Good deal on sizing kit?

[armoredman]

http://www.leeprecision.com/cgi/catalog/browse.cgi?1181318847.962=/html/catalog/lubesize.html
Lee says the alox is so good I don't need to size? Huh?:confused:
Thank you.

[tommag]

You'll need an expanding die like the lee unit pictured just below the sizing kit, as well. I've never used the lee sizer, but lots of folks here have. They don't come with the press, so you'll need to hook it up to your press.

[armoredman]

Th regular expander with the die set isn't wide enough?

[STP]

Standard sizing dies are designed for use with J-word bullets. After sizing, the case necks will need to be flared a bit to ease the entry of the cast boolit so as to not damage it.
The Lee and the Lyman expander die will open (flare) the mouth of the case and make boolit seating much easier. The Lee tapers only, due to it`s triangular shape. The Lyman has a short straight section that you can "feel" as you run the case upwards. The die must be adjusted downward in small steps until you can see and feel the die flare the mouth of the case.
I prefer the Lyman M-die because it opens the case diameter the full depth of the boolit and then flares the mouth. This tends to stop any unecessary squeezing of the carefully sized boolit as it is seated into the case, especially if your sizing .358, .359, or .360 diameter.

[38-55]

Hey armoredman,
Hey iff'n your just starting out all you need is LLA and your bullets. Lube em' let dry, shove em in the case and bang away. As long as the bullet is 'close enough' it will size to the bore when the big light hit's it in the rear. Iff'n your the one that just got that lee .358 mould,,,, well that was my first 'real' mould and I started as a kid using a cut off beer can and pair of pliers and a spoon. Cooked the WW's down in the wood stove and poured many of that very bullet. Pan lubed them with one of lee's old pan lubing kits.... This is a great hobby that you can make as technical as you want or you can keep it pretty darned simple... With that said I'd recommend getting a lee .358 sizer with LLA and don't look back...
Hope this helps and if you need anything else just PM me
Calvin

[versifier]

To answer your question, the expander in a pistol die set is usually fine for cast or jacketed. If you really need .360 or larger, STP has the right of it, but most of us don't need to go that big. I load for six different S&W's in .38spec and .357mag and they all do fine at .358 as long as I don't feed them anything harder than ww's. The Universal Expander is for rifle cases - rifle die sets don't include expanding dies as the pistol dies do, which makes sense as most people load jacketed bullets and don't need them. We, on the other hand, need to expand rifle cases before seating oversized boolits that run a few thousandths over bore size.

As to slugging, take two of your cast boolits, set them upright on a solid surface, and whack them with a hammer. This "bumps up" the diameter. Now you have two slugs. Remove the cylinder (one screw) in your S&W, set it on two wood blocks so that there is a gap between them you can drive the slug through. Lube the slug well with oil or resizing lube. With a wooden dowel drive the bumped-up slug through from back to front. You will get a better reading measuring the slug than you will trying to measure the cylinder itself. Then you can do the same thing with the barrel from the muzzle. If the forcing cone seems to be much tighter than the barrel, you may need to drive the slug back out to measure the bore and use a thire slug to find the difference between bore and forcing cone.

Is it a hassle? Kind of. Is it really necessary? Yes, as it may easily save you thousands of rounds and hours of work. Why? If the forcing cone or the throat measurements are much smaller than the groove diameter, you're going to have a heck of a time getting it to shoot well, and it's better to know right off and take the proper steps to see if it can be overcome. Otherwise, you could go through a dozen different powders and as many different boolits, getting more and more frustrated as you go, and never knowing why.

Of course, you can do it the hard way - by trial and error as you suggest. You may get lucky and come up with some decent loads, and then again you may not.....

[armoredman]

Thanks again! I'll try that.

[Newtire]

Th regular expander with the die set isn't wide enough?

If you are using a Lee die set & it's a pistol die, it comes with a "powder-thru-expander" die that's plenty wide enough to expand the case mouth with no other expansion necessary. If not, you may have to shove a tapered pin in there to expand the mouth to take the boolit without shaving lead. A pair of needle nose pliers or anything similarly tapered works just as well. The Lee push-thru sizers are great. Just have fun & play around until you get the right size boolits that fit your gun. Keep asking questions here & how can you miss?

[armoredman]

Got that right! Actually, I do use Lee dies - love that FCD!
Well, when I get $ again, I'll see about aquiring some more items, like a casting pot and lead.