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War Eagle
01-12-2014, 11:14 AM
Slugging my Redhawk shows that my cylinder throats are right at .433". Unless I have overlooked something somewhere, Saeco, RCBS, and Lyman only go as large as .431". Does anyone have a line on custom dies in the .432" or .433" range?

I would prefer to stay with Saeco so I don't have to invest in another luber setup.

tonyjones
01-12-2014, 11:25 PM
Member lathesmith will make custom Saeco dies.

Tony

shuckinthecorn
01-13-2014, 10:54 AM
.001 under the cylinder throat size is about right for the bullet diameter.
I think the common practice is to slug the barrel, then match the bullet to that.
What kills you, is when the cylinder is too small and it squeezes the bullet down on the way out.

Wayne Smith
01-13-2014, 12:06 PM
In a rifle slug the barrel. In a revolver slug the cylinder throat and the barrel.

shuckinthecorn
01-13-2014, 01:25 PM
I have a set of pin gauges that I check my cylinder throats with, but slug the barrels.

War Eagle
01-13-2014, 02:27 PM
Barrel slugs right at .429". Cylinder throats are .432-.433 as mentioned in my OP. I intend on running some 44-250K's sized at .431" just because that is what I have on hand. If accuracy isn't there though I am going to tumble lube some "as cast" and see if the larger diameter works. If it does, I will want to pick up a larger die for sizing...especially since my boolits drop at .433".

Iron Mike Golf
01-20-2014, 01:20 PM
War Eagle, I've talked with lathesmith about custom SAECO dies. He doesn't do them all that often and I guess there's a bit of work setting things up. He told me he'd do a run of 6. There's probably 2 I really want/need to have.

Economically, I might be better off snagging a used Lyman or RCBS lube-sizer.

In the meantime, I honed a couple of SAECO dies with emery cloth and silicon carbide paper. The issue I have is with lube leaking past the now too-small ejector pin.

PM inbound

War Eagle
01-30-2014, 12:05 AM
Thanks Jeff. I got your message and returned one. Hope you got it, I am still trying to figure this Tapatalk thing out.

Gonna bring this back up. The typically suggested guys are too busy or not doing a Saeco run right now. Any othe helpful fabricators you can think of?

GabbyM
01-30-2014, 10:00 AM
First off a .431" bullet in a .432" throat isn't to bad a fit. I'd just buy a .431" die and see what you get. May get lucky and have a bullet a couple tenths over nominal and be perfect. You're supposed to be able to push a bullet into the throat with finger pressure. You need about .0010" clearance to do that. a .432" bullet in a .432" bore will take a press to push it in. aka press fit.

I've Lyman dies running honed out more than .001" with no issues. You'd only be looking at a few tenths and then only if your die turns out to be a little under nominal. You can always have over sized pin made. Buffalo Arms makes custom sized Saeco dies for $62.

I just roll bullets in lapping compound and push them through. However I have ran into a couple dies that were to hard to lap. Never done a Saeco but I'll guess they are hard.

War Eagle
01-30-2014, 12:59 PM
My problem is the couple of throats that measure over .432" (I edited my OP to reflect). I have three throats that slug .433" or maybe just a hair over. I have a .431" die and boolits sized so just fall right through. I have even given up on a Lee 310gr mold because it won't cast over .430" and most are .429" (probably just need to send this one back to Lee). I just can't get the accuracy I want with that boolit and I am pretty sure it is the cast size vs my throat size at the heart of the issue.

I appreciate the tip on Buffalo Arms. I am definitely going to check them out!

War Eagle
01-30-2014, 01:18 PM
And YES! Saeco dies are harder than woodpecker lips. I tried lapping out a .4515" die once and after hours of compounds and sandpapers I had nothing to show for the effort. I had never been so happy to just buy a new die.