lyman 4500 binding sometimes when sizing

[Spawn-Inc]

i've had my lyman 4500 for a few months and done about 1000 various cast boolits with great success. but every once in a while when i have sized the bullet (pulled the handle down) it binds on the way up. it seems to happen when the bottom of the bullet is very sharp or has a very slight skirt on it from a loose sprue plate.

i suspect its part of that skirt/sharp edge that is binding in the lube holes and searing off when pull up. i just ordered some new molds from titan reloading, one of them being a 158gr 38/357 SWC gas check. so that sort of throws off my theory.

is there something i can do outside of being more stringent on my screening of acceptable bullets?

EDIT: not sure if it matters, but i'm using ben's red for lube.

[bruce381]

boolits are maybe more than a few thousands larger than the size die you are using.

Messure or slug the barrel bore and see if you are not sizing them down to small.

When i started i sized my 357 to .357 and had terrible leading from being undersized then when i went to a .358 die the leading stopped and the pressure it took to size them also went down.

[Spawn-Inc]

boolits are maybe more than a few thousands larger than the size die you are using.

Messure or slug the barrel bore and see if you are not sizing them down to small.

When i started i sized my 357 to .357 and had terrible leading from being undersized then when i went to a .358 die the leading stopped and the pressure it took to size them also went down.

yup, i try for 2 thou over. the lee is casting at .360 and i am sizing to .358 for the mag and 38 spl. fo my 45acp they cast to .454 and i size to .452, 9mm i size to .357 and 500 mag i size from 503 to .501.

[jethunter]

I have the same thing happen with my lyman 4500 using a .309" bullet die. It would stick bad to the point i thought i was going to break the linkage lifting out the bullet. I would have to wiggle the handle up and down until it came free. It felt like steel-on-steel, not steel-on-lead. Finally I got it stuck and couldn't work it loose so had to remove the die with a bullet stuck in it and pound the bullet out the bottom.

That die had a very sharp edge on the push rod (i don't know the right name for it) that slides inside the die bore. I think that edge was hanging up on the die lube holes because when i put a tiny radius on the rod leading edge the sticking went away.

[Spawn-Inc]

I have the same thing happen with my lyman 4500 using a .309" bullet die. It would stick bad to the point i thought i was going to break the linkage lifting out the bullet. I would have to wiggle the handle up and down until it came free. It felt like steel-on-steel, not steel-on-lead. Finally I got it stuck and couldn't work it loose so had to remove the die with a bullet stuck in it and pound the bullet out the bottom.

That die had a very sharp edge on the push rod (i don't know the right name for it) that slides inside the die bore. I think that edge was hanging up on the die lube holes because when i put a tiny radius on the rod leading edge the sticking went away.

Good point, hopefully my hammering it didn't mess it up :/