[Lasre]

Hi Guys,
I am experienced with bottle neck cartridges but pistol cases are relatively new to me, I am currently using RCBS steel dies but I would like to switch to carbide dies.

I was thinking Lee dies (yes a Redding competion seater would be nice but is not in the budget at the moment) and Lee factory crimp die and or a Redding profile crimp die. Any thought on options would be appreciated.

The ammo is for a Ruger 77/44magnum that will be mainly loaded with Beartooth 300gn's subsonic (with a silencer as they are perfectly legal in NZ), beartooth 240gn full power, and various jacketed bullets at full power.

Thanks

 

[Bigfoot]

Lee carbide dies should work just fine. I would recommend the factory crimp die as a separate step. My 45 colt seem to be more consistant if they are crimped after seating the bullet.

 

[Contender]

Lee makes a very good carbide sizer die. The way the carbide ring is ground, it does not leave the tell-tale "shoulder" at the bottom of the case.

Regards

 

[csward]

I have Redding, RCBS, Hornady and Lee die sets in more than a few calibers. I prefer the Lee factory crimping die for all the calibers I load for, except for pistol cases that headspace on the case mouth like the 9mm , .45 ACP, etc.. The Lee die seems to give the most consistent burning of powder during the important first couple of millionths of a second after primer ignition. I could be wrong about that, but what I'm sure of is that cartridges crimped as described shoot tighter groups when everything else is identical.

I have a question for you. Have you fired a series of groups both with a silencer installed on a rifle and without the silencer on the same rifle and using the same ammo on the same day and times ? Just curious. My experience with a silencer was in Germany in the 1950's, and I never did a group comparison, but I was amazed at the sound the bullet makes on its way to a target or when it strikes a tree or a rock, when it leaves the muzzle in excess of 2,000 fps..

csward

 

[Bigfoot]

I used a 45 ACP MAC 10 in the Marines. No groups but it was very quiet, especially indoors. The loudest noise was the rounds hitting the target.