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Old April 28, 2013, 01:49 PM   #6
Darto
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Join Date: April 21, 2012
Posts: 79
Regarding the 45-70: For lee dies, TrackOfTheWolf sells expanders of various sizes. You need an expander smaller than the diameter of the sized bullet. For soft lead bullets about .005 or .010 smaller. For hard cast bullets the expander could be like way smaller than the sized bullet diameter, like maybe .025 smaller.

I use .458 sized bullets in 45-70 (soft lead for low velocity rounds) and the expander I use is .457 (.010 smaller).

For high velocity rounds the lead bullets should be much harder (to prevent leading the barrel) and for those you need a tighter crimp on the bullet so maybe the expander is like 25 thousands smaller. Like a .458 expander and a .461 bullet (which is 30 thousandths smaller). The bullet will push into the brass neck and the narrow neck (30 thousandths smaller) will give it a tight grip. A tight grip on a soft lead bullet would deform it.

Track of wolf expanders for Lee dies:

http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Catego.../LEE-DIE-45-EX

Thread where a guru, Larry Gibson, is in the middle of telling how he reloads the 45-70 , explains the expander size, I think a .4585 expander and .461 bullets if I remember right...

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...-and-Equipment
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