Question about sizing

[dbarnhart]

WARNING: NEWBIE ALERT!!!!

I am creeping ever closer to casting my own bullets and you are all to blame for this sickness ;-)

I bought a used Lee ProductionPot 4 and a few other miscellaneous items from a guy locally for the princely sum of $16. I've got fifty pounds of lead ingots on the way. I'll start with the Lee .452 230gr two-cavity mold.

My question is about sizing the boolits. Up to this point, I've been reloading with .451 FMJRN bullets. As I look at the Lee lube/sizing kits, I see one that is .451 and one that is .452. WHich should I get? If .452 is OK then do I need to size them at all?

(I read 'From Ingot to Target' but it didn't offer much advice on this topic)

[bigjason6]

Hey there, I had the same question on sizing when I started casting a few months ago. I cast for .40s&w and my mold was dropping boolits at around .402 and .403. I figured what difference could a couple thousandths make? So I loaded up a few rounds and tried to chamber them and the slide wouldn't go into battery... Soooo, I got one of the lee sizing dies and size all my boolets to .401. Hope this helps!

[runfiverun]

thats exactly what i would do, see what the mold gives you first.
you are casting for your guns, see what works, or don't then make a correction.
the way molds have been going lately for me i need an upsizer.

[Old Caster]

Once in a great while you will run into a gun that won't feed .452 bullets. The old Kart match barrels made in the 60's often wouldn't feed a .452 but unless the bullets are pretty hard the case will size them to .451 anyway. The best bet is to just try a few and see how they work. If you have a bullet puller and caliper pull one to see what it measures after it is pulled from the brass.

[Blammer]

I'd get the .452 sizer and go for it.

I'll have to beg to differ, but the case will not size the boolit to .451 unless you have a really small sizing die for your brass. (unlikely) I've pulled several of my 45's and they come out at the size I put them in at.

If your boolits come out smaller I'd suspect the "crimping" stage to be the culprit.

[Old Caster]

It would be interesting if a bunch of people would try it and let us know whether they are swaged down with the case or not. A commercial bullet which is usually about 18 BHN or so will not but even jacketed hardball bullets will see this effect and without even measuring, it is obvious that they have been sized down. A typical swaged or cast bullet in the 10 BHN range will also show swaging down. Everyone , let us know what you find and then report.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

It's a nice thought about never sizing boolits.
I guess its OK for plinkers, But I like uniformity (all boolits being the same size).
it makes reloading easier (no shaving the boolit)
and I believe it contributes to better accuracy.
Jon

[mdi]

It would be interesting if a bunch of people would try it and let us know whether they are swaged down with the case or not. A commercial bullet which is usually about 18 BHN or so will not but even jacketed hardball bullets will see this effect and without even measuring, it is obvious that they have been sized down. A typical swaged or cast bullet in the 10 BHN range will also show swaging down. Everyone , let us know what you find and then report.
FWIW...
I've done it. Lyman 225 gr. RN cast from wheel weight alloy, from mold .452" - .453", sized to .451", pan lubed with Speed Green, running about 12 BHN with my Lee hardness tester. Lee 45 ACP dies (NO FCD), RCBS taper crimp die, (just enough to remove flare), mixed brass. Loaded on Lee turret. Bullets pulled with a hammer type puller; majority of pulled bullets .451", some .4515", none smaller that I recall...

[captaint]

My boolits are 50/50 Pb & WW. They usually come in around 9 or 10 BHN. I size them to .452 and after pulling some, they're still .452. Works for me. enjoy Mike

[Maven]

[QUOTE=dbarnhart;1496277]WARNING: NEWBIE ALERT!!!!

My question is about sizing the boolits. Up to this point, I've been reloading with .451 FMJRN bullets. As I look at the Lee lube/sizing kits, I see one that is .451 and one that is .452. WHich should I get? If .452 is OK then do I need to size them at all?

Slug your barrel before you purchase any sizer. That way you'll know for sure which diameter your gun needs, even it is larger than .452". If the latter, you can easily lap out a sizer die by .001" or .002". Here's how: http://www.castpics.net/subsite2/HowTo/How%20to%20Hone%20a%20Size%20Die.pdf