Question on the decapping and resizing die.. seems like a real PITA. I’ve torqued the top nut really tight but it seems to still slip a little bit and pin is above flush every so slightly. No problems with ejecting old primers. My only question/concern is the resizing.. is the decapping independent from the resizing? I.e. if that pin isn’t flush on top, will it cause the resizing to be off? I’ve run some of my dummy rounds into the barrel and cycled them and there seems to be no problems but just wanted to be sure as this is all new to me.
You must have Lee dies. Not all die brands have those issues. The collet type decapping pin gets dead center (a very good thing), but they can also slip in the collet (not a great thing). Like
Mr Dogg said, you
do want it to pop up rather than break,
but you also want those primers popping out
without the decapper sliding up.
All I can say is the adjustment takes 2 wrenches. One on the die body and one on the collet.
The die itself doesn't need to be super-torqued into the die turret. You want the die body to come as close to the shell holder as it can get
without actually touching.
I’ve set up all of the dies except the powder die. I’m going to do that soon. Lots of “dummy rounds” and getting my dies precise. I think I’m very consistently around 1.130 and the TCD seems to be pretty consistent to .377 as well. Other than the powder die and my question above, I think I’m pretty close to being ready.
Like the Sizing Die, each of the other dies is doing
multiple tasks. The Lee Powder Die is adding powder,
expanding and
flaring. Expanding is set, but you'll need to move the Powder Die up and down to get the right belling on the case mouth. About 0.010" larger than a std case should do it.
I don’t have anywhere to try out my reloads since everything is closed where I’m located, so my plan for the next few days is to make batches of 10 dummy rounds and take measurements. From the bullets I’ve pulled, I have a very faint line of them so I think the taper crimp is dialed in well.
Yes, and that's exactly what you'll end up with... a faint line in the waist of the bullet. Great !
Any advice for a good resource on the auto-drum powder measure in the Lee Classic Turret? I’m going to the instructions first, but maybe there’s a good video on YouTube.
If there is, it's on Ultimate Reloader.Com ....
https://ultimatereloader.com/lee/Also anyone with the LCT press have maintenance suggestions? I just took some gun oil and went over all of the metal that touches other metal and wiped down a light coating over everything else. And how about the dies? When will I know it’s time to clean them and how to clean them?
Die care...
• Lubricate the Lee dies because the exterior will rust due to the salt in your finger prints. Gun oil or case lube.
• Maintenance period will depend upon how you clean your cases. If they are freshly tumbled and have just a faint coating of corn cob, then not often. If they come to the press directly from being picked up, then more often. Cleaning excess die lube is not a concern.
• The main reason to clean dies used to be the Alox coated bullets, which built up like ear wax in about the same time period, but coated bullets have almost completely displaced those.
Additional...We talked about using the Powder Measure a little. Wiping the hopper with anti-static wipes. Using a baffle. Filling the hopper at least half way. Striking the rotor against the body after each movement. Never using the first 10 dumps.
When you adjust the PM I want you to use the "averaging method". That is, if you need 4.1gr, then I want you to dump 10 drops and adjust until you get very close to 41.0gr. That's the best way to set the measure. As was said, there is variation in all things reloading... including the powder drops. So if you are
aiming for 4.1gr sometimes you'll get 4.05 and sometimes you'll get 4.15gr. With the averaging method you'll get the measure set as close as can be.
Sounds like things are going very, very well.