Die's

[Charlie]

I'm an avid reloader and I about fell over when I saw the price of dies for the 450BM. I see lots of threads regaurding modifiying the 45-70 FCD for 450 BM, I'm comfortable with that infact I've modified one before for making short 35 rem rounds (stupid Indiana Deer regs)..

What about the other dies? I saw something about using the expander die for a 45 acp and I think some are using 45 colt? What sizing die are you guys using?

[Hoot]

At the very least, get the 450 Bushmaster FL resizing die. Manventure Outpost has it in stock for about $28.00. The rest you can do with re-tasked other 45 cal dies. Still can't beat the Hornady set though. I got my 450b in 2010 and the dies were the same price then as they are now. That's the nature of non-mainstream calibers. You gotta pay to play.

Like many others here, I eagerly await documenting pictures of that Franklin Armory interpretation of the 450b upper. Please take and post as many quality images as you can stand uploading. WRT your other question, the lower is not dependent upon the upper's gas system length. Any mil-spec lower with standard (small) pin diameters will work.

BTW,

Hoot

[Charlie]

Thanks for the info

[Colohunter]

Grafs has the Hornady dies in stock for $69:
http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/pro ... uctId/6766

Natchez has them listed at $61, but they are out of stock.

Compared to some of the other die companies, those prices aren't that bad. (And most of the dies sets that I own are Lee).

[Hoot]

Grafs has the Hornady dies in stock for $69:
http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/pro ... uctId/6766

Natchez has them listed at $61, but they are out of stock.

Compared to some of the other die companies, those prices aren't that bad. (And most of the dies sets that I own are Lee).

That's pretty much the going price for the last 4 years. No they're not as cheap as a Lee set for a common caliber, but I have many different brand die sets and those Hornady New Dimension sets are well worth the cost. Granted the expander die is worthless, but the other 3 in the 450b are great. I love their bullet guiding sleeve in their seating die. Makes starting flat bottomed bullets a breeze. Equally worthless is the instruction pamphlet they send with the dies, but their use if fairly implicit, not to mention there are many here who can fill in any blanks and provide tips as well. I have other 45 caliber die sets, but I use the original Hornady 450b set all the same. I've played with some variations like the tight-neck "TNT" approach as an alternative to the simple taper crimp and of course the modified 44-70 FCD side crimp. Those are avenues to pursue once you have some experience with the regular dies under your belt.

Hoot

[Texas Sheepdawg]

Of you are having trouble posting pics, try using the "Upload Attachment" option it's actually pretty simple once you've done it a few times. Tiny pic has always been a burr under my saddle.

[Colohunter]

Another thing I forgot to mention is Hornady's free bullet promotion. When you buy a set of dies you can get 100 bullets for the price of shipping.
http://www.hornady.com/promotions/get-loaded-2014

I did this a few years back when I bought a LNL AP press and was able to get 1000 308 bullets. The bullets definitely help offset the cost in my mind.

[Charlie]

I didn't know they were doing the bullet promotion on the dies. I'll have to do checking around to see what makes sense. I like the Lee FCD's so I'm going to end up with one of those regaurdless.

[Charlie]

Of you are having trouble posting pics, try using the "Upload Attachment" option it's actually pretty simple once you've done it a few times. Tiny pic has always been a burr under my saddle.

yeah, I was trying to upload the pics from my phone and it wasn't cooperating too good. If you want to see a picture of a certain part or angle of the upper let me know. That muzzle break was a nice unexpected bonus. I figured it would be a glorified flash supressor, but it looks pretty well constucted. Now I need a magazine and some decent weather to try it out.

[pitted bore]

A footnote to Hoot's post above:
The expander die included with the Hornady set will probably be useful when loading cast bullets (boolits?).
--Bob