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prs
02-12-2010, 01:29 PM
I stated my title almost the inverse of a phrase I noted in another post this morning. The poster inquired about sizing hardened boolits. I thought that rather odd and certainly going about things the hard way, if not self defeating. When I want hard/tough boolits, I cast in my usual fashion and size without lube if using the Lyman lubesizer, or just spritz them with water based case lube if putting them through one of Lees dies. Then I put them in a deep fry basket and rinse with detergent water, then clear water. Then I do the oven treatment/ col quench routine. With WW alloy plus a smige of extra tin, this gives a pretty tough and thoroughly hardened boolit after it seasons for several weeks or longer. I did try sizing hardened boolits once upon a time and gave-up on that misadventure rite quick. How are y'all doing this?

prs

DLCTEX
02-12-2010, 01:37 PM
I use a Lee sizer and dish soap for lube. The Lee is faster than my RCBS and Lyman sizers for this. Dish soap washes off easily, of course. Heat treat and then lube either tumble lube or use the lubesizers.

Shuz
02-12-2010, 06:11 PM
I shoot mostly handgun boolits and don't heat treat them, and the few rifle boolits I heat treat, are sized first in a Lyman or Saeco press w/o lube and then heat treated and then gas checked and lubed. At velocities from 1600 to 1900 fps in .25 cal, 7mm, .30 and .35 cal I've not been able to justify, in group size or leading, the extra time required to heat treat. My air cooled rifle boolits are always at least Bhn 14.

lwknight
02-12-2010, 06:50 PM
I would size them before they have time to get hard. If you are going to do the oven thing , why not size them before treating at all. Of course if water dropping , you have no other choice but to size soon after casting unless you want to size hardened boolits. In which case LLA works great.

Edubya
02-12-2010, 10:40 PM
From what I understand, lead work softens. In other words; you'll be making the hardened boolits softer when you size them.
EW

runfiverun
02-12-2010, 11:56 PM
i water drop and size from the water it slows down production.
so i cast a bunch of air cooled revolver stuff first, then water drop and size/check the other stuff.
i only do a few hundred at a time then let them sit for a couple of weeks.

leadman
02-13-2010, 12:03 AM
I water drop almost all of my boolits. I size from the same day to weeks later. The RCBS sizer has no problem with them.
Sizing may soften the driving bands, but I have no way to check this. Veral Smith says it does, but he also stated that it is minor and he is willing to size after water dropping do the ease of doing so.
I have obtained some fairly hi velocities with cast in rifles with good acuracy and no leading so it is also not a concern for me.

prs
02-13-2010, 07:31 PM
I like the idea of dish soap for lubing the unhardened boolits for sizing BEFORE heat treating.

prs

Walks
09-12-2016, 10:01 PM
If anybody is still looking at this thread.
I cast all gascheck rifle boolits out of pure LINO TYPE, water-quenched. Then size-lube the next day. Size .001 over bore dia. No extra sizeing effort needed. Drive 'em 1600fps-1800fps , leading never a problem. Use 50/50 with about 5% carnuba added.

big bore 99
09-12-2016, 10:17 PM
For oven hardening, what temp is good for water quenching?

Cowboy_Dan
09-13-2016, 12:11 AM
For oven hardening, what temp is good for water quenching?

You will have to find the tempreture that a boolit just starts to slump a bit. Then back it off about 15°F. Heat soak in a preheated oven for an hour and quench in the coldest liquid you can muster. This method will give you the maximum possible hardness your alloy can reach after about 2 weeks.

44MAG#1
09-13-2016, 07:44 AM
I size hardened bullets. Why not?
I also water drop straight from a hot mold.