After many years slowly accumulating components, information, and a Mequon Lee Loader, I started to reload some .401 WSL ammo this afternoon. The problem I'm having is the bullets slide down into the cartridge. They don't stay seated in the mouth. This Mequon Lee Loader I bought doesn't have the instructions with it and it's a little different from the other Lee Loaders I've used. Does anyone have any experience with the Mequon Lee Loader and the WSL cartridges? I know I've got to crimp the case mouthes somehow, but the answer doesn't seem obvious. Especially in the absence of directions.
I am using cast .410 bullets thrown from the old Lyman #410426 mold. Powder will be 14.7 grains of IMR-4227. I thought I would be using an oversized bullet, that's why the light load. I've got John Henwood's book "The Forgotten Winchesters" and kind of extrapolated a load from what he recommends. I don't think I'll need to be that careful in the future because the die on the Mequon Lee Loader shaves the diameter of the .410 cast bullets down when you try to seat them. I have some Barnes 250 grain .406 bullets and they slide right on down without any resistance so I assume (cough, cough) that my cast bullets are being reduced in diameter .003 inch. By the way, the Barnes 250 grain bullets also slide into the case.

Sounds to me like your not sizing the case down all the way.
Thats a strait walled case and when sized, it should be necessary to bell the mouth in order to get bullets into the case.

Wow...go a long time between fellow .401WSL shooters/reloaders. Have been working with one for a little less than two years.

The dies I use are an ancient C-H set, but with the brass I converted, wasn't getting the neck tension...pretty much like you describe, the bullets were a casual fit to the cases. (part of that is my falut, as the converted cases were a little bit thinner at the mouth). By experiment, .408" bullets were just a bit loose, .410" bullets fit the way I'd have expected them to. Had made a die to take .410" bullets to .406", but after testing, made the die take them to .408". Cast bullets still work well enough at .410" (having tried the other two diameters at my disposal).

My solution was more basic...I sized the cases in a .41mag. die and expanded them with a the CH expander. The .41 sizer takes the brass down about .003" more than the .401 die does (at least in the dies at hand.) Later, converting thicker brass to .401", the standard .401" dies worked well as designed.

So...Question #1: what cases are you using?
#2: what bullets ae you using?

Can crimp a good bit if you desire...the semi-rim actaully does the job of headspace.

On the right rack with 4227. Limited number of choices, these are blow-back (unlocked) actions that won't give normal pressue indicators...if you go to far, you'll know it by (1) the cases get beat up and are eject into next week (2) if the action opens while pressure is high enough, will get smoke/powder burn sparks ejecting out with the case. Old guns, treat them kindly, and don't go for too much vel...mine will function reliabley with a 210 .408" JHP moving at 1900fps, which seems a non-abusive loading giving good case life and isn't too far off the pace of the published 200gr. figures.

Your starting load may not be enough for functioning, but that's A LOT better than over driving the action. Depends on the case used; mine are converted cases and the internal volume proabably won't match yours.

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This is surprising...but it works, and I've been using these cases for about a year with no ill effects. You ahve cases, and they are available commercaily...but I'm "cheap" (and you may someday need to know how):

1. Size a 7.62X39 case as far as possible in a .41mag. die stripped of decapping assembly. Will NOT be able to size the solid head, so stop when hard resistance is felt or you'll crack the carbide ring.
2. Case looks like a little belted mag. case. Late off the belt, but do not tocuh the rim. Removing the belt leaves the case head the right diameer, and the case is now semi-rimed. Have managed the trick without a lathe just to see how much trouble it would be...chucked in a drill leaving just the belt outside the chuck, using a small file, it's not too hard to get the belt off.
3. Fire form the cases (use the corn meal "blank" method of fire forming). The cases will pop out dead straight, semi-rimmed, and just a hair over 1.5"...just enough extra to trim the mouths to even at 1.5"

This has a couple of features...one is a bonus as the shell holder can be the standard 7.62X39 one. The seond one is not really a bounch with standard dies: the case mouths are a little thinner, but that is more easly dealt with that the tremendous amount of neck turning/reaming needed when converting .35Rem cases.
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After all the work in getting the right dies and such...playing arround after the fact, have loaded good ammo using a simple set of .41mag. dies and a new (smaller) expander.

Thank you both very much for your help. I need it. Question #1 = I have about 28 original Winchester, Peters and Western cases with a couple of cases made from .35 Remington thrown in. Question #2 = The bullets I'm trying to load are cast lead 240 grain roundnose which were originally designed for the .401 WSL. Supposedly the bullets are .410 out of the mold and the way they are shaving lead going down the hole in the Lee Loader, I believe that is true. By the time they get to the cartridge case, they are .406. My Barnes .406 diameter bullets slide right through the Lee Loader die. I've got to figure a way to crimp the loaded cartridge in order to hold the bullet in the case.... or maybe what I need to do is find a different way to seat my .410 diameter bullets in the case. I finally got one bullet to seat correctly. At this rate I'm going to get 5 rounds of loaded ammo and 23 ruined lead bullets. At least I'm not buggering up cases. Ultimately what I need to do is get a reloading press and regular dies instead of t his little Lee Loader. That would help.

Thank you both very much for your help. I need it. Question #1 = I have about 28 original Winchester, Peters and Western cases with a couple of cases made from .35 Remington thrown in. Question #2 = The bullets I'm trying to load are cast lead 240 grain roundnose which were originally designed for the .401 WSL. Supposedly the bullets are .410 out of the mold and the way they are shaving lead going down the hole in the Lee Loader, I believe that is true. By the time they get to the cartridge case, they are .406. My Barnes .406 diameter bullets slide right through the Lee Loader die. I've got to figure a way to crimp the loaded cartridge in order to hold the bullet in the case.... or maybe what I need to do is find a different way to seat my .410 diameter bullets in the case. I finally got one bullet to seat correctly. At this rate I'm going to get 5 rounds of loaded ammo and 23 ruined lead bullets. At least I'm not buggering up cases. Ultimately what I need to do is get a reloading press and regular dies instead of t his little Lee Loader. That would help.

Don't know of any good way to get a Lee loader to size any more than it's designed to...so long as you've gotten the case in to the limit of the die, it's done all it can do. Lube the cases before sizing, set the case on a hard flat board, set the die onto the case, and wack ithe die with a rubber hammer (in other words, let the weight of the die work with you rather than just wacking the case).

Would be better to use those cast bullets at a larger diameter, but the die isn't made that way. Would still take a look at a .41mag. die, even another Lee Loader. If nothing else, the seating operation would allow .410" bullets...may have to "fiddle" a bit to deal with the differnce in case length, but it should do the job.

As you foud out (or are about to) checking case fit in the chamber is needed...and the design of the .401 doens't handle hard chambering well. Just run the rod that cycles it back, and give it a 1/4 trun so it locks in place, and try you ammo for fit. Pretty much has to fall in the chamber under it's own weight to assure cycling.

You may find that even if you do seat the .410" cast bullet, the case won't quite fit in the chamber (those .401 cases are thick by design)....may not be a problem spot, but with some cases it has in mine.

Try this: lube the bullets, run them through the Lee die...certainly can't seat anything larger than the die will allow, so may as well let the die size them before trying to seat them.

ORiginal cases are a hard find. The converted 35Rem. cases take a lot of work and I've not found them to be too long-lasting. Keep the two types of cases seperate; there is proabably a good bit of difference in case volume between the two.

Hard...

Here is a 41 Mag loader on eBay that would fit the bill for as recommended. This fellow didn't do a good job of describing the item so this loader should go cheep tomorrow. I wrote him to see if it was for a 41 LC, but it's a 41 Mag.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3665902565&category=31825

If you aren't an eBay'r and want the item... email me and I will help you get it.

Michael

While I DO NOT recommend you blindly use this data, the old Lyman #38 and #39 lists the .401WSL, USing 4227, the folowing is noted:
250gr. Cast GC
19.0 4227 = 1450fps
27.5 4227 = 1850fps

Same data listed for the 250gr. Jacketed bullet. I tried 2400, and if you are careful not to crowd the upper limits, it works...may be a good choice for fucntioning at lower verlcity levels. 296 and H-110 didn't work very well; with any load that fucntioned the rifle, a good bit of flash/smoke was observed from the ejction port. The only good choice has been IMR 4227.

Is a notation from Lyamn #38:

"Note: Loadings fro the .401 Win. are not as flexable as others because enough pressure must be mintained for proper functioning of the arm."

REASON NOT TO USE THE DATA: CASE VOLUME and BULLET SEATING

Settled on the .408" 210gr. bullets (swaged Hornady XTP's). Htes bullets seat deeply, ther just isn't as much "nose" on them (sub diameter forward section) so the OAL is well short of the 2.00" normal. The Hornady bullets can only be seated to 1.78". That means, I'm using up a good bit of case volume, so powder charges have to be less. For me, these bullets and 22.5gr. of 4227 are a working max.

The strating load for the 250gr. bullets earned a lot more than the listed vel. (kind of expected with the decrease in volume). Working in .5 jumps decided 22.5 was enough. IF I had jumped on the max. load right away, would probably have damaged both the gun andy myself.

The 22.5gr. load is not too whimpy...still earns 1820fps. Works on deer and hogs just fine.