Thread: Issues Seating Cast Bullets

Originally Posted by zimmer

Although I have never used the Lee Expanding die I think it would be the better bet. I have several Lyman M dies. In 30 cal they expand a section of the neck to .308 ie put a step in it. With your gas check at .311 if an M die was used there would still be some resistance when seating into the start of the neck. The Lee die is different to the M die in that it flares the opening to whatever you need.

I see Gunworks have the Lee. Availabilty of the Lyman probably not so good.

Never used a Lyman but yeah that is quite a diff process bh the sounds of it. With the Lee, as you say, you just flare the mouth enough to get the bullet started then the bullet does any further required expanding of the neck. Why annealing can become important with cast. I loaded my first of CAC 303B, prob from 1950s, with cast. Got them in ok. 2-3 days later all the necks had split. That's when I had to learn to anneal. Never had a prob after that. Sounds like with the Lyman doing the stretching of the brass there would be a lot less pressure to seat the bullet. So less deformation of the nose.