boolit sizing,lube and seating gas checks

[jeff223]

once i get my mold for my 180gr boolits for my 357max i must mold up a few then size,lube and seat a gas check.RIGHT?im going to borrow a Lyman sizer from a friend for now to start things off but i am wondering about a few things.does this sizer do all three things all at once ?another question i have about these cast boolits.can you shoot them right out of the mold without sizing them.this mold is a 358 mold and i wonder if just lubing them is enough along with a gas check?

can someone kind of run through process for me?i will learn as i go along but the more info the better.

thanks
jeff

[ammohead]

jeff,

You never know till you try. Shooting unsized boolits is a common practice. Will it work well in your gun? No tellin till you try. I size to lube as much as any other reason. If you tumble lube, go ahead and load a string up as is. You just may find that your pistol, rifle, whatever just loves em.

Sizing is also used to true the boolit up. Some moulds drop nicer boolits than others. Sizing makes them round, plumb, and all the same size, as size can differ from one casting temp to another, or one alloy to another from the same mould. The experimentation of this hobby is the part that will hook you in the end. Sure shooting is fun, but I'm not sure I do it just for the shooting anymore. After a while the casting and trying different things becomes more of the focus than the shooting.

ammohead

[carpetman]

Jeff223---Yes the Lyman luber/sizer does all three--seat check,size,lube in one operation. I place check in the sizer and bullet over it and size/lube. Some start the check on the bullet by hand first. When you pull the handle down the bullet enters the sizer---hold firm pressure on the handle(not handle breaking pressure--just firm) and while holding the firm pressure,just touch the ratchet that feeds the lube. It doesnt take much from the ratchet and sometimes there will be enough residual pressure from the last bullet you did that it doesnt require any. Raise the bullet and if you were too stingy with the ratchet pressure--you can lower it back down and apply more lube. If you dont hold firm pressure on the handle while working the ratchet--you'll get a build up on the base of the bullet everytime. I mentioned you might get by on a bullet with no pressure applied to the ratchet,I find this more true with an RCBS than I did with Lyman--I think the RCBS holds pressure better. You do want to adjust things so that it does bottom and the firm pressure on the handle can be done. Yes,you could get by just using gas check and lube--but to me it's much easier to do with the tool. The .358 might not do any sizing at all anyways?????? When my daughter was about 4 or 5,she loved doing this and sized and lubed a lot of bullets for me. If you plan on getting your own sizer/luber,the Lyman and RCBS top punches and sizers will interchange. The new RCBS uses a toggle handle for lube feed vs the ratchet that the Lyman uses. I much prefer the ratchet--but I like the RCBS warranty and I think they hold pressure better. The older RCBS used the ratchet. I modified my newer RCBS to use a ratchet. This was not a just change the bolt deal as the bolts don't interchange. This was done by having a hex to fit the ratchet milled on the bolt. A pretty simple thing for someone with a mill. Probably could be done with hacksaw and file.

[jeff223]

thanks guys for the info.im sure my friend is going to help me out here but i want to learn all i can about this.i dont want to look like a compleet green horn with this casting thing.

[lar45]

It helps sometimes to smear a little bit of lube on the first bullet going into the size die. Once you've done one, there is some residual lube to keep things going. If you have too much pressure, you will get lube pushed out on the base of the bullet. There's an adjuster on the bottom that limits how far the bullet goes in so you get lube in the lube grooves and not the crimp groove.

Unchecked might work for mild loads, but I bet you'll need them on full house loads. You never know till you try though.

[Willbird]

Lee makes sizers for the loading press too, if you would like to try sizing the boolits without buying a lubesizer yet.

I have used them playing around and they are worth the purchase price, and lots of guys love them.

If the gas checks seat by hand squarely the Lee sizer should crimp them on properly too.

You can also pan lube, which there is lots of info on the web about, basically you set the boolits in a cake pan, and pour melted lube in til the level is up above the grooves, when the whole mess cools slightly you run colt water over the mass and push the boolits out, leaving the lube in the grooves. This could be done before or after sizing with the lee setup and I cannot say which would be better.

You might want to line up some differant dia sizers too because boolit dia. is often a tuning method to accuracy.

If you have a factory TC bbl the one I had had a Loooong tapered throat in front of the chamber.

You can get an idea how long your throat is by squeezing the neck of a fired case out of round so a boolit will fit snug but still move, put a boolit in there backwards, and carefully chamber the ctg. then extract it, how much boolit is sticking out of the front of the case gives you an idea how long your throat is.

Bill

[buck1]

Diddo on the LEE sizers , great for testing lubes too. ...Buck

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
That about covers it, but I like the Lyman lube, & the RCBS Rifle bullet lube much better than the RCBS Bullet lube which I think is too stiff w/out a heated lube sizer.