Hello to all!

The extent of my reloading experience has been in loading 444 Marlin cartridges, which as you know is a "straight-walled" case. The Lee Pacesetter die set that I have included a powder-through case expander and everything is working well. My Marlin 444 just loves BTB cast bullets; 265g, 280g, 290g and 330g, but my shoulder has a different opinion regarding the big pills :D .

I am getting ready to start loading BTB .359"-180gWLNGC+P for my .35 Remington, but I noticed that the Lee Pacesetter die set does not include a neck expander. I consulted my Lyman's manual and it says that I should use an expander with cast bullets so that I don't "shave" lead when I'm seating the bullet.

My question is: Which expander die would be better...the "Lee Universal Cast Bullet Expanding die" (Midway product # 140461) or the "Lyman Neck Expander M Die 35 Caliber Short" (Midway product # 753258)?

Best regards to all,

Dan

The Lyman M-Die works well, as it only expands the case mouth enough to start the bullet. MikeG has a couple of threads and two articles on them.
http://www.beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/39
http://www.beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/46

The neat thing is that you can do all calibres from .25 ACP to .50-90 Sharps with just 2 M-Dies and the appropriate expander plugs. I have a .45 ACP and a 30L (long)(.30-06, etc) and a .358" expander plug. The .45 ACP has a short body and long top screw, while the 30L has a long body and short top screw. The .35 Remington is intermediate in length and you either need a short body and top screw, or a long body and long top screw. I'm not sure how Lyman sets up their .35 Remington die, but you'd end up with extra parts if you want to do other calibres.

Bye
Jack

Jack,
Many thanks for the quick reply! I would guess that my BTB's will be here in due time (they're well worth waiting for....Marshall does a terrific quality job!).

Again, many thanks! This is a terrific Website with, I feel, have great moderators that really know their stuff about guns as well as administration of a forum-oriented Website.

Dan,

I use the Lee Universal Case Expanding Die and have had very good service and accuracy from it.

Dan,

I use the Lee Universal Case Expanding Die and have had very good service and accuracy from it.

Yeah but I had to make an expander to "fix" your .444 Lee Loader .... :p

I recently bought a Lee expander die on a larger order but have not used it yet. For my rifle bullets in cast, most are gas checked and I haven't found any shaving of lead or a reason to expand the case. I do have some light plain base bullets to plink with and am going to give the Lee a try then.

Bill