" My question is should I eliminate the powder through expanding die as I will be charging the casing right from the powder hopper rather than using the dipping spoon?"I do not drop powder in the expander die. I charge the case from my Lyman 55 and at times when I am checking the charge the 55 drops I weight it on the scale and pour the powder in the case using a funnel.The charge case then goes in to a loading block with others. When it comes time to seat bullets I first check all the cases in the block to make sure they have a powder charge.
WHY?
After fifty years of loading I got a bullet stuck in the bore of my 9mm. I thought why not, just drop the powder into the top of the expansion die, and move on to the bullet seating. Some How, Some Way I was distracted and failed to charge a case.
It came with sick feeling when the gun went pop instead of bang, the slide came part way back with the case stove-piped, and the bullet stuck half way down the barrel.
I have loaded a few thousand rounds since that mishap, and I have not had a failure.
This has me thinking, a granddaughter will soon be using my 9mm dies. I am going to ductape the top of the die to make sure she does not get into charging by way of the Expanding Die.
The Expanding Die still has a function. Its job is to expand the mouth of the case just enough to allow the bullet to be seated without tearing or collapsing the case.
I normall put a very shallow bell on the mouth of case. If I am loading .355 diameter bullets i will adjust the die to create a .356 bell. I measure the expansion with my calipers.
