Author Topic: .454 Casull Reloading  (Read 1824 times)

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Offline Who Me?

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.454 Casull Reloading
« on: January 29, 2007, 08:40:19 AM »
A friend of mine is going to buy a .454 Casull.  Would I be able to use my RCBS .45 Colt dies to reload this round?  Or would the mouth of the .454 case bottom out inside the resizing die before the case was completely resized?  It looks to me like the .45 and .454 have the same diameter case and the .454 is roughly .100" longer.   ???
Wayne

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Offline MarkH

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Re: .454 Casull Reloading
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2007, 10:58:43 AM »
I have found it best to use dedicated 454 Casull dies.  45 Colt dies might work if you use a 45ACP size die, but have had quite a few bullets jump crimp that way.

Offline Ken ONeill

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Re: .454 Casull Reloading
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2007, 01:09:50 PM »
Get .454 Casull dies. Be sure to seat the bullet, and roll crimp it in the case as SEPARATE steps, with a 4th die, to eliminate bullets jumping crimp. As an aside, I don't know how old your RCBS dies are, but older .45 Colt dies also had an expander button intended for .454 dia. bullets, rather than .452; If used in a .454 Casull application and heavily roll crimping, you'll really be working that brass.

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Re: .454 Casull Reloading
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2007, 03:11:45 AM »
Mark & Ken,
Thanks for the replys!  My dies are about a year old, I bought them to reload for my brother-in-law's .45 Colt / .410 derringer. I think I'll take your advice and buy a set for the .454 Casull. 

Regards,
Wayne
Wayne

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Offline 45454

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Re: .454 Casull Reloading
« Reply #4 on: January 30, 2007, 03:29:55 PM »
Hello Who Me,
Reason for doing the separate bullet seating and crimping: It is to prevent the case walls from crinkling.Will do this,if both operations are used.
So, seat all rounds first. Then, do the crimp for the final on your rounds.This is what Freedom Arms says to do.
Have fun.

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Offline Who Me?

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Re: .454 Casull Reloading
« Reply #5 on: January 31, 2007, 03:15:52 AM »
Hello Who Me,
Reason for doing the separate bullet seating and crimping: It is to prevent the case walls from crinkling.Will do this,if both operations are used.
So, seat all rounds first. Then, do the crimp for the final on your rounds.This is what Freedom Arms says to do.
Have fun.


  As Ed McMahon used to say... "You are correct Sir!"   ;D  I currently load .38 & .45 ACP on a Dillon 550B and seat the bullets and crimp in separate operations per Dillon's suggestion.  Also, since I posted my question, I sent the same question to RCBS and they replied that the .45 Colt crimping die would not crimp the .454 Casull enough.  They suggested that I could buy just the .454 Casull  crimping die and that would work.   Thanks again for the information!   :)
Wayne

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Offline 45454

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Re: .454 Casull Reloading
« Reply #6 on: January 31, 2007, 03:25:10 AM »
You sure are welcome !  ;D
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Offline alamogunr

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Re: .454 Casull Reloading
« Reply #7 on: February 01, 2007, 04:29:16 AM »
Kind of horning in on this subject, but I have question that is pertinant to the subject.  Several of you said that a .454 dedicated die set or dedicated crimp die should be used.  I just ordered a Redding .454/.45C die set.  I actually did this because I did not have the .45 Colt dies either.  I asked Redding about adjustment between setups and they said that only the seat/crimp die would have to be adjusted when changing between .454 and .45C.  If I understand the posts correctly, I may not get correct crimp on the .454 rounds.  I haven't received the dies yet so I can't try them out.  Any comments on this would be appreciated.
John

Offline fowler

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Re: .454 Casull Reloading
« Reply #8 on: February 06, 2007, 08:44:30 AM »
You would also have to adjuct the expander die or it would be way off between the .454 and the 45 colt because of the lenght of case differences. I don't load the 454 but it would have to work that way.

Offline Ken ONeill

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Re: .454 Casull Reloading
« Reply #9 on: February 06, 2007, 03:26:11 PM »
As Fowler points out, the expander die will need to be re-adjusted when changing from .45 Colt to .454 Casull & vice-versa, due to the length difference in the 2 cases. Likewise, the seating die will need to be adjusted when switching back & forth. I don't know if the Redding set has a 4th die for crimping or not, but you should use one, to avoid backing out the seating stem, and turning the die further into the press each time you crimp full power .454 loads, then reversing the process to seat the next batch of .454 bullets, or work with .45 colt cases. The reason that people mention cases crinkling (correctly) is the need for heavy roll crimping when working with full power .454's. The application of the heavy crimp at the same time the bullet is being seated adds too much pressure to the case, and it can begin to collapse or "crinkle". If one is going to load both .45 Colt and .454 full power loads, in my opinion it's better to bear the extra expense of a separate set of dies for the .45 Colt, and a dedicated 4 die set for the .454. You'll save a lot of time, and your loads will be more consistent from 1 loading session to the next, because you will eliminate all that adjusting.

Offline MS Hitman

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Re: .454 Casull Reloading
« Reply #10 on: February 06, 2007, 03:44:53 PM »
I have played with using the expander plug from my .44 Mag dies to bell the case mouths on .454 cases.  It opens the mouth up enoough to start a bullet and I get some kind of neck tension on the bullet using this method.

Offline alamogunr

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Re: .454 Casull Reloading
« Reply #11 on: February 11, 2007, 08:11:22 AM »
Sorry to be so long getting back.  We've been in upheaval mode with some major remodeling on the house. 

Redding does have a crimp die, called a "profile crimp die".  Haven't located one yet but will keep looking.  I printed off the replys in this thread and will keep them handy when I get a chance to get out to the shop and try out the dies.  Thanks again!
John