French Jack & Black River Smith-
Thanks for the help. I will pull the bullet guide out and check it, the recess, spring and pin. I am new here...we are talking about part #11 (Cartridge keeper lever) on Two Flints chart?
The bullets that I have had some success with at this point are the Lyman 330 gr bullet. The OAL is 1.62. This puts the crimp in the middle of the front driving band, just below the crimping groove.
The Lyman is as moulded. No case bulging. When I tried the 450 Lee, uncut, it went in with no problem or bulging. The 500 was a bit long, uncut, and took a bit more pressure to set. I was concerned about messing up a case so I took both out, cut them down (the actual bullet) with the xacto razor saw. All cases were resized. The Lyman crimping die was not working well (at all) so ran the bullets back through the sizer die with the bullet.
I have since taken a hack saw and file to the sizer die (another thread!). I then re did all the dummy shells with new, cut off bullets. No real change.
The first three bullets I tried were the 450 lee cut off, the 500 lee cut off and the 350 BAC. In very first test I ran each of these through the mag individually. First was the 350 BAC bullet @ an OAL of 1.62, as I had 50 of them loaded. With just one bullet (dummy) in the gun, it did the nose flat gouging, really bad (1 slot from the nose flat down the side of the bullet). Next was the cut off lee 450 also at 1.62. When I ran the action I thought the action had missed the bullet. Opened the action and there it was! Nice and unmarred! The third was the lee 500 gr @ 1.62. It hung, not as bad as the BAC, but did have some (1) nose flat gouge.
One last question. How does the pin and spring work on the bullet guide. It is just riding on the short end of the guide or is it in a dent like a trapdoor ejector? I'm guessing the former?
Guys, thanks again for your time. Tax season ends tomorrw. Hope to get a few minutes to work on this again.
Thanks
David