I was loading 38 Specials and the bullets seated a little hard. I pulled the expander plug out of the die and it miked 0.354. What happened to my 0.357 expander? I had ignored it for a few years and over 25,000 rounds.
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I was loading 38 Specials and the bullets seated a little hard. I pulled the expander plug out of the die and it miked 0.354. What happened to my 0.357 expander? I had ignored it for a few years and over 25,000 rounds.
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Yep, they do wear! I converted all of my sets for rifles to Redding carbide buttons years ago. Ed Harris turned me on to RCBS selling Cowboy expanders at a good price, they seems to be very hard on the surface. Still and all, 25,000 rounds is a goodly number for cost per replacement plug price!
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Most die sets especially the expander are dimensioned with jacketed bullets in mind. Sizes for 9mm are .353 to .354 from the factory. While ideal for a .355 jacketed bullet, they are not ideal if your 9mm needs a .357 or .358 bullet to properly fit the bore. I have a CZ 75 that has a .3565 bore. The Dillon powder funnel/expander is .3535. A .358 bullet is resized when seated with this expander. This resizing destroys my accuracy with cast bullets in this pistol.
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as a rule i make expanding buttons to the same diameter as the sized bullet ... cast or jacketed .
this might tighten a bit if i loaded for tube magazine rifles .
ken
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The expander should open the case ID (not the case mouth flare) such that the case ID is 0.001-0.002” smaller than the actual bullet diameter. Thus, after expanding a case, measure the case ID and see what you get. You can order larger/smaller expanders (Lee does this for a very reasonable fee). This, and a bullet seating stem that actually fits the bullet you are using, are two areas many reloaders never look into, despite all their efforts for accuracy.
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