Re: Using FL die without expander
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: BuzzBoss915</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Put me in the Greg camp on this issue. (many other issues, BTW)
To not use the expander ball puts a lot of dependence on neck wall thickness. If you happen to be aware of neck wall thickness and know that your I.D will result in ideal neck tension, that's great; otherwise the shaving while seating happens, (or could happen, to be entirely accurate) maybe other negative things, as well?
So, it is speaking in generalities to recommend discarding the expander ball without a care in the world as to it's purpose. If you have a plan, that's different, but this:
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Is it alright to go without the expander and then neck size with the lee necksizing die?</div></div>
Not sure if you mean using the expander ball in the neck die instead, or discarding that, as well? In either case, if you use the neck die, why use the FL die? And, if you want to bump the shoulder, why use the neck die? Unless you want to use the expander ball? And, if so, why not just steal the expander ball from the neck die and screw it into the FL die?
BB
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I think you may have misunderstood what Greg was saying.
If you are using no turn brass with a bushing die you will get much lower TIR with the expander ball removed. This is well known (see German Salazar's comments in
<span style="color: #000099"><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">Reloading: A Few Concentricity Questions</span></span></span> ) and easy to test.
There is another recent thread here called
<span style="color: #000099"><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">neck bushing dies - runout</span></span></span> where the OP was having severe TIR issues with his Redding Type S bushing dies. I suggested that he remove the expander ball and his results were nearly identical to mine with TIR of 0.0005"-0.001".
I have not tested a conventional full length sizing die with the expander removed but this is almost certainly a bad idea because of the way a conventional full length sizing dies work. A full length sizing die requires an expander to set the I.D. of a case neck which has been left very undersized by the full length sizing die body. If the expander is removed the neck will be very tight and will damage bullets when seated unless the neck is expanded with an additional process like a Sinclair mandrel die.
HTH!