Carbide Expander Balls

[vranasaurus]

Which die manufacturers have carbide expander balls standard on their rifle dies?

I would just buy a carbide expander assembly for my RCBS .223 FL Sizing die but I can buy a Redding or Hornady FL Sizing die for cheaper than the assembly.

[demigod]

You actually WANT the expander ball?

My dillon carbide 223 die had the decapping pin back out and get stuck in a case. I ended up leaving out the expander ball and getting an RCBS neck expanding die.

1. My bullet runout improved. and..

2. I get much less case stretch, and thus much less of my cases need to be trimmed.

I'll never go back to the expander ball.

[wncchester]

I bought one carbide expander ball years ago. Went back to using my Lyman "M" expanders instead.

I don't think anyone includes standard carbide balls in their die sets. ??

[jaguarxk120]

If you brush out the case necks, you won't need the carbide expander ball. And pulling a carbide expander over dirt is the same as pulling a steel expander over drit, pulls on the neck and stretches the brass.

[flashhole]

To Hornady's credit they make the eliptical expander that is easier on the brass. I find I have to polish it now and again but it's not a big deal. Proper cleaning of the inside of the necks pays the biggest dividend. I wash my brass in hot soapy water with several hot water rinses and a 10 minute soak in 50-50 mix of hot water and white vinegar. Minimal friction on the expander is the result.

[Unclenick]

Carbide expander balls are intended to eliminate inside neck lubricating the same as carbide pistol dies can eliminate outside case lubing. But like carbide pistol dies, if you both use carbide and lubricant, you get the smoothest and easiest operation and, in the case of the expander, less tendency to pull the neck off-axis. At least, that's the theory. In practice, a mandrel die like the Lee Collet Die does the least pulling off-axis (I've not had an opportunity to evaluate the newest sleeved Redding neck sizing configuration, which may also do quite well). Carbide expanders still require you to clean the brass, as Jaguar mentioned, if you want to avoid pulling on the neck.

Expanders serve two purposes: One is to get the neck ID's about the same for gripping the bullets, while the other, used mainly in pistol loading and for lead bullet loading in rifles, is to flare the case mouth so the bullet isn't scraped by its edges on the way in. In a rifle two-die set, it is assumed you will use jacketed bullets and that the chamfer you apply after trimming will be good enough to prevent scraping gilding metal, and therefore no flare is needed. That doesn't always work out perfectly. Especially if you shoot cast bullets in rifles, you will need a Lyman M die or a universal expander like the Lee.

The rifle two-die set expander is solely focused on the neck I.D. It is a means of letting one sizing die work with all different neck wall thicknesses. Typical brass tolerances allow for a range of several thousandths of an inch in the neck wall. In order to resize all necks to tension the bullet approximately equally, the sizing portion of the die is made to size the thinnest neck wall the SAAMI spec says you may expect to encounter. That is too tight for a thick neck wall, so the expander opens those over-resized necks back up again.

If you want to minimize work hardening of the neck and be able to go through more reloadings before needing to anneal the neck, get a sizing die that uses neck bushings and select one that leaves the ID of your brand or lot of cases right where the expander would leave it; usually about 1 to 3 thousandths under bullet diameter.