Post by 98redline on Oct 3, 2019 16:34:12 GMT -5
I know that this topic has been covered before however I wanted to post this up as a means of tying a couple of somewhat unrelated 500 JRH threads together.
As I am getting set up for reloading for 500 JRH I went ahead and purchased a set of RCBS 500 S&W and SPL carbide dies. My desire was to purchase a die set that I would not need to modify or cut down in order to load the cartridge. The RCBS set is the only one I am aware of that states that it will do both the full length and special cases. It seemed to reason that if it will work on a 1.625" case and a 1.250" case that it should work on the 1.40" case of the JRH.....wrong.
Similar to many using this die set I was immediately faced with an issue where the expander die was causing the case walls to buckle just above the halfway point on the case.
This seems to be a recurring theme with the RCBS die set and 500 JRH. There are a couple of posts on this and other boards that elude to the root cause of the issue being the step on the expander die hanging up on the case mouth and crushing the case. After a little closer inspection and at the expense of a couple of cases, I was able to determine the problem isn't related to the step, it is related to the diameter of the nose of the expander. By cutting down the 500 S&W case, the expander die pushes further into the case than it normally would, resulting in the leading edge of the expander contacting the case wall and creating an interference fit. Once the friction of the fit overcomes the yield strength of the brass you get a nice concentric raised ridge all the way around the case, just below the interference. This incidentally is the same reason you can't load a >460gr bullet in the 500 JRH without reaming the case. The longer 460gr + bullets push too far into the case and can't expand the brass enough before the case wall begins to buckle. Even if you could, it is doubtful that you could even chamber the round due to the expanded brass.
Lee had posted about how he reams his cases in this thread:
singleactions.proboards.com/thread/10525/500-jrh-reaming
Unsurprisingly he mentions that in his reamed 500 JRH cases there is not any sort of "ring" below the projectile as was pointed out by buckheart.
The solution for the RCBS die issue seems to either ream the cases or to use a 50AE expander plug (RCBS will likely send one to you for free if you tell them what you are doing and what is happening). I have not received my 50AE plug yet, however I suspect that it is either shorter than the 500 S&W plug or has a more tapered profile to allow it to fully bell the case mouth without impacting the case wall and starting to crush the case. I will give a shout out to the RCBS tech support team. They took an interest in the issue and had their die tech actually make up some 500 JRH cases to confirm the buckling but also that the 50AE expander plug will work correctly.
Lee kindly posted the specs for the reamer in this thread, for anybody who is interested.
singleactions.proboards.com/thread/19425/reloading-500-jrh
As I am getting set up for reloading for 500 JRH I went ahead and purchased a set of RCBS 500 S&W and SPL carbide dies. My desire was to purchase a die set that I would not need to modify or cut down in order to load the cartridge. The RCBS set is the only one I am aware of that states that it will do both the full length and special cases. It seemed to reason that if it will work on a 1.625" case and a 1.250" case that it should work on the 1.40" case of the JRH.....wrong.
Similar to many using this die set I was immediately faced with an issue where the expander die was causing the case walls to buckle just above the halfway point on the case.
This seems to be a recurring theme with the RCBS die set and 500 JRH. There are a couple of posts on this and other boards that elude to the root cause of the issue being the step on the expander die hanging up on the case mouth and crushing the case. After a little closer inspection and at the expense of a couple of cases, I was able to determine the problem isn't related to the step, it is related to the diameter of the nose of the expander. By cutting down the 500 S&W case, the expander die pushes further into the case than it normally would, resulting in the leading edge of the expander contacting the case wall and creating an interference fit. Once the friction of the fit overcomes the yield strength of the brass you get a nice concentric raised ridge all the way around the case, just below the interference. This incidentally is the same reason you can't load a >460gr bullet in the 500 JRH without reaming the case. The longer 460gr + bullets push too far into the case and can't expand the brass enough before the case wall begins to buckle. Even if you could, it is doubtful that you could even chamber the round due to the expanded brass.
Lee had posted about how he reams his cases in this thread:
singleactions.proboards.com/thread/10525/500-jrh-reaming
Unsurprisingly he mentions that in his reamed 500 JRH cases there is not any sort of "ring" below the projectile as was pointed out by buckheart.
The solution for the RCBS die issue seems to either ream the cases or to use a 50AE expander plug (RCBS will likely send one to you for free if you tell them what you are doing and what is happening). I have not received my 50AE plug yet, however I suspect that it is either shorter than the 500 S&W plug or has a more tapered profile to allow it to fully bell the case mouth without impacting the case wall and starting to crush the case. I will give a shout out to the RCBS tech support team. They took an interest in the issue and had their die tech actually make up some 500 JRH cases to confirm the buckling but also that the 50AE expander plug will work correctly.
Lee kindly posted the specs for the reamer in this thread, for anybody who is interested.
singleactions.proboards.com/thread/19425/reloading-500-jrh
