No belling die for progressive loaders ?

[BobC]

Most reloading dies for staight wall pistol cases have 3 dies. The first is for sizing & depriming; but the agreement stops there.

Several die manufacturers, e.g., Dillon, do not include a mouth-belling operation in the die sets made for their progressive reloaders. The 2nd die is for seating; the 3rd is for crimping.

On the other hand, the RCBS dies (which I assume are optimized for their single stage press) bell the case mouth with the 2nd die and then the 3rd die performs a combined seat/crimp operation.

How can the mouth belling step be skipped? I would think a progressive operation would be more demanding than a single stage press for a belled mouth to feed a bullet without undue human intervention.

It would seem from this logic that manufacturers could offer a cheaper 2-die set (sizing/depriming & seating/primping dies) or offer a deluxe 4-die set (sizing/depriming, belling, seating, crimping). Neither seems prevalent in the marketplace. I'm not understanding something here.

I use a RCBS RockChucker and have recently acquired separate crimping dies to separate the seating and crimping operations.

Please help me understand why a belling operation is dispensable.

And, how well do progressive dies, such as the Dillon, work in a single stage press?

Thanks in advance,
- Bob

 

[Quantrill]

Bob,
To the best of my knowledge (at least with the 450 and 550 that I have had for a few years, Dillon's powder dispensing operation is also the belling operation is and is adjustable by the seating of the die. Quantrill

 

[Zak Smith]

In the Dillon Square-Deal B ("SDB"), belling occurs at the top of the stroke at the second station, which also dispenses powder.

Adjustment is done by looseneing the set screw and changing the height of the die which screws into the tool head.

-z

 

[Cal4D4]

Info sheet which came with my Redding Pro (as in progressive) dies indicates that the major progressive press manufacturer supplies the belling die, so they don't. Leaves me with the Lyman Multi die. Marginally ok.

 

[Nero Steptoe]

Bob: You were reaching conclusions based on false assumptions.

 

[Gewehr98]

BobC, my RL550, SD-B, and XL-650 bell the case mouths...

As a function of the powder drop station. When you get the caliber conversion kit for a given caliber from Dillon, the powder-through-belling die comes in the kit. Piece of cake.

 

[stellarpod]

What Gewehr98 said.

stellarpod

 

[David Wile]

Hey Bob,

Unless you are loading cast bullets, you really should not need to bell the case mouth whether you are using a single stage or a progressive press.

When loading cast bullets on my Hornady L&L five-station progressive, I size and de-prime at the first station, bell the mouth and prime at the second stage, charge at the third station, seat the bullet and crimp at the fourth station. Some folks start with a lube die at the first station and push the rest of the operations back a station, but I do not bother with a lube die. I simply spray lube on cases while in the block and go as described.

With jacketed bullets, I have never found a need for belling case mouths. Also, I generally do not find it necessary to crimp my loads. For those that I do crimp, I have always been able to get a proper crimp with the seater-crimper die furnished in the set.

Best wishes,
Dave Wile