[Odessa]

Mr. Stanton, On January 9th I ordered 300ea (3 boxes) of your 245 grain x .349 sized bullets for my Win M71 in .348 WCF.  I have not received the bullets yet, but in getting ready to switch to lead bullets in this rifle I wanted to know your opinion of the RCBS Neck Expander Die for Cast Rifle Bullets (page 33 in the 2001 RCBS catalog).  I am currently using the standard set of RCBS dies for the .348 WCF and handloading Hornady's jacketed bullet.  RCBS, in their catalog, recommends this special die for use with lead bullets - my question to you is this; will the standard set of dies work well with your bullet, or should I order the Neck Expander die to supplement my current set?  Thanks for your opinion.  Odessa

 

[Marshall Stanton]

I would highly reccomend using the RCBS neck expanding die you mention.  It will greatly facilitate straight seating of your bullets, eliminate the case mouth shaving lead from the bullet during the seating operation and overall enhance your experience using cast bullets in bottleneck rifle cartridges.   I couldn't emphasize more, the beneficial attributes when using one of these dies, or a Lyman "M" neck expanding die if you could find one.   They will both do the same job, and you'll greatly appreciate them with your cast bullets in the .348 Winchester.

I'm not going to tell you that you have to have it, as you can inside chamfer the case mouths of your brass, and be very careful seating bullets, but you'll never acheive the same results as when using the above mentioned dies.  (by-the-way, your bullets will be coming soon, as I'm scheduled to run a huge batch of .348's late next week!)

God Bless,

Marshall

 

[Odessa]

Thanks for the reply, both to the question and the update on the delivery of the bullets.  I will try to find one of the RCBS dies in stock at one of the reloading equipment websites and get it on order - maybe both products will come in at the same time!  Regards, Odessa