Home Forums Hunting & Shooting BPCR Black powder dies

Howdy i have a question about a powder crimp die or die to put pressure on the powder and not the bullet.

How does it work and can loading be safely done with a regular die set with the factory crimp die?

Cartridges in question are the 45-70 and the 38-55.

I have had net problems here for the last week and read a lot in this section and learned a lot,i hope.

Thanks for any help

The die you are looking for is called a compression die. I can't remember where I got mine, either MVA, Buffalo Arms or Track of the Wolf but it used a lee die body and a compression insert for the caliber you are loading. You can buy both pieces from them.

You can get a compression die from Buffalo Arms. Shiloh sells a good compression die as does Midway. Or if you have and extra "M" die body you can just buy just the stem, some folks take a bolt with the proper thread and turn the head down to the diameter needed. If you have a quality set of dies such as from Lyman, RCBS, or Saeco, the expander die can be set to compress the powder to the desired depth.

You can buy or make a compression stem/plug and use it in a Lyman M body, or a body with a threaded through hole like many common dies, just replacing the expander or seater plug.. There are just a couple of thread sizes, but I can't remember which is which. Might be that Lyman and RCBS are the same, Redding different.

Simple and cheap approach if you have a bunch of extra dies lying around.

Track of The Wolf is the only place I've found lately to have them in stock.

Powder Compression Die & Plugs LINK

Ed

Thanks for the link.

When looking around the shop i found a set of dies for the 38-55 for the hand press and it might work for that one.

For the 45-70 i think that a 40 S&W case over the end of the seater plug in same die will work for that one.

If i have to i have stock that i could make a die body for both as well as the packing stem.

Just want to try it cheap to see if it works.

It is a lot of threading work to make them,i did make a set to expand a 22 lr to see if a little larger bullet would make some types of ammo shoot better.

Well today i had success with the 45-70 and the 38-55.

The cobbled together powder compression die i used did a good job.

Loads for the 45-70 were 70 grains of 2f powder and no card with a 400 grain cast bullet.

Loads for the 38-55 were done with same powder and a small piece of card to take up some room for the 245 grain cast.

The 45-70 seemed to push more than kick and the 38-55 was nothing.

The cast bullets were powder coated and the one 400 gr.i pulled from the oak log seems to be soft enough to do a good job on anything it hits.

This could become a new obsession.

One question about powders.Does it really make a difference if 2f is used of 3f or 4f>

Seems to me that if it is getting compacted it just gets smashed into the same space in the brass.

Thanks for the helpful hints and showing the way to fun.