450Bushmaster.net

MOOSE EARS wrote:Sure, the resizer die undersizes the entire case down to the head and then the bullet is seated and expands the case where the bullet is inserted. The bullet is supposed to be centered in the case with an equal amount of taper all the way around. You can easily see the off center position of the bullet with the Lee dies. This was on straight wall pistol cases both times it was happening. Some rounds would not fully chamber without pushing them into the cylinder. I've loaded for over 35 yrs and successfully work up loads for nearly 20 different rounds. The replacement dies for the 44mag/44spcl worked better but I just shelved them and the 500S&W dies and moved on to better quality dies. Hornady has the best dies for the money.

I loaded up 20 rounds with the Lee dies and you are indeed !00% accurate in your assessment as far as the case being expanded strangely. I didn't have any chambering issues or accuracy issues to speak of. I did take your advice and bought a Hornady full length resizing die. It works perfect!! Guess which die sets I'll be purchasing from now on...

For those of you experiencing non coaxial sizing with the Lee 450b dies, consider changing how the die is mounted to the press. If you lock it down with the lock nut, consider leaving the lock nut slightly loose to see if the die auto-centers. Conversely, if you already let it float, try locking it down. We experiment. That's why we're the top of the food chain.

Secondly, always lubricate your brass before resizing. Even though they're straight walled, they're not pistol cases. you can't beat Imperial Sizing Wax for slippery. I own Lee, Hornady, Redding and RCBS brand dies in different calibers and I've never seen a sizing die that wasn't machined true. Most peculiar...

Hoot

Midway has the Hornady Die set on sale and in stock as of the time I write this and they include a Rebate of 100 free bullets to boot. Link Here Unfortunately, the .45 bullets in the Rebate are the 185gr XTP. I know some members have contacted Hornady in the past and gotten different bullets than those offered, for the difference in MSRP.

Hoot

Interesting take on the Lee dies.......I have a couple dozens sets of them, have been loading since the early 80's, and have never had an issue with any of their dies. Some of their other stuff was junk, like the hand priming tool, I broke 34 of the handles over 20 years, kept sending them back to Lee, and they replaced them for free when all they had to do was make that one part out of steel instead of aluminum. I have a dozen powder measures on pistol dies, and once I got away from the auto-disk system and upgraded to the Pro kits I was happy as a pig in a mudhole.

I have heard a lot of grumbling about how cheap the Lee stuff is..... But I've never experienced problems with any of it. I did manage to wear out a Turret press, but it took a bit over 700,000 rounds of ammo to do it, and when that press died I went out and bought exactly the same thing. I like that their dies come with shellholders, too. Over thirty+ years, that alone has saved me a couple hundred dollars.

The only serious issues I ever had were with RCBS dies, I sent two sets back because the sizing dies were drilled crooked, and they couldn't seat a bullet squarely. YMMV.