454 Casull Brass, Dies, and Loads

[6Gears1Speed]

I started over. With ram up, turn the crimp die until it just touches the shell plate and finger tighten the nut. Turn out the adjuster completely.

Seat a bullet and raise the ram with the round at the crimp die location. Turn the adjuster to the point where it touches the case, lower the ram, and turn the adjuster in 1/2 turn. Raise the ram to crimp. That seems to close the mouth that was opened by the expanding die. Then it says to achieve a tighter crimp turn the adjuster a full turn. At a full turn the case starts to buckle. This shouldn't be happening.

I double checked and I do in fact have a 45 Colt/454 Casull Factory Crimp Die.

[6Gears1Speed]

The only thing I can think of is that these are REALLY hard bullets so instead of compressing if the crimp adjuster is turned too tight, the bullet doesn't give. Since the bullet doesn't give way the brass does. I think I just have to adjust it to the point where the inner sleeve isn't a smaller diameter than the bullet.

Edit: I decided to set the crimp die with an empty case (no bullet). I got nice roll and left it at that spot. It doesn't look the same with a bullet in place, I think because the cannelure isn't very deep, but it should still be a good tight crimp and it's not buckling. The diameter at the cannelure is .449 and diameter just below the cannelure is .451.

[6Gears1Speed]

Last night I made six test rounds and brought them to the range. It's a mile from my house so super convenient for testing.

Of the six rounds I had one failure that I attribute to a loose primer. I got spatter in the face, soot all over the rear of the frame and it felt like half power. The other five "felt" good.

I hand primed a bunch of cases with Winchester SRP and when I got home I primed a few more to see if any felt loose. At least two of them were noticeably loose. I hadn't noticed the first time.

I de-primed all of the cases and re-primed with CCI SRP. All of them went in nice and tight. I then took a chance and loaded up the remaining cases.

Today I went to the range to test them. I inserted one at a time and fired twelve rounds with no failures and they all felt good. I have about 30 left and will fire them over the next few days but so far it's a success. I haven't used my new chrono yet and will be getting to that soon.

[f100cleveland]

How many gr of H110 you loading? I went up to 31gr of 296 with a 300gr xtpmag and it stung the palm pretty good so I backed down a few gr.

[6Gears1Speed]

I started at 25.5 which according to the data sheet on page 3 of this thread is the lower middle range with a 7.5" barrel. I have a 2.5" barrel. They are plenty strong but I'm going to make a stash of heavy hitters just get people's attention at the range :twisted: . With the Lee double disk kit I used the 1.02 bottom / .66 top disks. I'm going to wait until I learn to use my chrono before moving up.

[f100cleveland]

Chrono would be nice.

[6Gears1Speed]

The Sierra JSP'd are nice bullets but too expensive for every day shooting so I bought some 300 grain hard cast bullets. Is the lube in the channel just for seating the bullet or does it also lube the bullet and barrel? Just wondering if I have to lube the bullet and barrel separately or not. I've never used cast bullets.

Also, I have some Lee case lube. Is that the same stuff as the bullet lube? I asked and the guy said moly coat can help but it didn't sound like it was required. I'm not really interested in creating more work if I don't have to.

[62chevy]

The Sierra JSP'd are nice bullets but too expensive for every day shooting so I bought some 300 grain hard cast bullets. Is the lube in the channel just for seating the bullet or does it also lube the bullet and barrel? Just wondering if I have to lube the bullet and barrel separately or not. I've never used cast bullets.

Also, I have some Lee case lube. Is that the same stuff as the bullet lube? I asked and the guy said moly coat can help but it didn't sound like it was required. I'm not really interested in creating more work if I don't have to.

If it was me I would tumble lube because the lube they come with is hard and may not work unless used with max pressure. Lead bullets should be fit to the gun i.e. .002 over grove to help stop leading. Shoot some as is and see what happens.

[Steve]

Extra lube can't hurt and may help prevent leading but I have shot thousands of that type bullet with the blue lube without doing any additional lube work. They are ready to load and shoot the way they come out of the box.

If you get a few that the blue lube has fell off, do not shoot them because it will lead the crap out of your barrel.

[6Gears1Speed]

These bullets are good to work with. The Sierra datasheet for the JSP's said to use a tight crimp for 454 Casull or bullets may pull out from the recoil. They even recommended the Lee factory crimp die. Problem is the cannelure is ribbed and the bullet is so hard that the mouth won't roll and remains straight.

On these the cannelure is open so I can roll a nice tight crimp. They look good and tomorrow I'll see if they perform well.

As far as fouling the barrel, I have a 2.5" barrel, I clean my guns after every use even if I only fire 6 rounds, and this is a low use gun. Even if there is some lead fouling I think I'll be able to manage.

These are my first wheel full of rounds...