Question on lubrisizer, rcbs size die and lee bullets

[mugsie]

I cast a batch of lee 9mm bullets the other day. They cast around 129g and have the single lube band. I'm trying to size them and lube with a Lyman lubrisizer. Since no one had the 356 size die from Lyman, I purchased the rcbs one.

When I size the bullet, it looks as though the top punch doesn't push it far enough down to reach the lube groove. The rcbs size die has one hole whereas the Lyman had two holes of different heights.

Anyone use the combination I'm using? Did you get the bullet to seat deep enough to get lube in the groove? If so, how'd you do it?

Thanks for the help.

[Alley Cat]

I'm not familiar with the Lyman sizer but I seem to think the top punch is secured with a set screw. Any chance you could lower the top punch down and re-secure the set screw? This might give you more travel before the arm bottoms out.

[Chicken Thief]

At the bottom there is a threaded tube with a securing nut.
That tube determins the stroke length, ie how far down the boolit goes.
Adjust that and you will be pushing them pills all the way down to the lube.

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm153/Chickenthief/Skydning/Til%20andre/R0011359_zpsc9cd891c.jpg
http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/mm153/Chickenthief/Skydning/Til%20andre/R0011360_zps733a49e8.jpg

[detox]

You may be going too deep with the boollit. Adjust stem from top downward until you get good fill without excess lube below and above bullet. Although I am not familiar with the Lyman sizer, i use RCBS sizers.

[Chicken Thief]

You may be going too deep with the boollit. Adjust stem from top downward until you get good fill without excess lube below and above bullet. Although I am not familiar with the Lyman sizer, i use RCBS sizers.

Please eksplain!
How can the man go to deep and not get any grease on the boolit?

My pics are of an actual Lyman sizer and i have actual knowledge from usage of said sizer.

[Pilgrim]

I've got one of each set up on my bench and use Lyman and RCBS sizer dies interchangeably. They are nearly identical mechanically. You can't push the boolit below the lube holes w/o getting some lube on the boolit. The only exception is if you don't put enuf pressure on the lube reservoir. Why do I have 2 of 'em? One is set up for handguns using NRA 50/50, the other is set up for rifles using LBT blue with a heater. Adjust the stop setting with the screw and nut below the body of the sizer. The photos above show them quite nicely.

[mugsie]

What I meant to say say was the top punch seems to bottom out on the sizer die before the bullet lube grove reaches down to the holes in the die to allow the wax to fill it. I've cast and lubed tens of thousands of bullets of various calibers using this combination of Lyman and RCBS, but this is the first time I've ever tried 9mm. Since there were none available locally, I thought I'd cast some since I had the Lee 6 banger for the 124g 9mm bullet, but had never used it before. I ordered a different top punch, which should be here tomorrow, then I'll try that. Failing that, I'll place some aluminum foil in the top punch cavity trying to get it to push the bullet lower.

The Lyman sizer dies have two sets of holes, one above the other. The RCBS dies only have one set of holes, which may be too low for this bullet configuration. I'll know more tomorrow when the punch shows up. Hell, for some bullets, I just use a bolt head and a small bit of shaft - I may have to resort to some sort of kluge for this if the top punch fails to work properly. They're only target practice anyway, just for trigger time, so the accuracy doesn't matter all that much, but of course I would like to see them all in the same hole - which never happens!

[TheDoctor]

I have had an issue sizing 40's. Using the top punch the chart shows fits the nose profile, the punch was too large to fit into the drove myself nuts trying to figure if something was wrong with the lubra sizer, or the lube needed more heat. So, in the end, a different top punch solved the problem.

[44man]

The nose punch might be for the wrong caliber. It should enter the die without a boolit in the way.

[DLCTEX]

+ 1 on using proper punch. If it won't enter the die it is too large. Boolits that have a long nose may be sized with the wrong caliber punchas long as the bands are sized.

[mugsie]

Yup, new top punch fixed the problem. Now if I could only find some primers......

[fcvan]

Wow, sizing to .356 sounds like it might be to small for cast in a 9mm. When I started, I used the Lee 356-125 2R and a Lee old style push through die at .356 diameter. They were too small for my S&W 459 so I started pan lubing and shooting as cast. Poof, no leading. When I bought my Lyman 450 I bought a .358 sizer die and things went great. A couple years ago, I bought a .357 sizer die to see if the 9mm weapons I have would shoot a slightly smaller boolit. Major key holing at 15 feet. I went back to sizing a .358 and traded off the .357 die.

As far as the right nose punch, I think there is a chart for the correct Lyman punch for Lee boolits. The punch I had was the wrong ogive so it made a ring indent on the top of the boolit. I ended up reaming the punch to eliminate the ring. Lately, I have been using a flat punch which in essence turns the boolit into a RF with a smallish meplat and I kind of like it.

[mugsie]

O --- M --- G ---!
Shot these last night - they are the most accurate bullets I have ever shot. Amazing and zero leading too - can't complain about that.
124g (drops at 130g) sized to .356 over 4.4g of Unique, COL 1.128 Very pleased. Whooppee!