Anyone laoding the 50 Beowulf? I'm having trouble with bulge cases where the bullet is seated. I'm using Speer 325 gr. hp bullets. It seems the brass is softer on one side or the thickness of the brass is not the same all around the case. Some of the rounds will not chamber easily. After extracting you can see rub marks where the bulge is. Normally you will have an even bulge around the case where the bullet is seated. I've used two seperate batches of brass with the same results. I thought it might be the belling die but I have use two different ones with the same results. My groups will vary a lot when I use the magazine. If I single load each round with the bulge at the same possition I will get small groups as little 1 1/4 ".  (3 shot) Hope to get some pictures up.  

Easy one!

Your are probably resizing the case rather too much in the first instance. When I designed the dies I put in an allowance so that the as the case work hardens with use you can just put a bit more reduction into the die and keep using the brass. This is one of the penanties of the larger case. The bigger diameter of the brass has proportionally more spring as it hardens. Try setting the die so that it gives a finished mouth diameter of 0.520/0.521

The next thing is to use plenty of case flair. This helps square up the bullet as it enters the case and stops the heal of the bullet pulling across to one side. If you are having problems with the flair die and it sticks if you push it all the way down, use either Dillon case lube or Hornady one shot case lube. These can be left on the brass as neither effect the primer function after loading, but use both sparingly as powder does stick to the case if too much is used and the mess is quite incredible.

Once you have set the sizing die and flair die, load one round to check that the bullet seats squarely and that there is adequate neck tension before you proceed with the rest of a batch. You will need to make slight adjustments as your brass gets older.

The final trick is if you have loaded rounds with bulges and you really do not want to strip it all down; but proceed with caution or the result will be very inacurate ammo. If you remove the decapping rod from the sizing die it can be applied as a uniforming die to square up the front of the loaded case. This works in a similar way to the dies from Redding which they make for the 45-70 target loads. Use a good lube, work a little at a time until the rounds chamber and remember to wipe the lube off as soon as you are finished.

Bill Alexander

Quoted: Easy one! Your are probably resizing the case rather too much in the first instance. When I designed the dies I put in an allowance so that the as the case work hardens with use you can just put a bit more reduction into the die and keep using the brass. This is one of the penanties of the larger case. The bigger diameter of the brass has proportionally more spring as it hardens. Try setting the die so that it gives a finished mouth diameter of 0.520/0.521 The next thing is to use plenty of case flair. This helps square up the bullet as it enters the case and stops the heal of the bullet pulling across to one side. If you are having problems with the flair die and it sticks if you push it all the way down, use either Dillon case lube or Hornady one shot case lube. These can be left on the brass as neither effect the primer function after loading, but use both sparingly as powder does stick to the case if too much is used and the mess is quite incredible. Once you have set the sizing die and flair die, load one round to check that the bullet seats squarely and that there is adequate neck tension before you proceed with the rest of a batch. You will need to make slight adjustments as your brass gets older. The final trick is if you have loaded rounds with bulges and you really do not want to strip it all down; but proceed with caution or the result will be very inacurate ammo. If you remove the decapping rod from the sizing die it can be applied as a uniforming die to square up the front of the loaded case. This works in a similar way to the dies from Redding which they make for the 45-70 target loads. Use a good lube, work a little at a time until the rounds chamber and remember to wipe the lube off as soon as you are finished. Bill Alexander

Ok! Thanks for the info. I guess you are the man that should know. I tried the trick with the loaded rounds that I have now. I use the resizing die just as you said and it work wonders. But this was happening with virgin brass that I bought from Midway and Competition Gun Works. I notice it got worse when I used once fired brass. I'm useing Lee dies and they are the only one that make dies for the Beo. as you know. I have no adjustment for how much I can resize the brass. Are you saying not to full length resize the brass like they do sometimes with bottle neck rifle brass?

Another question for you if you don't mind. I have both the 16" and the 24" uppers and I want to put a FF Handguard on them. How hard is it to get the factory brake off the barrel is it possible? I've read threads on this web site that it is very dificult to remove. And the FF Handguard that is on the 24", is it held on with Lock tite? Is the handguard a one piece or a standard 2 piece with the barrel nut seperate. I'm thinking of have the the brake machined off and theaded as a last resort so I will have many options with  different FF Handguards on both the 16" and 24".


Thank You Very Much! Bill Alexander.

A related question about sizing dies:

 I have a Dillon RL550 reloader, and ordered a set of dies from them. They don't have the Lee dies for the beowulf, so they pieced together a set using RCBS parts, including a .50 AE sizing/depriming die. Now looking at the spec for the .50AE, it looks like the case is over 0.010 larger in its outside diameter at the mouth compared to the Beowulf. This isn't acceptable, is it?

1

I have recently purchased all of my loading supplies for the Beowulf....including a set of Lee Dies. The instructions that come with the Lee Dies state that Speer does not suggest that Speer ammo be used with some Lee Dies....I am not sure why this is, maybe Bill Alexander would know. I opted to go with the Sierra 350 grain bullets based on that statement from Speer. I am not sure if this is the problem you are encountering, but thought I would pass it on.

Quoted: A related question about sizing dies:  I have a Dillon RL550 reloader, and ordered a set of dies from them. They don't have the Lee dies for the beowulf, so they pieced together a set using RCBS parts, including a .50 AE sizing/depriming die. Now looking at the spec for the .50AE, it looks like the case is over 0.010 larger in its outside diameter at the mouth compared to the Beowulf. This isn't acceptable, is it?

 I have AE dies and I'm going to resize my brass with these dies. If you read the thread from Bill Alexander above you will see that he designed the Lee sizing a little smaller. Thats's where I'm having trouble. the case mouth is too small and the bullets will not seat evenly. If your finished round chamber without any trouble it sould be alright. Everything else is the same. Bullet diameter case diameter.

Ref dies

The adjustment of the Beowulf dies is very simple and very flexible. To reduce the amount of sizing that occurs, you simply screw the die out a little. The Beowulf case is essentially tapered from 0.540" at the base to 0.525" at the case mouth of a loaded round. As you unscrew the die you are forcing the unsized brass less far into the inner taper so it sizes less. Essentially the whole inner surface of the die squeezes the brass and it is this that precludes the production of carbide dies as there is simply not enough material in the threaded OD to support the carbide interior.

The 50 AE dies are likely to cause a whole bunch of problems. In this die the taper runs from 0.543" to 0.529" but it does so within 1.28" rather than 1.65" so the taper angle that you will create with these dies is wrong and you will not be able to size down the bottom of the case. Bit like sizing a 357 mag with a set of 9mm dies.

Zapp if you can get me the name of the rep at Dillon who sold you the RCBS dies I will ring them and explain carefully to him that he is an idiot. If they keep pushing out RCBS 50 AE sets I will have jammed guns all over the US

I will check out the info concerning Speer but I do not know what the problem might be. The dies are designed to work with the Speer 325 unicor and 300 GD bullets so I am assuming this is just marketing. We pull sample dies as they come in and we usually test with the Speer bullets, no problems so far.

Finally the muzzle brake is not designed to be removed once installed and takes an average tensile of 12,000 lbs to pull it off. If you really must remove it the best route is to machine it off but you should be able to do this without shortening the barrel. When threading the barrel always remember that you have a 0.501" diameter hole in the middle and that the most important part of the thread is how much metal is left between the thread root and the bore, not the nominal thread diameter or the pitch diameter. I use 49/64-20 but 3/4-28 is also applicable.

I have loaded the speer 325gr HP with no problems and get excellent performance , and all I use is the lee dies . Hope this helps .

Edited to say---I load them the same as I do the Rainier 335gr HP's which I use the most because they are cheaper and I get about the same performance 1"-11/2" at 100yd .