when to size and lube

[Static line]

I have always sized and lubed my cast bullets within 24 hours after casting. I am wondering,is there any problems if I want to just cast my bullets and put them into storage for later sizing and lubing at a much later date?

[Went2kck]

I let mine sit for a week or more only size what I NEED at the time.

[tazman]

Boolit alloy that age hardens, which is most of what we use, gets harder as it ages for a few days. It will be more difficult to size later, but this is not normally a significant problem.
I do what you are suggesting all the time. It is easier to keep boolits clean if stored unlubed. I may also need to use them in a pistol that requires a different diameter.
The only ones I insist on sizing right away are the ones that will be very hard in a couple of days, such as the ones for rifles(think linotype). These can be very hard to size depending on how much you need to reduce diameter.

[Joe K]

I base this decision on the alloy or hardness of your boolits. If I’m using an alloy of 15 bhn plus or plan on heat treating I size as soon as I can. If not they are hard to run through the sizer. Most of the time I end up with around 10-12 bhn for both my pistol and rifle boolit purposes and no need to size immediately. Hope this helps.

[Static line]

Humm,I might have to set a few aside just to try lubing and sizing later on to see how hard it will be to run through my RCBS Lube-a-Matic 2 sizer .I am using 100% COWW/no tin and no pure lead added.They cast at 10 bhn and usually go to 19 BHN after a two week cure. Mostly interested in storing bullets for the 44 magnums I have since I am way ahead on my 45-70's and others.I am casting a 275 gr. bullet for the 77/44 and they drop at .434" and I size down to .431".

[Guesser]

I cast from May thru October, depending on weather, wind, temperature and any other act I don't have control over. I size, loob, box and load thru the winter months; inside. Most of my shooting is done April thru Thanksgiving. Living a hundred miles south of the Canadian border out here on the prairie, the weather most days is "iffy"!!

[Static line]

I cast from May thru October, depending on weather, wind, temperature and any other act I don't have control over. I size, loob, box and load thru the winter months; inside. Most of my shooting is done April thru Thanksgiving. Living a hundred miles south of the Canadian border out here on the prairie, the weather most days is "iffy"!!

Been there in 1999 and packed into the Bob Marshall.I found out what the winds are like while at one of the ranches.I had to walk bent over at 45 degrees.

[Dusty Bannister]

[QUOTE=Static line;4538644]Humm,I might have to set a few aside just to try lubing and sizing later on to see how hard it will be to run through my RCBS Lube-a-Matic 2 sizer .I am using 100% COWW/no tin and no pure lead added.They cast at 10 bhn and usually go to 19 BHN after a two week cure.

If they get that hard, then you are water dropping from the mold and probably should size as soon as possible to avoid the extra stress on the equipment when you do lube and size.

[Static line]

[QUOTE=Static line;4538644]Humm,I might have to set a few aside just to try lubing and sizing later on to see how hard it will be to run through my RCBS Lube-a-Matic 2 sizer .I am using 100% COWW/no tin and no pure lead added.They cast at 10 bhn and usually go to 19 BHN after a two week cure.

If they get that hard, then you are water dropping from the mold and probably should size as soon as possible to avoid the extra stress on the equipment when you do lube and size.

Nope,believe it or not,I air cool my bullets and check BHN with the LBT tester.Of course the air temperature is on the cool side of 40 to 50 degrees.I had a friend dispute that also back some time ago and we checked my bullets on his tester as well.He got the same reading.This new batch that I cast the other day dropped at 10 bhn and air cooled on a 41 degree day.I just checked the batch that I did yesterday ( also ac ) and some went 10 bhn and a few even measured at 12 bhn. In fact,I just checked some bullets I cast last summer and they are at 19 bhn and almost touching the 20 line.I tried water quenching quite some time ago but they sent my bullets clear into the mid twenties and I didn't like that for hunting.

[Dusty Bannister]

Melt a drop and have it XRF scanned, you got more than just COWW in that bullet.

[reddog81]

Unless the COWWs were made from Linotype there’s else something going on.

FWIW I try to powder coat and size ASAP.

[tazman]

[QUOTE=Dusty Bannister;4538729]

Nope,believe it or not,I air cool my bullets and check BHN with the LBT tester.Of course the air temperature is on the cool side of 40 to 50 degrees.I had a friend dispute that also back some time ago and we checked my bullets on his tester as well.He got the same reading.This new batch that I cast the other day dropped at 10 bhn and air cooled on a 41 degree day.I just checked the batch that I did yesterday ( also ac ) and some went 10 bhn and a few even measured at 12 bhn. In fact,I just checked some bullets I cast last summer and they are at 19 bhn and almost touching the 20 line.I tried water quenching quite some time ago but they sent my bullets clear into the mid twenties and I didn't like that for hunting.

Working with boolits that hard, I usually run them through a Lee push through sizer to make it easier on my Lyman 4500. It adds an extra step but I don't have to worry about breaking the sizer that way.

[Static line]

Unless the COWWs were made from Linotype there’s else something going on.

FWIW I try to powder coat and size ASAP.

You guys got me worried now.I was even getting the same readings with a Cabin tree tester before I sold it and just kept using my LBT tester.
I have always been getting my clip on wheel weights from the same auto shop and I go through all of them and separate the bad from the good.I do appreciate your bringing this problem to my attention.

[Dusty Bannister]

The cabin tree tester is very repeatable in my experience. But it is also really easy to lose track of the reference mark on that six sided nut. The LBT is also quite adequate for our needs, but again sample prep is required for repeatable accuracy and the use of the correct dwell time. Most often it is not the tool, but the operator. It has been a long time since I read the instructions on the LBT so I may have missed something else on best results.

[Static line]

The cabin tree tester is very repeatable in my experience. But it is also really easy to lose track of the reference mark on that six sided nut. The LBT is also quite adequate for our needs, but again sample prep is required for repeatable accuracy and the use of the correct dwell time. Most often it is not the tool, but the operator. It has been a long time since I read the instructions on the LBT so I may have missed something else on best results.
Indeed,I do find that I can make the LBT tester read differently depending on finger pressure,speed and release or just trying to line up the pointer on the " Set " position of the scale.You have to look at it head on and not at an angle The other thing is,where my bhn reading usually falls,is between the number 15 and the number 20 where there are no graduations so a bit of a guess is involved.My high readings could just very well be operator error.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

I cast from May thru October, depending on weather, wind, temperature and any other act I don't have control over. I size, loob, box and load thru the winter months; inside. Most of my shooting is done April thru Thanksgiving. Living a hundred miles south of the Canadian border out here on the prairie, the weather most days is "iffy"!!
I do the same

[Greg S]

I use Felix lube which is quite soft and instead of loosing lube out of the groves or tedious packaging, I'll size within 24 hours of water dropping and resize lube as I load otherwise the lube grooves spring back and get caught on the lube groove in the sizing die. I need to order some carnuba red or make some bens red as Ixm almost out of Felix's receipe.

[LenH]

Sometimes life gets in my way and I don't get to run them through the sizer right away. I found some the other day that I had cast back in the fall. I got things all
set up and ran them trough the sizer and put them in a sealed container ready to load. These were some bullets for one of my revolvers and I had cast them out of
hardball alloy. It didn't take anymore effort. I usually size and lube the day after I cast.

[vagrantviking]

I mostly cast soft 20-1 for black powder stuff. Love sizing and prepping things quickly so it's all ready to go whenever I'm ready to load but have learned to hold myself back.
The soft lubes I'm using will sometimes pull out of the grooves with handling and when they stick to eachother in storage. The biggest issue though is that my bullets will often oxidize a surprising amount if sitting unused with lube for too long. Takes about a year but sometimes things sit that long or more.
The upshot of this is that I try to resist sizing and lubing until I'm about to load.