Hole in the middle of sizer die.

[nextone2]

I bought a few sizer dies for my Lyman 450 sizer and when I cleaned them up I found a few of them had holes down through the middle of them. My question is, what is the hole for, and was it done at the factory or did someone drill the hole?

[stubshaft]

Are you talking about holes in the middle of the sizer "piston"? The sizers are 2 piece. They consist of the sizer body and what I call the piston that pushes the bullet up from the die. Which one has the hole in it?

[nextone2]

The hole is in the middle of the piston, right under where the bullet would be.

[stubshaft]

I've never seen one like that from the factory, althought the last one that I bought was about 5 years ago. Makes good sense though, that way if you get lube between the base and piston it would just push through.

[RayinNH]

Could have been done either way. Buckshot does them that way. I believe it's to bleed off lube that gets trapped between the boolit base and the ejector pin...Ray

[Leftoverdj]

Never seen one from the factory like that. I've modified a few myself, abeit only shallow holes. It allows surplus lube to bleed off and gives a slight remaining sprue a place to go.

btw, in Lyman talk, that pin is the "I die".

[RayinNH]

Well then I reckon the outer part would be the "H-die"...Ray

[garandsrus]

RayinNH is correct... Buckshot makes the dies that way and Ray's explanation as to why is also correct.

John