Question about shaving lead while loading

[EvilElmo]

I'm looking for ideas on what the cause and solution to this issue is. I'm loading cast 9mm bullets using Lee dies and some of them are apparently shaving lead, and then I'm guessing the crimp die is mashing the lead against the side of the case. This is happening on roughly one out of every 10-15 rounds. This makes me think the sizing die isn't expanding the case mouth enough but as far as I can tell I have the sizing die set up correctly. Does anyone if anything else would cause this? I'm using a Lee progressive (loadmaster) with Lee dies.

 

[M67]

The mouth of the case isn't belled enough or the bullets might be slightly oversized

 

[Mgderf]

The mouth of the case isn't belled enough or the bullets might be slightly oversized

Or both.

 

[EvilElmo]

Well I didn't cast the bullets myself but the guy I got them from is very good about that so I'm going to go with blaming the expander die. I screwed it down a little more to open the case up some more and it seems to be helping.

 

[throttletony]

don't be afraid to measure a bit either, especially the bullets!!

 

[sloughfoot]

The sizing die in the lee setup does NOT bell the case mouth. That is the job of the powder thru expander die. The case gets the bell as the powder is dumped into the case. THAT die needs to be adjusted down to bell the case.

 

[straight-shooter]

The fit and size of that bullet is ruined for sure. That would lead the heck out of a barrel. The powder thru expander needs adjusted down more and it doesn't hurt to make sure the bullet is placed as vertical as possible before seating.

 

[mssmith44]

I don't know your process with those dies. A separate die for taper crimping is normally used after seating the bullet.

 

[EvilElmo]

I'm using a taper crimp die separate from the seating die.

I dropped the expander die down some more and that seems to have helped. This just surprised me because I loaded a couple hundred rounds of 9mm a few weeks ago and didn't have this problem at all. Then yesterday it started shaving bullets and I hadn't touched the press/dies at all in between. Same batch of bullets too.

 

[Fullmag]

I'm using a taper crimp die separate from the seating die.

I dropped the expander die down some more and that seems to have helped. This just surprised me because I loaded a couple hundred rounds of 9mm a few weeks ago and didn't have this problem at all. Then yesterday it started shaving bullets and I hadn't touched the press/dies at all in between. Same batch of bullets too.

Probably was setting the bullets in the case more squarely the other time. For cast bullets the bell needs to larger.