I have a set of reloading dies for a 44MAG that were sold around in the early 1980's and I haven't reloaded for quite a while for the 44MAG.
I had a run of about 120 rounds and pulled out a die out of the 3 die set that had the decapping pin sticking out of the end of it and started to "size", decap, and re prime the brass. As I was running the cases through this die I noticed that they seemed to be "sizing" very very easily and thought nothing more until the run was done for that die and I looked into the green plastic die box to get the next die to bell out the mouth. NO DIE in the set. What I found out and must have forgot and overlooked was that there was a separate sizing die without anything on the top of the die that I hadn't used. Also the die that I had used to deprime and "size" was actually the die that ONLY deprimed the cases and actually contained a belling feature on the decapping stem.
Now I had cases that were primed but not sized or belled. I was thinking about how to go about reworking this run of brass without redoing the primer seating (my hated function in reloading) and decided to call RCBS to see if my plan was correct. I was going to run them through the sizing die, no problem there, than I would have to remove the pin from the decapping die and run the cases through there to get the bell in the case, then on to seating the bullets.
When I called RCBS and explain my situation to a CS rep she told me that those dies were indeed older and the sequence using the 3 die set had changed. SHE THEN SAID THAT RCBS WOULD BE SENDING ME THE FIRST TWO DIES OF THAT SET TO BRING MY SET OF DIES UP TO THE CURRENT MODE AT NO COST TO ME. There was nothing wrong with the set and they would still function, if used in the proper order, but RCBS mentioned that they were still under warranty.
I always have been impressed with RCBS CS and warranty policies and now go forward with additional admiration for that company.
Last edited by Redhill; 12/07/15.
