Star with round nose boolits?

[mto7464]

How well does it work with RN boolits? I would think that the noses could get flattened slightly with this technique.

[madcaster]

Size them nose first,should be no problem...not trying to be a smart***,just the way most of us do things on the Star.

[Down South]

Star sizes nose first so you won't have to worry about the nose.

[mtgrs737]

If you are worried about the nose being deformed from pushing the previous boolit out the bottom of the die I can say that I have not experianced that problem. My minimum alloy is ww's so the hardness may be a factor but so far no problems. Most of the push effort is over with on the previous boolit in the die so it does not take much more shove to clear the die. I always size nose first.

[runfiverun]

even using soft alloys and long pointy rifle boolits with g/c's.
i haven't seen any deformations. it don't take much to finish pushing the last one out.

[garandsrus]

I have had some deformation with pointy .30 cal boolits. If I am lubing them, I use a smaller caliber bullet to push out the good boolit. It doesn't really slow things down much and the noses are not touched at all.

John

[MakeMineA10mm]

even using soft alloys and long pointy rifle boolits with g/c's.
i haven't seen any deformations. it don't take much to finish pushing the last one out.

That right thaar is the key. I have squished and mis-shapen boolits in a Lyman 450, but only when the stroke has bottomed-out and I kept cranking on the handle, and then, only with soft alloys (IIRC it was 50-50 pure lead and WWs).

My Magma sizer with a 1/2 hp motor and off-set gearing that shoves the boolits through never deformed a boolit nose... Now my slippery 9mms that are so pointy did tip and twist and try to go in cock-eyed, because the nose would hit and skid sideways on the base of the previous boolit, but when the ram came down and kissed the base of the new boolit, it straightened up and went through the die straight...

Nose first with a push-through system is pretty reliably and (a-hem) "bullet-proof"... :mrgreen:

[Jimlakeside]

My slippery 9MM boolits get their nose deformed slightly when I use my Star. So far I cannot tell that it negatively affects accuracy. Every now and then I get one that is really deformed that I will put back in the pot.

[mto7464]

thanks, you answered my questions.

[ddeaton]

My slippery 9MM boolits get their nose deformed slightly when I use my Star. So far I cannot tell that it negatively affects accuracy. Every now and then I get one that is really deformed that I will put back in the pot.

Just a note from a new Star user. If the lube holes are close to the bottom of the die then the boolit will press through with one stroke of the handle? This means the punch is adjusted down farther to align with the lube grooves. My die has a single set of holes that are close to the top of the die, and it takes almost 3 strokes to drop a boolit out. That means each boolit sized is pushing against the last to get it out of the die. That would deform a soft boolit nose. Does this make sense? I am going to have Lathesmith make me a die with the holes close to the bottom of the lube groove.