Crooked sizing?

[fatelvis]

I just bought a new Lee .45 225 grn. RN muold, and poured some prety nice looking bullets with it. From the mould, they measure .4525-.453, and I sized/lubed them to .452". I noticed every one looks fine 3/4 of the way around, but then the bright, sizing mark dips down lower than the rest of the circumference. What could be the cause of this? Mould problem, tipping in the sizing die, etc.?

[gray wolf]

i noticed in the pic. that the seem looks wider on the bullet as you look down from the nose. are the bullets casting ok? it looks like the mold wasn't closed all the way. i saw this when i enlarged the pic. could have just been me.
The spot ware the two halves meet at the first driving band.

[Buckshot]

..............Were you using a Lyman or RCBS lube-sizer? Sometimes short boolits can just be problematic in getting them started straight in the taper of the lube/size die. However, the reason I ask about the lube-sizer is that over time, and especially in a garage environment, the ram can wear it's bore in the press body casting over time.

To check for this, if you have a 45 cal die in place, put a nose punch for a 45 boolit in the ram. Any caliber will work but you have a 45 cal slug so ................. With no boolit in place, lower the ram until the nose punch is pretty close to the mouth of the die. Now move the lever slightly up and down. We don't want the ram to actually go up and down. What we're after is to apply alternating slight up and down pressure on the ram.

If the casting is worn you will see the nose punch move back and forth from 12 to 6 o'clock across the mouth of the die. With 12 o'clock being away from you and 6 toward you.

If you find this is the case, check here for a remedy:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=945

.................Buckshot

[beagle]

If you're using one of the old style Lyman/Ideal sizers without the tapered entrance to the sizer they turn out that was sometimes as well./beagle

[fatelvis]

I'm using an almost new RCBS sizer. But I will still try your "wear test". Thanks-

[Pepe Ray]

Don't mean to be adversarial but, I ran into a very similar problem and found out it didn't have any thing to do w/sizing. I was making the boolets too large by the way I was using the mold. They came out ,"out of round". Before I reveal my ignorance, have you checked the size and roundness or your boolets?
Pepe Ray

[AZ-Stew]

From the photo, it looks like the bullet isn't quite round to begin with. I see lube running over the middle driving band on the far left, next to that there seems to be an offset where the mould halves come together, and farthere to the right it seems that the driving band and base band are not consistent in width, indicating that the mould may not have been completely filled. In addition, the top band doesn't seem to be the same thickness all the way around. To me, that detail is the biggest indication that the bullet may not have entered the sizing die coaxially.

The bullet doesn't look all that bad. The imperfections are minor. I'd shoot a box or so of them and see how they work. If you're satisfied with the accuracy and you don't get any leading from gas blow-by at the low spots, just keep doin' what-cher doin'. All that stuff will be inside the case where no one can see it. All they'll be able to see is the holes in the target.

Regards,

Stew