45 ACP bullets drop easily to bottom of sized case.

[Land_Owner]

I was setting up the progressive press last night for 45 ACP.  The first 0.451" diameter 230 grain Speer Gold Dot JHP bullet dropped straight to the bottom of the full length sized and neck belled case.  That was to strange.  So I took the seating die apart and found nothing wrong. 

Placed the die back into the press and the same thing happened - bullet drops straight to the bottom of the sized case without any resistence.  I also tried some 0.451" diameter Rainier copper-clad 230 grain RN bullets.  Same result.

I only have one set of 45 years old (+/-) RCBS 45 ACP carbide dies.  My hunting partner made 10's of thousands of 45 rounds with that set of dies - one at a time and for semi-auto use - before giving the dies to me. 

WT......am I doing wrong?

[sgtt]

Sounds like a 45 Colt die made it's way into the process.  Either your sizing die is not doing it's job or the expander die is doing too much.

[cwlongshot]

Good point!  Go double check those dies!!

CW

[Smokin Joe]

Try it without the expander button. If it works, turn down the button diameter on a lathe or drill press.

[Land_Owner]

Thanks sgtt.  Problem solved (maybe).

A little investigation into the "gift" of 45 ACP dies.

Here are the components I received (and after closer inspection - have a better understanding for):
1.  Lee carbide sizing die.  Set that aside for use at another time.  
2.  RCBS FL sizing die without decapper/expander, even though it is drilled and tapped for one.
3.  RCBS decapper/expander/neck belling die that is NOT a sizing die.  I didn't know.
4.  RCBS bullet seating die.

The expander in the decapper is 0.4485" in diameter, which will be sufficient to tightly hold the bullets as soon as the brass is resized, which it is NOT.

I called Dave and he found the "missing" decapper/expander for the FL sizing die.

All is right again in my reloading world.

Now the question is, why does RCBS make a decapper/expander/neck belling die that does not resize the case?

[wild willy]

Thats the way the old RCBS dies were made you resize first decap and bell in the second die you can't size and bell in the same die They haven't made them that way for 30+ years A friend got a set with a used 357 or I wouldn't have known they were like that

[mbopp]

On a straight-wall die set, the 1st (sizer) can be used with or without a DECAPPER. The next die (expander) can be used with or without a DECAPPER pin in it. You can't use an EXPANDER plug in a sizing die.
I have an old RCBS 357 Mag carbide die set. I wanted a decapper rod for the sizer die bit it was threaded for 7/16-20. I emailed RCBS asking about this an the reply was "Send us your address and we'll mail you one." Can't beat that.

[Land_Owner]

Makes complete sense now.  Physically it would be impossible to size AND expand in the same straight wall die.  Senior moment there fellows.  So the sizing die could be set up to also decap.  That's good.  I will contact RCBS for information about the decapper.  The expander unit is too large for drilled and tapped hole in the FL sizing die.

We used the sizer/decapper from my 45 LC dies as the first stage in the Progressive process and took the decapper pin out of the 45 ACP expander for the second stage.  Worked like it was designed to.  Then we blasted all of that ammo up at the range.  Woo Hoo!