Bullet sizing for .56-50

[Oregon Bill]

Well, cleaned, sized and primed my once-fired Spencer cases and when it was finally time to seat the bullet, I found that I could still turn the slug with my fingers. This is an Armi-Sport/Taylor's Spencer carbine, Starline brass, Lyman dies and the Dakota Widowmaker 346-grain cut-down Lee bullet, sized .512 in my RCBS lubrisizer. These drop about .517-.518 out of the mold in nearly pure lead, so I guess I could just hand- or pan-lube them. Another option might be to grind off the bottom of the bullet seating die, as I can't seem to get a crimp with it. Even tried the old expedient of running the loaded case back into the FL siser, and still no soap.  Anyone else having any of these issues?

[Tuolumne Lawman]

Howdy,

I had to take off about 1/8 inch off the bottom of the Lyman crimp die.  Now I can get as much or as little crimp as I want!

[Hell-Er High Water]

Yep.  I had the same problem that Tuolumne Lawman had.  Had to remove material from the bottom of the seat/crimp die in order to get the case into the die far enough to crimp the case.  Some of the earlier produced Lyman 56-50 die sets had this problem.  Also, you only need to expand the case just enough to get the bullet started into the case.  The portion of the bullet in the case is fairly short so the deeper that the case is expanded the less grip there will be on the bullet.

Once you get the bugs worked out you will find this a fun gun to shoot.

HHW

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[Backstrap Bill]

Bill,

I have not encountered your problem.  I size bullets to .512. I get sufficient crimp with the Lyman die. 

I only neck size the top 1/4 inch of the cases, just like when preparing BPCR cartridges.