Need a quick answer please

[mugsie]

I'm going to purchase a Lyman mold today, (452424) which throws 452 dia. bullets. Do I need to purchase a 452 sizing die also or can I purchase a 454 sizing die and size them up?
Thanks....

[eka]

Are you actually needing a .452 or a .454 slug? You can size smaller fairly easily, but going larger is tough. You would have to look into Beagleing your mould (adding metal tape). If you need a .454 I would look at another mould of that size. Sometimes the .452 moulds will drop boolits just a tad larger than that, but you can't count on that. I assume you are buying the mould for a revolver, so you would want to slug your cylinder throats and buy a sizing die that matches the diameter of your cylinder throats.

Hope that helps you a little.

Keith

[OLPDon]

I agree with eka if the mould you are buying is a steal (cheep price) buy it and Beagle it, if not and full fair $$ I would have second thoughts. If infact the size slug needed is .454 bumping can be done but more work then needed.

My idea is buy what you realy want if you can't afford it save till you can, I remember as a young lad settleing for less and then buying what I wanted later. Thus paying twice for it!!!
Don

[Char-Gar]

You can size a bullet down, but you cannot size a bullet up!!!

[MT Gianni]

You can lube a .452 bullet in a .454 die if that is what you mean. Gianni

[GLL]

If you must have the 452424 design and that mould truely drops at 0.452" you might consider searching for a 454424 mould instead. Have you actually measured the bullets from the 452424?

Jerry

[mugsie]

Lyman offers a .429 diameter bullet for my 44 mag. If I purchase this mold, I should drop bullets of .429 diameter. What if my chambers require something larger? Do I need to purchase a mold which drops .431 or .432 and size down to .430? Is such a mold possible? This is getting confusing - why don't manufacturers offer molds a few thousands larger and then we could size down to the required diameter.

So what gives - I'm stuck with a .429 diameter mold / bullet but because the wheel weight is softer it obturates to fill the bore? Doesn't this gurantee gas cutting?

I had been shooting Oregon Trail Laser Cast bullets at .431 in my RH and the accuracy was great. By me going to casting, am I going to just frustrant myself and end up purchasing bulk bullets because I can't get mine to work? Do I sound frustrated?! I am.

So how do you guys do it? 44 mag, using what mold? .429? HELP!

[Crash_Corrigan]

A normal practice would be to load a .430 " cast boolit for a .44 mag. However it would make sense to slug the barrel and chambers to make sure that this size is ok.

Depending on alloy and temp used your boolit may vary in diameter from a given mold. This variance can be up to .003". Many a Ruger has a small chamber size of .449 or .450 and a groove diameter of .453 or .4535" in the barrel.

This gun will not be accurate and may lead badly. Reeming out the chamber to match the barrel will be a major improvment.

You can size down up to .003 or .004" easily without deforming the boolit too badly but without beagling you cannot make a boolit bigger.

I have one mold for which I make boolits for my .45 ACP and .45 LC. It casts a boolit of .455 dia. I size down to a .452 for my .45 LC and .451 for my taurus 1911 .45 ACP. The 200 GR LSWC does well in both guns but is really verry verry accurate in the 1911. A heavier boolit of 255 gr does better in the .45 LC.

A cast boolit of up to .002" bigger than the groove diameter will work in most guns with lead boolit. Not so with jword boolits. I have run .452 " lead SWC's in my 1911 without any effect at all but I feel better running .451's.

[Leftoverdj]

Lyman moulds generally cast oversized. A nominal .452 mould can be reasonably expected to cast .454 or larger and to need sizing to get it down to .452. Lee is the only brand I have encountered that routinely makes moulds that cast at or barely over nominal diameter.

[Cloudpeak]

Lyman offers a .429 diameter bullet for my 44 mag. If I purchase this mold, I should drop bullets of .429 diameter. What if my chambers require something larger?

Well, I haven't figured out yet if we're casting 44s or 45s:???:

On a 44 mag revolver, you need to worry about your bore, not "chambers" Have you slugged the bore of whichever gun you're talking about?

It sounds like you're new to casting. Perhaps it would make economic sense to start with a lower cost mold like the Lee 6 cavity. You can increase diameter easily with these with a couple of different methods so as to cast "oversize" bullets and then buy the Lee push-through sizer ($13.00) to size the bullets to the desired size and not wory about screwing up an expensive Lyman mold. I've had 4 of the Lee 6 cavity molds and, with Bull Plate sprue lube, they work great. They are a lot lighter as well. I just bought a 4 cavity Lyman and that thing drops great bullets but sure gets heavy after a few hours:)

Cloudpeak