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Murphy, I can't match that! However I have two 6 inch S&W 686's that have the rifling completely shot out from the forcing cone forward 3 inches or so. Every round shot through those two guns I cast, swagged and gas checked and they were all loaded on a Rockchucker single stage press. At one time I had a 20 gallon drum full of 357/38special brass that I had pitched because they were worn out from reloading. I can't even begin to tell you how many pinched fingers I have had from when my right hand(running the ram lever) and my left hand (feeding cases) got out of sync! Ha!

Now back to the topic at hand. I agree with Murphy concerning Redding reloading components. I think RCBS is in the same class.

I am also a big fan of the "neck size" method as it does enhance accuracy. In most situations with overbore cases (big case little hole) I like to use the slower burning powders and seat the bullet to a depth where it is just off the rifling.

One thing that is seldom talked about is the hydraulic action that is produced from using extruded powder. This is something that every new reloader should know about. Extruded powder is the powder that is cylinder shaped (looks like broken pencil lead). In many situations you can fill the case plumb full of this pwder without having to much chamber pressure. The loading manuals will give you the maximum charge in grains and that numerical value will often be followed with a "C" which indicates compressed load. What this mean is that the case is so full of powder that when you seat the bullet you are actually compacting the powder. You can hear the powder crunching as you seat the bullet. Everything appears to be fine ar this point and you stick your shinny new reloaded ammo into boxes and all is thought to be well. However the hydraulic action from that extruded powder can actually push the bullets back out of the case while just sitting there. Some people have gone so far as to crimp their rifle cases to stop this problem. I refuse to crimp bottleneck cases. I just thought since you are new to reloading that I would throw that in!

Message Thread:

• resizing dies NE to AK May 02 2006
  • Great Info ... Thanks NE to AK May 04 2006
  • Loading Dies Murphy May 02 2006
    • A million rounds! elmerkeithclone May 06 2006
  • Reloading Eddie May 02 2006
  • Resizing dies KirovPDR May 02 2006