More 25 Auto
Posted: 01 Apr 2020 06:23
With all yard and pasture work done for a couple of days, I decided to do a deep dive into my 25 Auto reloading. In another topic, I discussed my "fat" bullet not being agreeable with the Carbide Factory Crimp Die and went into some plans to deal with the die. I never went further. That's because I decided to take a step back and look into the bullet seating.
The bullet seating die is where the trouble starts! Yep, that fat bullet is taking a shaving in the seating die. With a custom Carbide die set costing $300 and happening maybe sometime this year, I decided to turn to the Speer Gold Dots I have on hand, roughly 1200 of them.
I reload the little BB for my dad's Raven but have not done a batch in a dozen years as he doesn't shoot anymore. The Raven has become a nightstand gun. One of the things I have not liked about the Speer in the Taurus is the fit. See for yourself.
So I studied that for a bit. I decided that the BB might obituate to the groove, and with a tap, it did. It started to happen. Hmmm...and I will dig that bullet out of the trash can for a picture. I launched into the die setup.
No need to revisit the first two stations, but I spent an afternoon with the Powder Through Expander Die. What I found with it is that with a fine adjustment to get it to the point that the Auto Drum lockout trips, there is still too much case mouth flare for a .251" bullet. What I did was pull the die and drop the charge with the Deluxe Perfect Powder Measure. With the powder drop off the press, reloading slowed the test run down a bit; however, I ordered a Gun-Guides Adapter and will mount the DPPM on the PTED. I have the expander plug zeroed out, it only acts as a funnel with no case mouth expanding.
With everything figured out. I started a test run of 10 through the press using 1.7-grains of HP-38. This press is my oldest press. I think it is a 1997 ~ 1999 press, with tens of thousands of rounds through it. It is as smooth as silk.
I decided to take the following picture a little late in the game. At station #1, I run a Universal Decapping Die with the new 25 decapper rod in the die. Station #2 has the sizing die without a decapper in it. All eleven cartridges I load with these presses are set up this way. The recapping die at station #1 allows for a little bit of movement to get the case centered. I think this is important in that this is the only position on the shell plate where the case is not locked in. The sizing die on #2 does not allow any wiggle; I don't want any play with primer seating.
I did struggle with the Bullet Seating Die and cartridge overall length. The Carbide Die instructions state for the die to make shell plate contact and then back the die out three turns. I had a very real problem here until the light bulb illuminated. The Bullet Seating Die in the Carbide set has a tapered nose on the die. The taper mates with the bullet feeder finger. The bottom of the 25 Auto die is flat-based, like the current 30 Carbine die as they don't offer a bullet feeder for either. That took a while to think through, but I ended up running the die down to the plate, and all is good. As a note, I have an old 30 Carbine die with the nose taper. I filed the exit port of a 30 caliber bullet feeding die to allow the use of this combo.
All perfect rounds of ammunition.
The ammo was shot at 15-yards, about 10-yards to far for a "break contact" defense pistol. I used the distance to identify any fliers, which there was none. I suspect that the fixed sights will be regulated well enough at the closer distance and with the charged bumped a tenth of a grain, which is max.
The bullet seating die is where the trouble starts! Yep, that fat bullet is taking a shaving in the seating die. With a custom Carbide die set costing $300 and happening maybe sometime this year, I decided to turn to the Speer Gold Dots I have on hand, roughly 1200 of them.
I reload the little BB for my dad's Raven but have not done a batch in a dozen years as he doesn't shoot anymore. The Raven has become a nightstand gun. One of the things I have not liked about the Speer in the Taurus is the fit. See for yourself.
So I studied that for a bit. I decided that the BB might obituate to the groove, and with a tap, it did. It started to happen. Hmmm...and I will dig that bullet out of the trash can for a picture. I launched into the die setup.
No need to revisit the first two stations, but I spent an afternoon with the Powder Through Expander Die. What I found with it is that with a fine adjustment to get it to the point that the Auto Drum lockout trips, there is still too much case mouth flare for a .251" bullet. What I did was pull the die and drop the charge with the Deluxe Perfect Powder Measure. With the powder drop off the press, reloading slowed the test run down a bit; however, I ordered a Gun-Guides Adapter and will mount the DPPM on the PTED. I have the expander plug zeroed out, it only acts as a funnel with no case mouth expanding.
With everything figured out. I started a test run of 10 through the press using 1.7-grains of HP-38. This press is my oldest press. I think it is a 1997 ~ 1999 press, with tens of thousands of rounds through it. It is as smooth as silk.
I decided to take the following picture a little late in the game. At station #1, I run a Universal Decapping Die with the new 25 decapper rod in the die. Station #2 has the sizing die without a decapper in it. All eleven cartridges I load with these presses are set up this way. The recapping die at station #1 allows for a little bit of movement to get the case centered. I think this is important in that this is the only position on the shell plate where the case is not locked in. The sizing die on #2 does not allow any wiggle; I don't want any play with primer seating.
I did struggle with the Bullet Seating Die and cartridge overall length. The Carbide Die instructions state for the die to make shell plate contact and then back the die out three turns. I had a very real problem here until the light bulb illuminated. The Bullet Seating Die in the Carbide set has a tapered nose on the die. The taper mates with the bullet feeder finger. The bottom of the 25 Auto die is flat-based, like the current 30 Carbine die as they don't offer a bullet feeder for either. That took a while to think through, but I ended up running the die down to the plate, and all is good. As a note, I have an old 30 Carbine die with the nose taper. I filed the exit port of a 30 caliber bullet feeding die to allow the use of this combo.
All perfect rounds of ammunition.
The ammo was shot at 15-yards, about 10-yards to far for a "break contact" defense pistol. I used the distance to identify any fliers, which there was none. I suspect that the fixed sights will be regulated well enough at the closer distance and with the charged bumped a tenth of a grain, which is max.