New to reloading 450BM

[BobbyJ]

I am getting ready to reload for the 450BM, I am new to reloading and have only run 9mm pistol ammo through the new press.

I purchased a Hornady Die set and of course was totally confused on the directions and why they put two crimpers in the box along with a mystery extra part.

(Right click and choose View image to see full width)


Have some H110 for powder and a bunch of different types of bullets. Not pictured have some 245gr Hornady interlocks too.

I plan to run it as
1. Station one Hornady deprime and resize
2. Station 2 Dillon powder drop (and case bell/flare) is adjustable from 0 to lots of flare
3. Station 3 Dillon Powder check (not really needed)
4. Station 4 Bullet seating. Will not use the built in dual function roll crimper
5. Station 5 Case taper crimp (the 4th die not in the directions) its a die with holes at both ends

Remington 71/2 small rifle primers

Even if you used that built in roll crimper when seating bullets I don't think it has enough crimp leverage to do anything to the case rim. I read someone tried it and could not even get it under .477" which is easy on the case taper crimp. The case rim would have to be right in the middle of one of the bullet grooves and you would visibly see that its indented.

I going to worry more about maintaining a 90 percent or so case fill than on OAL and distance to lands (so long as its not hitting them)
The 450BM has like .200-.250" to lands on my bolt guns (hornady stock ammo) the bear creeks are over 2.5" and still .60" off the lands.

I ran some what if numbers on OAL to see its effect on pressure and velocity. Just changing bullet OAL and keeping powder the same results in quite a psi swing. And no I am not starting with that much powder, was just running what ifs show you can actually have more powder and lower PSI depending on percentage of fill.



I have 100 rnds of new starline brass and maybe 100 rounds of once shot hornday and winchester brass.

I think I will run them all through the deprimer wash then run them on the Dillon. Any issues if I run them through the resizer twice? I did with 9mm with no ill effects. I can remove the resizer from station 1 if thats an issue.

[Hoot]

Bobby, forget the roll crimp portion of the plan.

Run your ram up with the shell holder in it. If its not already loose, loosen the clamping lock ring on your seating die and screw it upward a ways. Screw the seating die down until it stops from contacting the shell holder. Screw the die out ~3/4 turn. While holding the seating die body immobile, screw the lock collar down until it stops against the top of the press. Tighten the lock ring clamp and never change it again. Seating depth will be controlled by the adjusting knob on top of the die body. Lube your cases before sizing. I like Imperial Wax, but One Shot spray has a loyal following here as well. Clean off the lube after resizing. I am not a fan of the expander die. If you chamfer the mouths lightly, the alignment sleeve in the seating die will guide the bullet into position without belling the mouth.

Hoot

[BobbyJ]

Thanks! I will add that to my directions.

[Jim in Houston]

Yes, what Hoot said. Follow the Hornady seating die instructions for seating without a crimp, skip the expander die, and use the crimp die to get a tapered crimp.

[plant_one]

the two pins are spare primer removal pins. they break sometimes. easy swap. directions can be found online.

the c-clip is to hold the seating stem in place i believe. which is what that "extra' piece is in the bottom right of your pic.. a different seating stem.

hornady has had some problems in other calibers with some of their bullet profiles causing their generic seating stem to either damage the bullet (leave a ring) on seating, or deforming the poly tips or even get stuck in the stem.

they make accessory seating stems for some of those profiles to correct that. it appears they may have identified that as an issue with the 450 now too, and are including the stem as a "just in case" part in the kit.

a quick email to tech@hornady.com with your picture would probably get you some very specific info on what exactly that extra seating stem is for.

hth

[Decoy Defender]

I have experimented with using the seating die to apply a crimp into the canullar and yes it does work, although I have not noticed any difference in accuracy compared to rounds loaded with my RCBS taper crimp die. The hollow Hornady crimp die will produce the desired factory crimp, which is what I'm using now. I found, for the Speer Deep Curl bullets that im using, I have to put a very minimum amount of flare on my case mouths after they have been resized. I was getting tiny shards of copper jacket that were getting scraped off when seating without any flare. If I remember right, I'm now flaring the ID of my cases to .454 . JUST enough to stop the jacket from being shaved. When using the hollow Hornady crimping die, I'm getting .468-.470 at the outside of the case mouth at the end of the case right before you would touch the bullet with your micrometer. With the bullets I mentioned above, I'm getting a COAL of 2.008 in the 250gr. I have had good results with winchester small rifle primers with Lil Gun.
I did run into an issue with CFE BLK powder and A #9... I did some testing with both and was getting terrible hang fires, and very poor accuracy on my first initial load work up. I contacted Hodgon and spoke with their tech and he recommended to apply more crimp to the case mouth. So my next round of testing with the CFE BLK, I did just that. Applied lots of crimp (previous rounds were not crimped, due to the bullet having such a tight fit upon seating..see above where I mentioned the copper jacket being shaved) and the hang fires stopped, but still had poor accuracy with the 250gr DC. Also, I was getting extremely dirty cases and what seamed to be incomplete burns every shot. So, with that being said, I was able to solve the hang fire issue, but still have the dirty/incomplete burn issue, all the while sticking with WSR primers. I didnt want to change too many things at once. Now, I've loaded up another 10 rounds with CCI mag 450 primers with a good crimp on the cases, in hopes of solving the powder burn issue. I will say, that if you're interested in shooting rounds with close to max case fill, CFE BLK will give you just that, BUT be warned, it is the worst powder I have tried so far, even though I'm still in the trial and error phase with it. Lil Gun did not give me problems like this. It was a great powder for a beginner like me to start learning with. And while I complain about the CFE BLK, I secretly enjoy the challenge of troubleshooting the issues I've had with it. In closing, if these mag primers do not cure my burn issues with the CFE BLK, I'll be writing it off as a loss. I have not done much more testing with A#9 but it gave similar results as CFE BLK(hang fires) just without the left over unburned powder in the barrel. I just loaded up some rounds with the A#9 last night with the above mentioned mag primers and good crimp to test out.

[Bmt85]

Try putting a chamfer on the case mouth, even better would be a VLD chamfer. That's what I use haven't had a problem with shaving copper and don't use an expander.

.468 might be a bit much for a crimp.

I can't remember where Accurate 9 sits on the burn chart, but I know CFE BLK is pretty slow for this cartridge. I tried a short ladder using Shooters World Blackout (very similar to CFE BLK) with the Barnes 275 TSX, loaded long, with a stab crimp. Got some hang fires and a ton of unburnt powder. I might try it again, but I have a feeling it's going to need a compressed load to start really burning. Even then, it might not get optimal results.

[Hoot]

Try putting a chamfer on the case mouth, even better would be a VLD chamfer. That's what I use haven't had a problem with shaving copper and don't use an expander.

.468 might be a bit much for a crimp.

I can't remember where Accurate 9 sits on the burn chart, but I know CFE BLK is pretty slow for this cartridge. I tried a short ladder using Shooters World Blackout (very similar to CFE BLK) with the Barnes 275 TSX, loaded long, with a stab crimp. Got some hang fires and a ton of unburnt powder. I might try it again, but I have a feeling it's going to need a compressed load to start really burning. Even then, it might not get optimal results.

+1

Hoot