The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post - how to reload 44 remington mag cartridges

dmazur · June 20, 2010, 11:47 AM

This is hard to understand -

- Inside diameter of the sized cases determined with calipers :
(these variations are astounding, however, there is some consistency in the maximum dimensions)
case #1: .414-.423
case #2: 373-.425
case #3 .386-.424
case #4: .423-.425

I just measured a small bag of .44 Mag I intended to reload and somehow got stopped after the resize/deprime/reprime step. Without listing all 50 cases, I got ID's of around 0.420" to 0.427" trying to measure a single case, so I agree that using calipers to measure ID's may not give consistent results. This was a Frontier / Hornady brass mix.

I have no idea how you could get a dimension like 0.373" or 0.386" ... when I set my calipers to these values and insert them in a case, the caliper jaws rattle between the sides.

Sometimes caliper jaws can catch on the material when making measurements, but they do have to be parallel to take a meaningful ID estimate.

I measured the Speer JSP's I use and got 0.428". I'd have to guess I'm seeing 0.002" to 0.003" of tension, and I'm not having bullets push into the case before crimping.

I really can't guess what is going on, but I'd love to see some more consistent numbers on the case ID's...

June 20, 2010, 11:47 AM	#29
dmazur Senior Member Join Date: July 5, 2007 Location: Pacific NW Posts: 1,310	This is hard to understand - - Inside diameter of the sized cases determined with calipers : (these variations are astounding, however, there is some consistency in the maximum dimensions) case #1: .414-.423 case #2: 373-.425 case #3 .386-.424 case #4: .423-.425 I just measured a small bag of .44 Mag I intended to reload and somehow got stopped after the resize/deprime/reprime step. Without listing all 50 cases, I got ID's of around 0.420" to 0.427" trying to measure a single case, so I agree that using calipers to measure ID's may not give consistent results. This was a Frontier / Hornady brass mix. I have no idea how you could get a dimension like 0.373" or 0.386" ... when I set my calipers to these values and insert them in a case, the caliper jaws rattle between the sides. Sometimes caliper jaws can catch on the material when making measurements, but they do have to be parallel to take a meaningful ID estimate. I measured the Speer JSP's I use and got 0.428". I'd have to guess I'm seeing 0.002" to 0.003" of tension, and I'm not having bullets push into the case before crimping. I really can't guess what is going on, but I'd love to see some more consistent numbers on the case ID's... __________________ .30-06 Springfield: 100 yrs + and still going strong Last edited by dmazur; June 20, 2010 at 11:56 AM.