How much to size, Lee .40

[fatelk]

First post here. I've been casting for a couple decades, but would not consider my anywhere near an expert. Mostly I've used Lee molds, tumble lube with pretty good results, but I don't shoot high-volume.

I bought several new molds recently, one of which is a six-cavity .401 175gr TL. I just cast 100 bullets and I have a couple questions for the pros here.

These things measure about .404 to .405+ (not perfectly concentric, but this seems pretty normal). I generally don't size my bullets, but this seems a bit large.
I was hoping to not buy another sizer, but assume I should get one in something like .402?

I guess the other question has to do with another mold- Lee .365 95gr 2-cavity. The bullets come out weighing 105gr. instead. Is this a normal sort of thing?

I've never been real particular about the lead I use. It's a mixture of wheel weights, range lead, and for the .40's a little linotype mixed in.

One other about another mold: Lee .430 310gr. double cavity. I didn't realize that this was a gas check mold until it came. I don't do gas checks on pistol bullets. I assume it should be OK to shoot them without checks, but is there a good way to lube them? I have an old Lyman 45 lube-sizer and a .430 die, but needless to say it doesn't work very good for these since I'm too cheap to buy gas checks.

Please don't beat me up too bad about my dumb questions. :)
I've made a lot of "boolits" but definitely have not made a science of it like many here. I've already learned a lot from lurking and reading. Thanks in advance for any help.

[lwknight]

You need to know your bore size. 405 is pretty big for a 40 cal. I would size them.
A Lee push through sizer is about $13.00 IIRC

A 95 grain mold casting 10 graind heavy is kinda wild in my book. 2 or 3 grains on a 158 grain mold is normal but you have a 10% deviation. Cannot guess.

If you had high antimony you might get bigger boolits but certainly would not get overweight boolits.

That 430-310 should do just great without a gas check. You will have trouble lubing in the 45 because the lube will gunk up around where the gas check should be. I started just using TL on my deleted gas check boolits. $35.00 or more per 1K is entirely too much for me too.

[Jayhem]

I have the same 175 gr. TC .40 cal mold from Lee. Mine were also coming out at .405". I am resizing to .401 and my bore is .399.

I love the lee push through sizing dies. Just make sure your bullets are alox lubed before going through the die!

[Cloudpeak]

I love the lee push through sizing dies. Just make sure your bullets are alox lubed before going through the die!

Or, lube your bullets with Hornady "One Shot" case lube and only lube once with alox after the bullets are sized. (I use XLOX sold on a vendor on this forum as it works the same and is cheaper: http://www.lsstuff.com/lube/index.html)

One can of One Shot did around 20,000 bullets and cases (I lube my cases even though I use carbide dies on my LNL AP). It doesn't take much.

[Phat Man Mike]

first off Welcome to the group!! 2nd my mak molds where dropping heavy too !! around 6 to 7 grains.. but they where made with a specific lead mixture as I was told. are you going to size you mak boolit's? [smilie=b:

[d_striker]

It seems like a lot of people have his same problem with lee's .40 cal molds. I bought a tl401-175-swc six banger a couple weeks ago. I tried e erything and could not get it to drop boolits smaller than .4055"-.406". I sent it back to lee. Hopefully I get a mold that's in spec.

[fredj338]

You can try leaving the lino out. Softer bullets usually cast a bit smaller. I have no problems running 175gr-180gr 40s to just under 1000fps using straight ww or even 50/50 range & ww.

[fatelk]

Thanks for all the replies!

I'll try casting a few more 40's with a softer allow before sending them back, and I also remembered that I know a guy who way more into casting than I am who has a "Star" lube sizer. I know he shoots a lot of .40 so I think I'll ask him what he would charge me to size and lube a batch of bullets.

On the Mak boolits, I haven't sized any because they measure pretty much right on. I tried tumble lubing them but got bad leading. I wonder if this is because they just have one little driving band? I figured out how to "pan lube" them, and they work fine. There doesn't seem to be any real problem with them being over weight?

I read up on the Johnson Paste Wax tumble lube method; I'll have to give that a try.

The last mold I bought was a Lee .329 205gr for the 8x56R. They cast right at .328-.329. I thought I could make a real light plinking load without gas checks, but the result was terrible accuracy and terrible leading. Anyone know if I can use regular 8mm gas checks on these? I didn't try casting these with linotype, maybe that would help with the size a little.

Thanks again for all the info. I can see this site being a great resource.

[dogbert41]

I bought a new Lee TL 401 175 six banger as well. They dropped heavy at 180, and measure at 403. I shot about 150 of different loadouts and they don't lead up the barrel at all.

I lightly used the Lee factory crimp die, so maybe that squeezed them down to 401. My M&P compact likes eating them, but it was raining and snowing so I didn't put out paper targets to check accuracy, but I hit cans and shotgun shells pretty much at will. So far, I'm really pretty pleased with this bullet. The light loads make it such a joy to shoot.

[shootinxd]

Slug your barrel,if need be then size.Barrel should be around .001-.002" smalled.my 175grn lee also cast .404-.405.:cbpour:[smilie=p:

[Shiloh]

I size with a LEE push though sizer. A .401 opened up to .4015

Shiloh

[jbrown]

I have the same die, and the exact same issue (smallest I get is .405-.407). I size to .402 (my .401 lee push through pops them out that size), and have good accuracy and no leading if I use straight WW. Softer and I had accuracy/leading issues due to the high pressures of the 40 load.

[fatelk]

I sized all my oversized bullets, and shot some. They shoot OK, even sized down that far. Sizing does wipe out about half of the lube grooves.

I sized some that were not as large; mold was cooler or the lead was hotter or something, but I noticed a funny thing with this mold. If you look at the photo of the boolit that wasn't sized as much, it looks like the halves didn't line up or something. They did line up, though. The nose is totally round, it's just the base that isn't.

They do work OK, but given that they are so oversized as well as funky, I think I'll be sending this set back to Lee.