I have come by a set of C-H Pistol Dies in 44-40. They're kind of different and I'd appreciate guidance from someone who uses them - or perhaps a scan of original instructions.
It appears the process is first to run a case into the Sizer Die. This is threaded in the top like the other two dies but has no stem in it. Not sure if perhaps it is designed to also take a decapping stem.
The Pistol No. 3 Die has a decapping stem and a sizing button like a rifle Die does. The button has an outward flared lip at the top so this has to be an expander button and depth determines how much case mouth flare you get..like say a Lee or Dillon Powder Die funnel does. This one is quite aggressive. Easy to destroy a case..yup.
The difficult one is the Bullet Seater and Crimp Die. Seating a .430 FP cast bullet, the actual seating stem can't be engaged before the crimp function pushes the bullet into the case. At least how I'm using it which must be wrong.
With any other brand of die, basically you wind the die down onto a case, Ram fully up, until you touch the mouth. Place a bullet on the case mouth, run it up into the die, then progressively wind the seating stem down until the bullet is seated to the correct depth. Back the seating stem off, wind the die a bit further down to commence the crimp. When the desired amount of crimp is obtained, lock the die and bring the seating stem down onto the bullet to index it. Then merrily seat and crimp the rest of the batch.
But with the C-H, if you set the die onto the case mouth, seating stem backed right off, then place a bullet on the case and run it up into the die, the die seats the bullet. Adjust for crimp by winding the die in a little and I get a very mild crimp, a straightening of the case mouth really but it also continues to seat the bullet. I have to stop or the bullet is seated way too far. The Seating stem has not been used. What am I doing wrong?
John - New Zealand
