Can you tell me what I have? (newb reloader)

[mustang66maniac]

So my family knows of my love for the hobby of shooting, and for my birthday they got me a bunch of reloading stuff so I can "roll my own". The thing is, they saved some money and bought some used dies for my 45acp, which is fine and dandy by me, but I'm not sure what I have now. Its an RCBS 3 die set which was apparently bought from somebody on ebay. The box says "45 acp SWC" and has the part # 18906, but it didn't come with any instructions. Now, according to my "The ABC's of Reloading" book the three dies are supposed to be a re-sizer/de-capper, mouth expander, and a seater/crimper. The problem is, I'm pretty sure my mouth expander is missing the expander part of the die, cuz you can see right through it. Also, I'm guessing the "SWC" on the box means semi-wadcutter? Does this mean these dies will only seat and crimp a SWC bullet into a 45acp brass? From what I've read my XD45 will feed anything BUT a semi-wadcutter. Can I still load FMJ or hollowpoint bullets with these dies?? I tried a google search with the PN and looked for it on RCBS's website but I didn't find anything about these.
Sorry for all the newb questions, any help is appreciated!

Here are some pictures so you can see what I'm seeing.

[PCJim]

Mustang, you have some very thoughtful family members to want to give you such a gift. Unfortunately, these dies will probably be more of a headache than they are worth. My first observation is that I do not see a decapping pin - required to remove primers. They are easy enough to obtain, and it may be that the pin is just not visible in the pic. Second, these are certainly not carbide dies which are so prevalent today. Any cases that you resize with the dies should, if not must, be lubed. As to seating bullets, the bullet seater "can" be used for any style bullet, however the seating plug is specially designed for SWC.

Before I knew better, I too bought a used set of RCBS 45acp dies from an eBay seller. I have since bought a set of Lee dies and have not looked back.

[Rusty W]

The sizer die is missing the deprime part. The seater die may or maynot fit the profile of the bullet you use. Just try it and see. They don't say carbide on the sizer so remember to lube the case. The middle die should be the expander and from the pic it looks like it's all there.

PS in a pinch, you could use a small center punch or nail and knock the spent primer out until you can get the correct part for your sizer.

[bigautomatic]

Looks like your decapping pin (pops out the spent primer) may wrongly be installed in the seater die, it should be in the sizing die. I think the part that is missing is actually the seater plug for the seater die. The expander die is the last pic that you posted, but you need to remove the plug from the die to be sure if it is an expander plug or a seater plug. You are missing one or the other plug.

[mustang66maniac]

Sorry about the pic guys, the de-primer is there, its just lurking in the shadow.

How come the die that says "Size #1" has a hole all the way through it? I was under the impression that was the one that expands the mouth? It has threads in it too, like something goes in there.

[tiberius10721]

save your self some trouble and buy carbide dies.preferabley a 4 die set!I like my lee carbide dies but I cant comment on other dies because lee dies are the only ones ive ever used.

[mustang66maniac]

It would be nice to have a 4 die set of carbide dies, but I want to see if i can get these to work first, being that money is tight right now.

I took the plug out of the die in the center of the box, it has the de-primer pin, and it also looks like it has a taper on it farther up. Is it possible that the "size #1" die is to resize the outside diameter, while the die in the middle of the box is to deprime AND expand the mouth? The die that says "seat #3" im pretty sure is the seater/crimper because i can't take it apart and there looks to be a spot for a SWC bullet to set.



Also, this plug that came out of this die won't fit in the "size #1" die.

[PCJim]

Mustang, I've now gone to the man cave, aka the garage, and dug out the above referenced die set. It, too, is the same numbered set you have.

Your resizing/decapping die will be self evident by the pin that you state is there, and which is shown in the center of your pic. The bullet seating die is the one with the small slot in the stem. You will be able to see the bullet plug when viewing from the bottom of the die (in my set, someone substituted a Lyman bullet seating die). The third die that you can see thru is the expander die, in this case referred to as a powder thru die. It is threaded on the top so that you can attach a powder throw, and both flare the case and drop powder thru the die without having to change the case (or turn the turret). Although it may be missing the expander mandrel, I would doubt it, but this cannot be determined from looking thru the die from the top. If it is present, you will see what appears to be an inner sleeve inside the die when viewed from the bottom. The expander die will work as is without an attached powder throw, if the mandrel is present.

[PCJim]

The sizing/decapping mandrel is not used to flare the mouth. It has to have a taper to insure that it enters the case mouth. Remember that not all brass has a perfectly round mouth, ie. range pickups where people with BIG shoes cannot seem to step around precious brass. Anyway, if you take that 45acp case and slide it up on the mandrel while it is out of the die, you'll find the mandrel diameter at the wider dimension is proper for the case.

[Archie]

But that decapping pin and mandrel are what expands the case mouth. However, it must be adjusted (screwed in or out) to properly expand the case mouth without over expanding the case mouth.

As mentioned, lube the cases well or you will rip rims off and have to beat the remains of the case out of the die. That usually increases my blood pressure and vulgarity rate.

The first die squeezes the case back to proper size. Second die pops out the primer and bells the case. (Do yourself a favor and buy a pack or two of decapping pins; they always break at the worst possible time.) After installing a new primer and powder charge, the third die seats the bullet and also flattens out the bell in the case mouth. (In a perfect world, one uses separate dies for seating and crimping. Make sure you know the difference between roll crimping and taper crimping.)

Yes, the seater part of the seating die is cut for a SWC shaped bullet, but it should not damage either round nose or hollow point.

You have good people if they got you what you really wanted. Even if those aren't carbide dies. I loaded a bunch of ammo with non carbide dies. They'll work.

[ballardw]

RCBS has manuals for most of their equipment available on their web site. For reloading dies they'll have instructions for 2, 3 and 4 die sets all in one document.

You can also order the die parts such as the de-capping assembly.

You could also order an additional seating stem for the round nose. My experience with auto pistol bullet seating dies is that any problems likely to occur are with lead cast bullets. If the bullet profile doesn't match the seater relatively close there may be a slight "rings" in the lead as the softer-than-fmj surface deforms very slightly under pressure. This doesn't cause any feeding problems might be detectable in accuracy if you're shooting bullseye target matches.

[mustang66maniac]

Thanks so much for your help guys. I went to RCBC's website and downloaded the reloading die intruction manual. It turns out RCBS makes two different styles of 3 dies for the same (45acp) cartridge. One is the style the PCJim has described and which i thought I had, and one is the style that I DO have and which archie described. It looks like I'll be ok to use these.

Thanks again!