Boolet Sizing Dies

[cdupuy]

Gentlemen:
I got bored and started building Boolet Sizing dies for my Lyman Lubrisizer. I made a
.3575 for the SA Ruger, a .4515 and .4520 for the Reider SA Vacaro. The question is I used W1 for the dies and did not Heat Treat. Ya think it will be suitable for lead sizing without the Heat traet.

[R.M.]

No need to heat-treat. Soft steel is still much harder than lead.

[Elkins45]

I've made a couple of push-thru dies by drilling and reaming sections of 7/8-14 threaded rod. I doubt that stuff even could be hardened if I tried. So far there hasn't been any measurable dimension change in them. Personally I would worry more that I would warp them during HT than I worry about frictional enlargement. How many lead boolets would have to go through a steel die to wear it open even .0001?

[44man]

Heck, I have made a few from brass!

[bangerjim]

As long as your die material is harder than lead! Hard brass even works!!!!!

Besides if you HT it, you will probably change the size a bit and will have to grind an lap it! Way too much work1

banger

[pworley1]

What did you use for the I part of the die? The only place where you would probably get any ware would be from the points of contact between the H and I dies. If your I die is made of a softer material, than your H die your dies should be good for a life time or two. If not, maybe only 1 lifetime.

[pdawg_shooter]

I use pre-threaded 4140 u-bolt stock I get at work. Makes great dies.

[MarkP]

I have used 7/8-14 Grade 5 bolts for push thrus with no issues. After a few thousand thru my .380 (33-55) die it still mics the same. Only a few hundred thru the others.

I made a size die for my 17 wildcat out of O1 and have used it un-heat treated for 18 years with no issues. I was worried about polishing out the scale on the tiny neck so I never heat treated it.

If you do heat treat the ID will probalby shink 0.001" or so depending on I.D.