45 Colt brass; blow by; Starline vs Win vs Rem vs ?

[Coffinmaker]

Hey Roscoe,

Perhaps we are talking about different sets of circumstances.  Personally, in 45 years of reloading, I have never had a straight wall pistol case stick badly enough to pull out of the shell holder.  Regardless of what caliber I was loading. 

I have had bottle neck rifle cases such as 7mm Magnum, 300 Win Mag, etc grab an expander ball tight enough to do some really strange things.  But not straight wall pistol cases.

I can't really find fault with your position as I can't watch what you are doing.  Good luck with your new press.

[major]

If blow by is a really bad problem for you, you might want to chang your caliber to 44-40 and this should solve a big part of the problem.  Of course it also could cause another problem in that you will need to buy more guns.  Did I say that was a problem??

[Hobble Creek Al]

Coffinmaker,

New issue.  When running 1x fired Starline 44-40 brass through the Dillon 650, the expander opens the neck enough the bullets "drop" too far down into the case.  Are you having to change expander depth to accommodate the 44-40 brass?

HCA

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

I adjust the LEE neck expander die, with a .44Rem Mag expander, and use it as an "M" dies so I can just insert my cast bullets by hand. No crushing cases and less working of the brass at the neck.

For this application, how about using the inside neck expander to just allow the base of the bullet to enter the neck and use the next die to fully seat the bullet?

[Bunk]

Coffinmaker is absolutely correct. For my use I slightly bell the case mouth with a .44 special neck expanding die then go to the 550B and prime and shape the neck all in one fell swoop.
My lifter stays clean, the brass does look strange before firing, but runs through my'66 Yellow Boy slick as a mashed grape on a terrazzo floor.
Whether shooting Holy Black, APP, or that fad nitro stuff (ew) it, as a gun plumber we all know says, works a treat.
One caveat YMMV
respectfully
Bunk

[greenjoytj]

You might not want to call it galling, but the cases will stick on the expander enough so the case head will tear out of the shellholder if you try hard enough. I was taught that as "galling". Blame my source.

The die brand is not to be dismissed, because I thought it was relevant.

Actually, forgoing sizing on new brass that passes a gauge is a good idea, because it works and helps with the "galling". Something else not so easily dismissed until tried with poor results.

I would try lubricating both the cases inside and outside and the expander plug for the first attempt at up sizing new 44-40 cases to 45 Colt.
You can always clean the lube off the newly form cases afterwards.  I would use Imperial sizing wax lube which is the lube I smear onto my lube pad to roll  cases on prior to sizing.