I have a question on resizing straight walled brass (45LC in this case).

I have three different guns I shoot it out of. One SA pistol and the other two are lever actions. Is it necessary to resize the brass? I don't think it's possible to neck size straight walled cartridges is it?
Reason I ask is that as it is now, a cleaned fired case will chamber and bolt close in all three without sizing. The case will "grow" an average of 0.010" if I resize them. So why lengthen the case in resizing them when they will chamber just fine as they are and be 0.010" shorter?

Sorry for the long question.

Thanks

You can just size the area where the bullet will seat, but for a 45LC it would be more bother than its worth, IMHO.

I used to do it for my 45-70 cases, however, they were only chambered in one firearm, plus the case was much longer than my 45LC's.

As Kdub said. With any carbide pistol die, you could just run the case in as far as the bullet seats down. Don't do it any less than than because it will cost you grip on the bullet, which will let it move on recoil more easily and will also lower start pressure which would make you use a little more powder to get to the same velocity. The trick with it is to do it consistently, so that start pressure is the same for every round.

Kdub & Unclenick, thanks for your replies.

So there's really no harm in full length resizing as far as live of the case is concerned? If I was to size them to just the depth of the bullet, why may that be more trouble than it's worth for the 45LC?

I guess the bottom line is, what would you do as far as resizing this brass to be used in three different guns?

Thanks.

Just that very topic has been written up several times in the Rifle/Handloader magazines, by the editor, Dave Scovill.

The reason stated in the article was due to the excessively generous tolerances of .45 colt chambers, a cartridge that has been around since the 1870s.

In theory this can provide more accuracy .... in theory. The brass isn't going to last any longer, because you're still sizing the case mouths quite a bit and most likely they'd split before the case body did.

Mr. Scovill did propose using a sizing die that had been modified to size the case body less than the neck, but.... consider the expense of die modification, and the extra time necessary to lube cases (vs. no lube with carbide dies) and you can see that this is really digging deep for little gain. No offense to Mr. Scovill.... it's never a bad thing to search for more accuracy... but in reality it's a step that few of us can justify.

In reality, there's darn few of us who could really take advantage of such a thing, in a handgun anyway.

Size full length. You have 6 different chambers in the revolver and 2 more in the rifles. Out of the 8, what are the odds all will be nearly exactly the same size? What's going to happen is that one or more of them will be oversized enough that brass fired in that chamber will not chamber in some of the others, at some point.

You're just setting yourself up for a lot of aggravation and trouble if you don't full-length resize, with 3 different guns.

Yup, like the others have advised, full length resize. If for no other reason, consistent neck tension on the bullet for a consistent bullet pull and uniform group. Case life on a .45 Colt is pretty good. Have reloaded many cases up to 15 times without a casemouth crack.