309 160gr help

[beex215]

i placed one inside the front end of a 308 barrel [nose first]. i can twist it around all day and the rifling doesnt touch the nose or the body. i cant push it all the way through, it is still held back by the ring grooves though. the lube ring area. does the rifling engage the grooves only? or is something wrong?

[DragoonDrake]

Which mold is the one in question.

[beex215]

this one

Lee 2-Cavity Bullet Mold C309-160-1R 30 Caliber (309 Diameter) 160 Grain 1 Ogive Radius Gas Check

[excess650]

I think it too small for your barrel. My preference would be for the nose of the bullet to be at least snug on the lands at the muzzle and the driving bands should be snug in the throat.

[462]

Have you slugged the barrel and/or throat and measured the slug/slugs with a micrometer?

[Bret4207]

It sounds like it's a bit small, in fact it sounds grossly small, or your barrel is kinda fat. Either way, yes, the nose (if a bore rider) should be snug on the lands. That's to align and support the nose. The body of the boolit (your "ring grooves") should be +.001 or +.002 LARGER than the barrel groove. IOW, if you barrel mics .300/,308 ( a so called perfect 30 cal barrel) then the nose should be right around .300 or a smidge larger and the body of the boolit at .309, .310 or a even a little larger. You can always size down, but adding diameter is a bear!

[beex215]

my barrel is not slugged and i just ran about 150 rounds of this stuff i just loaded. its not that bad for the first 100 or so. it was still spot on but accuracy started to open up and when i checked the barrel, lead started to build. i guess i need a new mold.

[Bret4207]

Using an alloy with more antimony in it will give you a larger boolit. I don't know if it would fix your issue, but if you have access to an antimony rich alloy (magnum shot for instance) you could try a batch.

Another option, if you have a Lyman/RCBS/SAECO sizer, is too "bump" the boolit. Basically you apply extra pressure to the boolit when it's in the sizer die. You can fix the pressure with shim to lock the height on your ram. You have to be careful with this as you can break the sizer if you lean on the handle too hard. Don't try this with a Lyman 45 or earlier model. The nose will usually swell with just a bit of pressure. Again, might not fix your issue, but worth a try.

[XWrench3]

unfortunately, many of the molds (that i get anyways) that Lee Precision makes, are not precisely made. most drop boolits that are to small. Lee has this thing about wanting to make boolits that do not need to be sized. they want to drop them, and shoot them with a little L.L.A. lube. well, if the boolit actually fits, you might be able to do that. but when the boolit is to small, you just end up with lead smeared all over the barrel. apparently, Mr. Lee does not understand that. i wrote the company about this, and their employees get it, but as they put it, "we don't sign the paychecks". so it has to be a problem that Mr. Lee has. try beagleing the mold. if that does not help, you will have to lap it until you get boolits of the correct diameter. most of my molds are beagled.