New guy with some questions

[Kevins750]

Sorry if these have been answered before. I did search.

new to casting, so please go easy on me.

i just bought the lee 6 bullet .312 160 TL mold

i would like to shoot them in an 7.62x39 AR and my 91/30

i have the lee .311 sizer also, and have some Xlox coming.

i planned on sizing the ones for my AR and leaving the others
as dropped for my mosin. Now the question, how do I crimp the gas check on the unsized bullets?

next question. I bought 1000 hunters supply .310 hard cast 130gr plain base
bullets for my AR .310 bore. Measured with calipers they appear to be .311.
if they don't shoot or lead the barrel, can I just melt them down? If I can melt them, do I remove the lube first?

[possom813]

First, buy this https://www.walmart.com/ip/23250134?wmlspartner=wlpa&adid=22222222227016890612&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=54781471751&wl4=pla-90195504551&wl5=9026859&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=23250134&wl13=&veh=sem


Have you slugged your barrels yet to find out the diameter you need your boolits to be?

You can use a lyman sizer to put the gc's on, not sure if the lee sizers will function that way though...I've never tried.

I've never removed the lube to remelt a bad batch. But I didn't melt them back down in my casting pot either.

Search with the button at the top of the page and you'll find a lot more info than what I can provide. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of years of knowledge to be found on this forum. I'm only a about 2 decades worth.

[Shiloh]

Sage advice on the Lyman book.

Shiloh

[Old colt]

Lee sizers will crimp on a gas check. May have to go base first with some designs. Plain base checks must go in base first.

Sent from my XT1055 using Tapatalk

[Tom Myers]

Sorry if these have been answered before. I did search.

new to casting, so please go easy on me.

i just bought the lee 6 bullet .312 160 TL mold

i would like to shoot them in an 7.62x39 AR and my 91/30

i have the lee .311 sizer also, and have some Xlox coming.

i planned on sizing the ones for my AR and leaving the others
as dropped for my mosin. Now the question, how do I crimp the gas check on the unsized bullets?

next question. I bought 1000 hunters supply .310 hard cast 130gr plain base
bullets for my AR .310 bore. Measured with calipers they appear to be .311.
if they don't shoot or lead the barrel, can I just melt them down? If I can melt them, do I remove the lube first?

Kevens,

First. A Lee sizer will seat and crimp a gas check but will also size the bullet in the process.

To only seat and crimp the check, you would need to use a fitted nose punch to press the bullet part way into the sizing die and then use a knockout rod to push the bullet with the crimped on check back down and out of the sizer.

The bullet would still need to be lubed in some manner. You stated that you have some Xlox coming. If it is the liquid type, you could then tumble lube the bullet. If it is the solid, then you would need to either pan lube or smear the lube on by hand.

The simplest solution would be to get another Lee sizing die of the desired larger diameter or, if the right size is not available, a smaller size can easily be honed out to allow the un-sized bullet to be pushed through to seat and crimp the gas check without reducing the diameter of the bullet. (see the stickys)

For what it's worth, my experience with seating gas checks with a slightly oversize die creates a problem at the loading press.

The copper checks will crimp on OK but, after sizing, the check diameter will spring back 0.001" t0 0.0015" over the diameter of the sizer and also over the diameter of the bullet.

This will also be true to a lesser amount during a normal sizing operation when the bullet and check are pushed through a die that sizes both the bullet and check.

When the bullet with the slightly larger check is seated, and depending upon the hardness and thickness of the case neck, the check over expands the case neck resulting in less or inconsistent neck tension on the portion of the bullet that is forward of the gas check.

In order to prevent oversized case necks, I now anneal all checks before seating and sizing. I use a metal cat food can with the metal lid that snaps back on and place a bunch of check in the can and then float the can on the top of my casting pot for about 20 minuets at 700 degrees. This anneals the checks and they are soft enough so that spring back is minimal.

In your case, annealing the checks and using two sizing dies should make for a simple, efficient operation that solves some problems and eliminates other potential problems.

Hope this helps.

[runfiverun]

if you try to melt the store bought boolits down you will have a mess from the lube.
there is just too much for the pot to deal with and it gunks everything up.
you can throw 10-15 at a time in with your other alloy and light the wax on fire when it comes back to the top.
but I find it easier to just put the whole pile in a pan of boiling water.
bring it back up to a boil then shut the heat off, put a lid on the pot and wait for it to cool down.
that will melt the lube and let it re-form on the surface and you can take it out in chunks.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I agree, don't melt lubed bullets in a bottom pour furnace, if that is what you are asking?
..An alternate way to remove 'most' of the commercial lube from bullets, is to use a heatgun and put the bullets on a old shop rag (to be thrown away).

[mdi]

As noted above, don't melt a lot of lubed bullets in your casting pot. I use my smelting pot and the lube acts like a flux. I would get a Lee sizing kit in .312" to apply gas checks if you don't want to size the bullet below .312" (the kit comes with a small bottle of alox, enough to do a lot of bullets.). May have to polish out .001" from the .311" die to get a good .312", no big deal...;)