Are .454 Casull and .45 Colt dies interchangable?

[SIRVEYR666]

I know that .38 SPL and .357 MAG are. So are .44 MAG and .44 SPL. Can I load .454 Casull and .45 Colt with the same die? Lee makes both of them. Is it just a marketing ploy?

A friend of mine asked me to reload both for him. He's tired of paying $38 per 20! He's going to buy all of the stuff, I'm just gonna pull the lever. I only want him to buy one set of dies, if that is all that is needed.

Thanks.

 

[cobra1414]

I load both with a LEE set for 454.

 

[ClarkEMyers]

Pretty much but it's not just a marketing ploy.

Pretty much but it's not just a marketing ploy.

Doesn't much matter with straight cases but often dies are made to contact the shell holder so as to square things up. It's a good idea not to bump a carbide ring with the shell holder anyway. Folks have sold a shim sized to allow adjusting dies for the shorter cartridge without the shim then screwing the dies down on the shim for space and alignment with the longer cartridge.

You might consider a joint carbide sizing die and a dedicated seating die and a dedicated crimping die for each cartridge to keep the settings - that is to avoid having to adjust seating depth and crimping shoulder for each cartridge change.

 

[GooseGestapo]

You can load the .454 with .45colt dies. (For that matter, I use .45acp dies to load my .45colt. Does require using a different shell holder though).

However, if you get a set of dedicated .454 dies, you may not be able to crimp the cases as the .454casull is a bit longer than the .45colt.
In the case of the Lee dies, they are labeled .45Colt/.454Casull which means they are really .45Colt dies, but the .454 is dimensionally identical except for length of case and slight differences internally in the web section of the case head.

Same situation with .38spl and .357mag, .40s&w and 10mm auto's.
My Lee .40/10mm dies are labeled/stamped as such also.

I also use my 9mm dies to load 9x21 and .356TSW.
Ditto the .38Super for 9x23.

You can use the shorter dies to load the longer cases. But you won't be able to crimp the loaded ammo with the seating/crimp die for the longer load.

You can even load .45/90, .45/110, and .45/120 rifle cartridges with the .45/70 dies.

 

[SIRVEYR666]

Thank you to all that replied. I think I'll try the .454 Lee Carbide set for now. If it works for the .45 Colt's, cool, if not, I'll buy the .45 Colt seating and FC crimp die's next. In theory, I should be able to load the shorter cartridges with the longer die, I'll just need to screw the die in pretty far, right?

Does the .454 need a big crimp? I'm assuming that it would, due to the nasty recoil of the cartridge.

 

[ClarkEMyers]

You can't crimp a loose bullet tight -

You can't crimp a loose bullet tight - sure the cartridge needs a good crimp both for the recoil and for the slower burning powders generally used. Just the same the load starts with a bullet that is a good tight fit in the resized case.

 

[cheygriz]

I load both with my Redding dies. No problems.