doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Purdey 450 reloading problem

SWEET!!! Congrats on the Victory
Mike

Need help again, I have been using a new set of Hornady .450 nitro dies and new .450 3 1/4" Jamison cases. Kynoch .450 nitro ammo will very easily go into a .450 Purdey, .450 Holland and Holland, .450 Alex Henry and a .450 Nitro 1902 Webley, yet the new Jamison cases after full length resizing do NOT fit in any of the rifles. The bases of the Kynoch and Jamison mike the same as does the case mouth. The middle of the Jamison cases after sizing are larger than the Kynoch cases and prevent the cases from chambering. Do you think the sizing dies are suspect? New to reloading.

OK, here is a trick, take a sacrificial shell holder and grind a bit off the top, this will allow you to push the case
further into the die. Die should be flush against the shell holder at full stroke.

If this does not work, have other ideas,

You have the Nitro dies, thought you were going to get some of the correct dies??

Mike

Hi Mike, since I last talked to you I picked up a .450 Nitro Webley 1902 falling block along with a box of nitro Kynoch ammo. The Kynoch .450 Nitro ammo fits perfectly in all 4 rifles. I am thinking there is something wrong with the Hornady dies. I was assuming the chambers were smaller on the three blackpowder double rifle, but it appears they are the same as the Nitro chamber. I would think full length sizing the new Jamison cases in the Hornady dies would enable them to fit in the 1902 Webley. The sized cases stick out about 1/4" from chambering in all three rifles. Thanks a lot for your help.

Sorry, I should have said all FOUR rifles.

Ask CptCurl on Nitroexpress.com forums. He moderates the double rifle forum and owns and loads for Purdey .450s.

Gary,

Under no circumstances should you alter the chambers on your rifle.

Early .450BPE chambers had some variation. I learned this in much the same way as you. I have a nice G. Gibbs .450NE I had loaded for many years (RCBS dies). I acquired my first A. Henry .450BPE thinking I was already set up to load for it. I ran into the same problem as you. Fired cases re-sized in my RCBS .450NE full length sizing die wouldn't quite chamber.

I discussed the problem with Stan, in the RCBS custom die shop, with whom I have had various dealings over the years. He confirmed that prior to full standardization there were several different concepts for .450 3 1/4" cartridge dimensions. I sent him Cerrosafe casts of my Henry chambers, and before long I received a perfect custom sizing die.

I have run into the same problem with the .450/.400 3 1/4" also.

Call me if you want to discuss. Proceed with great caution. These are treasures not to be harmed by our handling!

Curl

I agree with Rocketman.You can find where the interference is by smoking,applying dykem or magic marker to a case and pushing it into chamber.Then you can tell what size die to make( it doesn't have to be exact,just smaller than the interfering part of the chamber).
Mike

Hi Roscoe, you are 100% correct! I had a second set of Hornady dies sent and same results. Hornady thought there was a defect in the first set. What threw me off was that a full .450 nitro 1902 Webley falling block also would not chamber the rounds. That makes all 4 rifles with smaller chambers. I will contact RCBS after I make a few cerrosafe casts and see which chamber is the smallest. Need to order a die set for that chamber. I noticed CH 4D sells a .450 BPE die set, what do you think? Thanks again.

I'd send the chamber casts to Dave at CH4D and have him make a set of dies based on your chambers.
I've had this problem with RCBS dies before. No Problem with the dies at all. Just the basic chamber problems caused by no standards like CIP/SAMMI back then.
There were no set bore sizes either. SLUG THE TUBES!