I thought I would document what I did today. I shot a hundred and one .44mag cartridges yesterday. And today, I’ll reload them.
For time and space savings, I won’t show the first two steps. They were de-capping the cases (Kids...that’s when you remove the spent primers). And then into the wet tumbler for two hours. Then on the drying tray for another two hours.
Step 1. The cases need to be sized back to spec. After they fire, they expand. Here’s a picture of a fired case before full length sizing in a case gauge.
Full length sizing....
And the resulting resized case in the case guage for reference...
Step 2. Full length sizing stretches the case. So trimming to the proper length is next. In this instance, the case length should be approximately 1.2790”. It is very important to get all of your cases pretty close to the same length. This is because when you crimp the case, your crimping die can give a consistent crimp (without having to mess around adjusting the die for differing length cases).
Trimming step...
Step 3. Next the case neck needs to be flared open slightly to accept a bullet easily so you can seat it into the case. Here’s a picture after the neck on this case has been flared open.
