack sooner.
 
Be sure your seating stem is FLAT, with a hole in the center for the little "button nose" to not be crushed. Lee makes a custom one very inexpensively.
It is VERY hard to seat a full wadcutter bullet in a case to begin with. If you think about it, all you are doing is shoving down on the very top and have no control over the bullet tilting.
I found that I have to use a LOT of case mouth flare (usually, to the point of the case mouth actually scrapping the seating die body going in) in order to place the bullet on the case so about 1/4 of it is in the case and it won't tilt during seating.
I used to lose 1-2 cases out of every 200 rounds, but, with my excessive flaring, I now lose about 1-2 cases out of every 200 rounds...
 
"...VERY hard to seat a full wadcutter bullet..." Is not. Like saber9 says, you need just enough flare for the bullet to be able to sit in the case mouth by itself. That is not a lot either.
Shouldn't be a spring on the shell holder.
 
My press is a Dillon and doesn't have that issue. Perhaps the cases aren't being sufficiently expanded. More room is required for wadcutters than jacketed or even other lead bullets.
 
Dillon dies have a larger mouth radius than most, specifically for this problem on progressive presses.

If you can, use a Lyman M die or Multi-expander die (a powder-through type). It puts a step in the bullet that allows it to sit straight upright in the case. The helps considerably.

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Thank you guys for the help, I appreciate it. I set the expander die to more bell and now all is working fine, the bullet sits deeper in the case.
 
I set the expander die to more bell and now all is working fine.
Click to expand...

Well done.

I don't subscribe to the common school of thought to flair just barely enough to get the bullet started.

I flair generously. And as soon as it starts shortening my case's useful life, I'll let you know.

Don't hold your breath.
 
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