School me on resizing 45 Colt brass

[BReeves]

Friend gave me a LEE Classic Turret press and am gearing up to be able to reload 45 Colt. I bought 100 rounds of Armscore 250 grain cowboy loads and 100 Starline 45 Colt brass. This gives me new brass plus once fired cases. I also bought a set of Lee 45 Colt dies. Will be shooting my reloads in a Ruger Blackhawk and a Taylor's (Uberti) SAA.

Both new or used empty cases will fit in either gun just like the factory rounds but would require some effort to get through the Lee resizing die. Is it normal to need to resize new brass never fired cases? Without knowing it would seem to me like new brass would already be sized. What am I missing?

 

[1911Sooner]

Not a reloadeder but youtube has a lot of videos on reloading. You might start there or buy a reloading book.

 

[Okie4570]

I treat new brass like used brass and always resize. Are they carbide dies that don't require lube, or standard dies that do require lube?

 

[EKing]

Even new brass must go through the sizing die. That stuff makes a long trip from the factory to your hands - no way every case mouth is perfectly round and ready to seat a bullet. Plus, they don't do any inside/outside case mouth chamfering at the factory so the new brass should be given that treatment as well.

Your Lee dies will size the brass down a long way. You'll see what I mean when you start seating bullets. You might consider only half sizing your 45 Colt brass. It's a pain, it adds more steps, but some people love it.

Keep your loads in the middle of the published range for the Colt section. I don't recommend using the "Ruger only section" The Blackhawk is a strong gun, but some of those "Ruger" sections specifically state that they are meant for the Redhawk or Super Redhawk. Those are big heavy guns. I stay in the "regular" or "Colt" section and start my loads in the middle of the recommended range and work up from there. You'll find when firing at the range that even the "weak" Colt only loads are plenty powerful and lots of fun when ringing steel.

 

[Reloading Rod]

New brass may be sized but sometimes get dings, bent, etc. in shipping. Sounds like your guns have a larger chamber, also if if brass was shot through your gun it was formed to your chamber, so it will fit. Dies will reform brass to fit in any chamber, so it does not surprise me there is a little resistance to resize, they are just making sure that the case will fit in even tight chambers. Several people only neck size their rifle cartridges to extend life and get better accuracy, what that does is the cartridge is already formed to the chamber and just the neck needs to be resized to seat the bullet, that way the case doesn't expand to fit the chamber which can cause accuracy problems.

 

[swampratt]

I gave up on my 45 Colt.
You have 2 different brand cases to reload I was getting all kinds of cases and all the manufactures had a different case thickness.
Hornady cases were very short and very thick. But That was one critical defence ammo. other Hornady ammo may have very long cases.
You can add a bit of lube or sizing die wax to the outside of the case and size them much easier.
And you may notice a different OAL or different ID or OD when using lube.

Try it and see what happens.

Some reading on loads and some issues I had with 45 Colt cases.
https://www.okshooters.com/threads/reloading-45lc.220595/

 

[BReeves]

Must have been lucky, have read about the differences in cases but the Armscore and Starline cases I have are identical in size and thickness. I bought the Carbide die set but will probable still use some lube. My brain just won't let me force that case in that die without at least some slickum.

Planing on loading on the lower end just for plinking in my back yard. Was in the software business and have a couple dozen retired hard drives to use for targets. Shooting a single action is just plain fun.

 

[turkeyrun]

Trail Boss is great for .45 plinking

 

[BReeves]

Read on the net about Trail Boss, neither store I visited had it or I overlooked it, when I find it I will buy some.

Loaded my first 20 rounds this morning using the Lee Turret a friend gave me as a trial run. Went OK but need to get away from using a dipper for powder, Gets old real quick and not sure I can be really consistent. Starting another thread on Powder Measures?

 

[Glock 40]

Were you weighing it after dipping or just going old school Richard Lee fill the dipper and drop it in the shell?