When do you Size your Boolits?

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Given that lead alloys have Some Shrinkage and Will also Harden over time, When do you size your Boolits. Does it make adifference if you are using a soft or hard Alloy?

Thanks for helping the Newbee,

Sam :D

[Ricochet]

ASAP after casting, because I water drop and within an hour they're starting to get hard to size.

[sqlbullet]

Usually about a day after casting, if I size them.

[Calamity Jake]

I don't water drop so I have boolits that have been cast for a # of years and not sized.

I always let fresh cast age for at least 2 weeks before sizing, no matter the alloy used.

For low volume(25-50) I size/lube when needed.

High volume(CAS/action pistol) gets size/lubed and stored for use.

[beagle]

Normally, I'll do pistol stuff the next day. Rifle bullets, I tend to let age a bit....up to a week or so./beagle

[rob45]

I agree with Ricochet on this one; one has to take sizing effort into account.

I do not water-drop; I prefer to heat treat. But since most of the alloys we use age-harden anyways, I prefer to at least have sizing done by the next day so as to reduce sizing effort. Since I'm sizing before heat treatment, I use soap as a lubricant for easy rinsing before they go into the oven.

After heat treatment, they have to somehow be lubed without sizing (remember that lead alloys work-soften, that's why they're sized before investing the time in heat treating them). Easy fix with LLA, but for the lubes that require a lubri-sizer I then use an oversize die, that way I'm only lubing them and not sizing again.

[1Shirt]

Like Ricochet I water drop (almost) all cast, and size and lube on the same day. I cast a lot of rifle for target only that will run well above lino bh, and if you don't size pronto, you may not be able to size later without serious problems.
1Shirt!:coffeecom

[runfiverun]

pistol calibers i do whenever.
for waterdropped rifle stuff it's from bucket to sizer,depending on final diameter of the boolit.
for the ones that pour the correct size and only need a g/c and lube they go in a box.

[AZ-Stew]

I'm with rob45 on heat-treated rifle boolits.

For handgun I cast, air cool and box, then size and lube just prior to loading.

Regards,

Stew

[Phat Man Mike]

I cast water drop then sort my day's fun then let cure for a couple day's then size and store . but my brother cast some one time and sized a few weeks later and had some problems.. :wink:

[XWrench3]

i ususally wait until i am close to using them. that may be a day after i cast them, or 3 months or more later. maybe i am just inexperienced, but i wait until then to lube them as well (i do not have a lubrisizer yet) and i want fresh lube in the boolits i shoot. not lod half dried out stuff. i have boughten some old cast boolits prior to getting started in casting myself. in some of these, the lube had been in there for so long that it had dried up and fell out in some of them. in others, it was only cracked. in any case, i smeard some grease into the grooves before i shot them. another part of it is i also shoot some of them without gas checks at reduced velocities. if i shoot without gas checks, i do not size them.

[mpmarty]

Pistol boolits are sprayed with Frankford arsenal sizing lube and sized as soon as they are cooled (air cooled). As soon as they are sized they get tumbled in LLA and stood up on waxed paper in groups of 100 to dry overnight. Next day they get run through my Dillon 550B and boxed in ammo cans. I try to keep several hundred loaded up for matches and plinking sessions but never seem to get very far ahead of my usage curve.

[dromia]

Soon as I can after casting, mainly for component management purposes so that I don't get a backlog of unsized lubed boolits and to ensure i have a supply of ready to load boolits to hand.

"Procrastination is the chief thief of time.

Never put off 'till tomorrow what you can do today.

You cannot percieve the dangers therein.

Therefore make no delay."

:grin:

[pdawg_shooter]

I try to hold off till the bullets are cool enough to handle !

[JeffinNZ]

As they go down the barrel.

[timkelley]

Water dropped WW, same day.

[243winxb]

Air cooled i size when i get to it. Water dropped , the sooner the better, bullets less hard. 2% antimony does not harden as fast as higher amounts of antimony like 4% or 6% See the chart here, good reading. http://www.castpics.net/memberarticles/arsenic.htm