Garrison Joe, SASS #60708

Another thing - what is the expander button diameter below where the expansion bell on the button is (before the taper out to larger diameter) ? If you are using a lead bullet of .429" diameter, and you only open the lower part of the neck up to about 0.427 (a diameter common with some .44-40 expander buttons), then you have a lot of neck tension as you seat the bullet, and that may be squishing some of the bands on the bullet upward and out at the case mouth. good luck, GJ

Those pictures are very similar to when a seating die is turning the crimp into the bullet BEFORE the seater depth has been fully reached. As in, bullet continues to be shoved in the case AFTER the crimp has come down to bullet diameter. Thus, the mouth shaves lead from that point on. First, you are belling a little too much. Because there is a gap in picture between the bullet base and, and the brass at the mouth. You could close that up a hair and eliminate your first reported problem that the case will not by hand enter the seating die fully. Second, it seems the crimp ring in the die is turning in the mouth BEFORE your bullet has reached desired depth of seating. Can you back off the body of the die so that NO crimp is applied, seat a bullet to right spot, then back off the STEM and run the BODY of the die of the die down to make the crimp you want, then run the STEM back down to touch the nose of bullet with that cartridge in the die, so you get the seating stem real close to the proper seating depth again. Are you SURE you don't have a bunch of dried lube stuck in the die below the original crimp ring? Cleaned the die body with solvent and a brush yet? This is a combined seat/crimp die, right? Difficulties like this is why loading .44-40 is normally done with a seater die, then a crimp die. good luck, GJ

The M die is always a great way to handle cast bullet belling problems, because it is very adjustable and it gets the main part of the neck internal diameter sized right for a cast bullet. Use one in all my 6.5mm, .30 cal, 8mm and .45 cal rifle cast bullet loading. But I get good results with an RCBS .429" expander button in RCBS die set that I run in a turret press. No Dillon hi-speed loading with .44-40 - just NOT worth all the case damage from bulges. good luck, GJ

Yeah, sometimes details matter a whole bunch. GJ

Not heard of a problem with TiteGroup and powder coated bullets. Use good polymer - HyTek I understand is great. For me, poly bullets is just a hassle I don't want to gear up for. Been shooting conventional lube for 50 years and will keep doing it for the remainder. Cheaper, faster to make, just as accurate. good luck, GJ

First off - pure soft lead is 5 Brinnell hardness - good for black powder loads. Wheel weights NOW are about 9 or 10 Brinnell - almost right for low pressure loads like cowboy shooting uses. That's a "SOFT" lead alloy for pistols. Many commercial casters use from 12 to 16 Brinnell hardness (as if everyone is going to shoot loads at magnum velocities). Good for shipping, too hard (and too much antimony - AKA cost) for good shooting with cowboy loads. THAT is what I would call "HARD" pistol bullet alloy. COWBOY Smokeless loads work real well at 8 or 9 Brinnell hardness. Harder works, but you have to get the diameter sized right for your barrel, since harder lead won't be expanded when fired to make a loose fit into a tight fit, while softer lead (8 Brinnell) will bump up at the chamber pressures most cowboy loads make (maybe 8,000 PSI). That would be what I would call a SOFT alloy - it can be scratched with a thumbnail if you try hard. So, I use about 2/3 WW and 1/3 soft lead and get wonderful cowboy bullets at about 8 or 9 Brinnell, and because they bump up to fill the barrel and grooves, there's no leading with even homemade lube. I even shoot 9 Brinnell bullets in my .45 auto for Wild Bunch - feed perfectly and no leading. Many folks have had barrel leading problems when they start out shooting cowboy, and commercial casters are SO prone to sell them hard slugs rather than make sure the bullet diameter fits the groove diameter of the barrel, but those hard commercial bullets really make the leading worse. This has caused the trend of many folks now shooting polymer coated slugs - they just don't understand that a soft alloy bullet would save them money and prevent leading. But then, too, they sometimes get tired of cleaning lube out of their seating dies, and a poly coated slug eliminates most of that. So, if you have been making good 9 MM bullets that don't lead the barrel, soften your alloy a bit to get a little softer slug, and you will do fine. good luck, GJ

I have only 4 stations on a Dillon 550, and I HIGHLY value a powder cop/lock out die after the bell and charge station. That leaves me only one station. So, on cast bullet .45 auto, .45 Colt and Cowboy .45 spl, I use the combined seat/crimp die. If I were making Olympic match quality ammo, I'd use separate seat and crimp dies. Only on .44-40 do I use a separate seat and crimp dies because of the tricky thin neck of a .44-40 case (so easy to bulge a neck and then have failures to chamber). good luck, GJ

If you have used that seater die before, and now you can't use it, something has happened to it. Rust? Hardened bullet lube in the die? Got a bore scope you could run into the die for a good visual check? Perhaps the neck of a case broke off and is stuck in the seating die, from the last time you loaded on it. What did Dillon tell you the "proper" amount of belling of the case should be? Just enough increased diameter that the base of the bullet will enter the case when seated by hand, but won't slide freely into the case neck? Or some other sort of "nonsense"? Did you stick a .44 spl seater die in that loader instead of a .44 WCF? OK, here's my usual suspect - you need to get a set of Redding dies including the Redding Profile Crimp Die. That ALWAYS solves a .44-40 loading problem good luck, GJ

So many better (cheaper, available) alternatives.... But if you HAVE to have it (rather than just want it), make the rounds at all the on-line powder vendors once a week and then be willing to pay the hazmat duty. GJ

Most likely the ad copy was lifted from something like an 870 clone (dual action bars and 4 mag capacity) to make the copy for this gun. Trust almost nothing in ad copy on the Guns.com web site, this says to me. They have no one checking the ad copy before it gets sent to the web site. good luck, GJ

Guns.com shows a gun they labeled as a 97 Hawk. https://www.guns.com/firearms/shotguns/pump-action/iac-hawk-97-12-ga-pump-action-4-1-rounds-20-7.3-new?p=20384 But I doubt some of the accuracy of the ad copy included on the page, saying that the magazine only holds 4 rounds! It does indeed look like other IAC 97s as far as the low resolution photo can make it appear. It is labeled as a "new" model, but I doubt that too. good luck, GJ

He used 5 rounds on the four shotgun targets on this stage at the match. Yeah, he pulled 4 when he started with shotgun, IF I REMEMBER CORRECTLY (I had the pleasure to be on his posse, standing next to a family member who was shooting the video). The last 2 shots (not on video) went onto the knockdown targets, meaning he pulled one more from belt at the end. I'd comment on the scoring discussion, but seems many of you folks would not like it. good luck, GJ

4.2 grains BE with 160 to 180 grain bullets is fine. I use a 175 grain TC conventional lube myself - cheap and easy to make. I didn't like 4.0 grains TG - had to get to about 4.5 grains to suit me for consistent performance and cleaner cases. GJ

I'm shooting BullsEye right now, have shot WST, Clays, ClayDot, RedDot and TiteGroup. All work fine. It's just a gallery load, and not even an accuracy target load. Most anything works. GJ

Started reloading when I was in high school. Dad brought a Lee Loader home, handed it to me with a can of powder and couple boxes of primers, and said - "Load these empty .222 Remington cases". So, I read the flyer, literally knocked together the first 20 rounds. They all fired, and were about as accurate as factory ammo. He didn't buy another factory box for shooting varmints as long as I was still at home. More than 20 rounds a month, though, not worth the time it takes! good luck, GJ