Work around for hard cast bullets to size

[milprileb]

There is a thread stating the sooner you size post casting the bullets, the easier to size they are.

Well, I Blitz and go 4 days x 10 hrs a day and punch out a six month supply of 9mm and 45ACP. At end of those days, I am not ready to sit and work my Lyman 450 all night long ! Its slow .

Of course, a week later the bullets are super hard and I am struggling with 450 to size them.

Today I decided to take the bullets, Lee Liq. Allox them first and then run these hard bullets thru my Lyman 450. What a difference and pretty effortless !

The Lyman is slower to use for sizing than the Lee in my Rock Chucker press but there are time when I want stick lube on the bullets. By lubing the bullets with LL Alox first, I can size easily in my 450 and lube with stick lube for final production.

Anyhow; thats the work around that works for me. Trying to size and lube these hard bullets without the LLA is pretty slow and tedious and I break / shear toggle pins.

[deltaenterprizes]

Spray furniture polish with silicone like Pledge works great also

[Blammer]

sounds like time for a STAR. :)

[jmsj]

milprileb,
If I get into a spot like that I spray them lightly w/ WD40. Seems to help out a lot and might not be as messy and cheaper than LLA. Just a thought.
jmsj

[RobS]

sounds like time for a STAR. :)

A Star doesn't like a tough to size boolit any more or less than a Lyman 450 or whatever you have it; unless you mean to size with the Lee push through first and then come back with the speed of the Star then you got something there Blammer.

[Johnch]

One of the cans of spray cooking oil liberateded from the kitchen ( no clue where it went LOL)
Canola oil in a pump sprayer
Or one of the spray case sizing lubes

Or a lot of other spray lubes

Just need to make sizing easyer

John

[Von Gruff]

Would you still get adhesian of the stick lube in the 450 after spraying with oil?
I can see the lube sticking to and staying on the LLA lubed boolit but how does the kitchen oil and similar work. Are you relying on the stick lube being stiff enough to hold onto itself round the GG.

Von Gruff.

[noylj]

Exactly how over-sized are your cast bullets?
Do you know how hard the are after casting, just before sizing, and after sizing?
Do you actually NEED them to be so hard or are they simply so over-sized that you are working an excess amount of lead?
I find molds that cast no more than 0.004" over groove diameter and don't even worry about sizing any more. Been strictly tumble lubing for almost a decade.
Back in the '80s, there were many articles about uneven swaging and loss of accuracy if bullets were swaged more than 0.002". Thus, I started sorting and selling molds by the as-cast diameter.
I then stared trying as-cast 'cause the RCBS lubrisizer was just a pain for me to use. Found that groups were as good or better. Started pain lubing. With LLA, I started tumble lubing.
I just wish that every time I read about someone spending time and money sizing bullets that they could show the data that the sizing was improving their rounds' performance.

[runfiverun]

i'd like to see where it hurts beyond a couple of thou.
i just spray mine with nothing unless they are badly oversized then a mix of lanolin and isopropyl alcohol works just as good as it works for swaging.

[bhn22]

Dillon case lube. Put the bullets in a plastic bag & give them a single squirt of Dillon case lube. Knead them around in the bag a little, then set them out so the alcohol evaporates, then lube & size. Wipe the noses off when you are done. In all honesty, this is exactly the same as runfiveruns post. I just said it differently. Other possibilities include Hornady One Shot case lube, & Remington "Drilube". I suppose you could also dilute LEE case lube in water & use it. It would just take a while to dry before you could use it.

[Down South]

Run a sized and lubed boolit back through when it starts getting tough. Life gets a lot easier.

[RobS]

Run a sized and lubed boolit back through when it starts getting tough. Life gets a lot easier.

Yep, this is the route I go when using the Lee push through to size down boolits. One lubed/sized boolit to 15 or 20 dry ones.

[Bret4207]

i'd like to see where it hurts beyond a couple of thou.


Any sizing can hurt if things aren't aligned. I've always considered sizing to present at least the opportunity for me to damage the boolit, and I've damaged a lot of them. If I were to get into sizing heavily I;d be real careful bout it. It can certainly be done.

[milprileb]

My bullets are 22BNH. However I got 3K of them now so I want to use them. Sizing them long after casting was a bear. Yes, if I could find lead, I would alloy them softer and am looking for source. Right now Wheel Wts are my metal for casting.

That said: I will not water quench next casting session.

I am getting zero leading and great accuracy. I do believe .451 sizing is not optimum for my pistols and .452 is a bit better for accuracy results.

I got no leading using stick lubes and no leading using Lee Liq. Allox. This being on regular bullets , not Tumble Lube design.

Star ? Maybe some day !!! I like the idea of nose first thru sizing dies. I can size faster on the Lee sizing system than on my Lyman 450.

[BABore]

Size your boolits in a Lee type, nose first push-through die in your reloading press. It has alot more mechanical advantage. Lube them whenever in a slightly oversized die.

[runfiverun]

it also gives you the opportunity to square up an out of round boolit.
providing better more even neck tension.
i can see where pushing something down by the noose then up again could damage an unsupported nose or bend a long boolit.
when i do a long bore riding boolit through the star it's one at a time and i push the first boolit all the way through before doing the next.