Burnside woes

[Dave Fox]

Does ANYBODY out there made a reloading tool for the Burnside? I'm having the devil's own time seating bullets in the cases. I start with a Rapine .556/360 mould and have "invested" in a series of ever-smaller sizing dies, working the slug down until I about smooth-out the grease grooves and still hand seating is problematical. Brass comes from divers sourses: S&S, Dixie, Lodgewood. I'm about ready to give up and surrender to use of round balls.

[Richard Hill]

I use a .566 Rapine sizer on the bullets AND case mouths. The sizer has a flared entry that turned out to be just perfect for sizing the case to the correct size to accept the bullet. I also use the Rapine “hollow base pusher” to round out the case mouth before pressing the case into the large end of the sizer. The bullet can be pressed in with thumb pressure. There are flat-bottom cases and indented-bottom cases available. My gun greatly prefers the cases with the indented bottom.

[Ken Hansgen, 11094]

I think I heard that Ray Pine has retired from the business now. So does anybody know 1. if this is true , and 2. are these being made and sold by somebody else? If so, who?

[Jim VE]

Wash my mouth but you may want to try the "hair curler" mould for the Burnside from Dixie. I belive this is a perfect fit.

[Dave Fox]

Eureka! My thanks to Comrade Hill. Taking his suggestion this snowy afternoon and using what I've got, I found that a .574 sizing die I happen to have on hand fits snugly over the Burnside case's mouth, a friction fit. Dropping the sized .556 bullet down the the sizing die, a few taps on a dowel seated the slug with precision. Problem solved. I'll go by Lowe's to see what I can find that's steel, round in cross section, and cone-shaped to true the fired brass's distorted mouths. Now to try fooling with the few Maynard cases that are too rotund at the base to fit in my ancient aluminum Maynard bullet seater....

[RangerFrog]

Dave,

You've hijacked your own thread!! Green But to solve the Maynard case problem you mention, you might do as I did at the suggestion of John Bly, use a 50-70 FL sizer die on those fat bottomed cases and your problem should go away. I did it without using the press and shell holder, pushing the brass all the way in to the bottom of the die, then using a wooden dowel to tap them back out. Use plenty of case lube so you don't bind up in the die or score it. :idea:

Froggie

[Dave Fox]

Frog;
Thanks for the suggestion. I've a .50-70 Sharps M.1863 conversion and thus dies. Strange to say, some sized Maynard brass is still too rotund at the base to fit in my nondescript aluminum Maynard seater combo. One possibility is to open the base of the seater-die by some means or another. Geez. One remembers stories of English M'lords who shot all day, having servants pass them loaded weapons and then having the weapons cleaned for them. However, if these old dears were easy to shoot, I expect they'd not be interesting.

[RangerFrog]

Dave,

From what I've been able to tell, you can even go through the whole loading procedure on your bench press using those .50-70 dies if the seater/crimper will cooperate. S&S and perhaps others offer a shell holder for the Maynards that has a standard RCBS-type base, so you put one of those on your next order and you're good to go. I set my shell holder and sizing die up in one of those hand-held Lee presses and do a final pass on my loaded rounds (I still use the original type bullet seater from Lodgewood 'cause it's cool 8) ) and it's like I do a taper crimp. My loaded rounds drop into my chamber perfectly! Green

FWIW, PJ Kelly used my setup on a bunch of old stuff he had that had gotten pretty badly swollen after several years of use, and almost every case was good to go after just one pass in my press. :D

Froggie