30 carbine dies

[njl]

A while back, a friend gave me an ancient looking set of RCBS .30 carbine dies. I couldn't use them on my RL550B, because they do things in an "odd" order that I guess works fine for single stage presses, not so well for a Dillon.

It's a 3 die set:

1) resize
2) decap / expander
3) seat & crimp

It occurred to me today to see how well the seating stem worked with the Rem 110gr JSP I've been loading...and it looks like it's a much better fit with those than the Lee seating stem in the die set I bought and have been using. The decap / expander also looks like with proper adjustment, it might be usable as just a decapper. I'm pretty sure with proper adjustment, the RCBS seat/crimp die can be used just for seating.

So...I'm thinking the next time I load some .30 carbine, of swapping out my seating die, and removing the universal decapper from my carbine loading toolhead and trying out the RCBS decap die.

[WiskyT]

Interesting order of operation. It's almost like the British designed them.

[norton]

Interesting order of operation. It's almost like the British designed them.

Can't be a British design unless they figure out a way to make them leak oil.

[WiskyT]

Can't be a British design unless they figure out a way to make them leak oil.

:supergrin:Maybe they don't work when it's raining?

[nbkky71]

I recall reading that RCBS stopped making the expander/decapping die in the early 80's.

If you don't mind depriming the brass ahead of time (RCBS universal depriming die), you can still use the resizing die in station 1 and seat/crimp die in station 3 on your Dillon 550. The caliber conversion kit will incorporate the expander into the powder die in station 2. Leave station 4 empty

[TexanRon]

Can't be a British design unless they figure out a way to make them leak oil.

Or, the electrical system fail intermittently.

[njl]

I recall reading that RCBS stopped making the expander/decapping die in the early 80's.

If you don't mind depriming the brass ahead of time (RCBS universal depriming die), you can still use the resizing die in station 1 and seat/crimp die in station 3 on your Dillon 550. The caliber conversion kit will incorporate the expander into the powder die in station 2. Leave station 4 empty

I hadn't considered that, and already bought a Lee 3 die set and FCD because I wanted a carbide sizing die, a set that would make more sense in the Dillon press, and separate seating/crimping dies.

I've loaded several hundred rounds and shot them in my CMP carbines. The only problems I've had are inconsistent COAL, which I believe is caused by the poor fit of the Lee seating stem with the Rem 110gr JSP bullets, and occasional tumbling media stuck to the sides of the flash holes, which has me considering not depriming until after sizing and trimming.