44 mag carbide dies and lube

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  • ras_oscar

    Ultimate Member
    Apr 23, 2014
    1,666
    I pulled out my 44 mag dies last night to replenish my diminished supply. The expanding die and bullet seating die offered a bit more resistance to accepting the cartridge than I am used to. If I spray case lube on the first few cases to free things up, is there a risk of damage to the carbide coating?
     

    teratos

    My hair is amazing
    MDS Supporter
    Patriot Picket
    Jan 22, 2009
    59,775
    Bel Air
    Are you spending enough time with your die before inserting the case?
     

    byf43

    SCSC Life/NRA Patron Life
    Bunch of ball-breakers in this thread. :D

    OP, make sure the dies are cleaned, then lube a few cases and slide 'em in.

    K31 should be along shortly, to discuss the lanolin based lube. :D





    All kidding aside, the expander die and bullet seating die shouldn't have that much resistance. Only the carbide sizer die. (And it's the only one that actually has carbide in it.)
     

    Biggfoot44

    Ultimate Member
    Aug 2, 2009
    32,884
    In theory yes. In practice it depends on the details, such as bullet design, powder used, and exact combination of dimensions of dies and bullets . I've loaded bunchs of ammo using medium speed powder and Magma style cast bullets using one step that was capable of sub 1in @ 25yds . Could seperate seating & crimping have shaved another 0.1in of group size ? I dunno, I declared Victory where I was .
     

    ras_oscar

    Ultimate Member
    Apr 23, 2014
    1,666
    Squeezed out a dozen last night. Found out my difficulties were caused because I had flared the case mouth too much. Adjusted and all is well. Gaged all my cartridges to ensure they will chamber. The mistake only cost me 2 cases.
     

    Magnumite

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 17, 2007
    6,564
    Harford County, Maryland
    Glad you determined and corrected the cause. Varying case lenghs will affect degrees of flair. If the flaring die was adjusted with a short case, subsequent longer cases will be over flared.

    FWIW, lubing the inside of magnum class revolver cartridges will cause lower bullet pull
    force. This would contribute to bullet creep and less uniform ballistics and could affect group uniformity.
     

    John from MD

    American Patriot
    MDS Supporter
    May 12, 2005
    22,738
    Socialist State of Maryland
    I pulled out my 44 mag dies last night to replenish my diminished supply. The expanding die and bullet seating die offered a bit more resistance to accepting the cartridge than I am used to. If I spray case lube on the first few cases to free things up, is there a risk of damage to the carbide coating?

    I'm confused. Their isn't any carbide in the expanding or seating dies and the only die that has a carbide ring is a Lee Factory Crimp die.

    I think you had better check your sizing die to see if it has backed out some.
     

    Biggfoot44

    Ultimate Member
    Aug 2, 2009
    32,884
    The Sizing die has carbide insert in all "carbide" die sets, from all mfgs . Having on in the LEE FCD also is a unique feature .
     

    Pinecone

    Ultimate Member
    MDS Supporter
    Feb 4, 2013
    28,175
    The Sizing die has carbide insert in all "carbide" die sets, from all mfgs . Having on in the LEE FCD also is a unique feature .

    In one way, yes. The whole die is not carbide.

    But what was mentioned was that the carbide insert is typically a ring near the base, and not the whole inside of the die.

    This works, as most of them are for straight wall cases. So one size for the entire length.

    They do make carbide dies for 5.56 and 7.62 (Dillon) and the entire inside of the die is carbide. But still an insert into a steel shell with the threads.
     

    ras_oscar

    Ultimate Member
    Apr 23, 2014
    1,666
    For those of you that may come across this thread as the result of a search, a fuller accounting of the issue and its resolution: My set up is the Lee 4 piece carbide die set in 44 special/44mag in a turret press. I had previously set up this turret and used it successfully for nearly a thousand rounds of 44mag without incident. When I posted the Original Post, I was having resistance getting the case into the bullet seating and factory crimp die. Resistance to the point that the side of the case was scratched and several had the rim crushed. My thought was the dies were dirty or dry from sitting in storage. Since I have recently expanded to rifle calibers, I have a can of case lube on hand. I understood that while pistol calibers are regularly available both with and without carbide rings, virtually all rifle calibers come in non carbide only. In parallel, I also understood that rifle cartridge always require case lube and pistol carts rarely do. Thus the OP was to confirm that there were no negative interaction between carbide rings and case lube.

    The reason for the resistance at the bullet seating station was because I had recently upgraded from Lee Auto Disk to Lee Auto Drum at the powder station. In that process I had removed and then subsequently reinstalled the .44 cal powder through expanding die. ( The rifle die set does not come with a powder drop die, you have to purchase those separately) I had only adjusted it to correctly activate the powder drop, without giving proper consideration to case mouth flare. As a result, the powder through expanding die was set too low, thus over flaring the case and causing difficulties in the subsequent bullet seating station. Once I removed the powder drop and corrected the case flair the dies returned to flawless service I have come to expect.
     

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