Me Again, Need help reloading my .45 Auto

[KaleS]

I have the .223 rifle rounds down pat... thank you all for your help. I have now bought the dies and and case holders for my .45 caliber (auto). I have decapped all sized and clean all then casings, Measures out the powder and have filled about 10 cases. I have having trouble seating my projectile. It seems like the projectile is to large for the cases, they keep getting crushed.

Any Ideas what I am doing wrong?

Thanks again for your help.

[longtooth]

You have not said that you belled the top of the case. You also did not say that you put a primer in. I have to think you did or you would loose your powder out the primer hole.
Belling the case is a separate step.
You have 3 dies in the box. One is the one you used to deprime & size.
There is one that if you look in you can see that it looks like a convex dome. That one will bell the mouth of your case out so the bullet can go in.
Then you will seat the bullet & it should not crush the case if you have the taper crimp set properly.

[nuparadigm]

Bell the case just enough to allow the bullet to barely enter the case. Your seating die will take care of the rest.

[stroo]

Make sure you bell it eough though. When I started reloading .45s, I had a similar problem. About 1 out of 5-10 cases would crush. I started belling a little deeper and the problem was solved.

[Gyrogearhead]

The case expansion step is critical. Too much expansion and the case will start to crack and split around the mouth area which will lead to split cases when fired. Too little expansion and the case will crush when the seating die is used.

I ran into this same problem when I started reloading 45 ACP this past summer. I found the right amount of expansion to be just a slightly visable bell mouth when looking closely at the case when it comes out of the die. You should also notice longitudinal scrape marks inside the case mouth down about to where the bottom of the bullet will be when it is seated. If you don't see these marks or the bell mouth then the the expander is not screwed far enough into the expander die (see the instructions that came with your die set.)

Another test I heard from a long time reloader was to put a primed, expanded and charged case upright on your bench and holding a bullet between thumb and index finger put it in the case mouth gently but firmly. Don't force it. Now without releasing the bullet pick it up and the case should be lifted off the bench surface as well. Don't lift it but just a little as any shake and the case will fall off the end of the bullet. Anyway if you can lift the case with bullet then the expansion is just right. I tried that suggestion and it works every time for me.

Good luck with the reloading

[flintknapper]

Hi Kale,

As others have pointed out, you need to "bell" the case mouth just enough to accept the bullet type you are using (.451-.452).

You'll want to taper crimp the finished product. I like to keep them at .470-.471 so you don't get feeding problems.

Of course, I stopped reloading long ago...but that always worked well for me.

Good luck.

Flint.

[Venus Pax]

+1 on belling (flaring) the case mouth.