Expander die depth

[leverman]

Hi, new to reloading cast lead bullets for my 45-60, have made the 45-60 brass from 45-70 by trimming to length, have a Lee 3 die set in 45-60, great service from Lee, sent dies and made up an oal die for me and sent them straight to my address here in the U.K. within 2 weeks!!!, have used the full length dia and need to know how deep to set the expander die, its not a tapered expander, or a ball type, but appears to be just a few thou larger than the case mouth, and about half an inch long, with a straight wall with slightly rounded tapers to the start and finish of the expander sabot. Do I set it to the length of the bullet, a Lee 340gn one, or just the mouth of the case. If I set to just the case the of the mouth will I have too much compression on the bullet, or shave too much lead off and lose accuracy, have done both and case looks to be too big if I push the die too far down the case. Only reloaded 223 to 270 rifles and never used an expander die, can see where people are just seating dies to where a bullet will just sit in a case, but they were FMJ etc and not cast lead. All thoughts appreciated as I'm a complete novice to reloading for CASS  bullets.  leverman, 

[Shotgun Franklin]

In my experience, there may be some bullet distortion if you don't expand the case a little deeper than just the top of the neck. I generally 'loose' a couple of bullets before I get the expander set deep enough. The harder the bullet is the easier is seems to be to set the expander.

[Grizzly Adams]

It's kind of a trial and error deal.  You need to bell or expand the case mouth enough to easily start the bullet, but too much over works the brass.  Welcome!