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ketchup57
11-25-2010, 05:08 AM
I have just recently started casting and reloading and this happens to be my first post, so any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated.
I seem to have it a bit of a snag. I am casting and reloading for my springfield XDm 40, i purchased a lee 2 cav 401-175-swc tumble lube mold i have done some lee-menting, but none of it involving polishing the cavity's.
after several casting sessions i have been able to produce some decent looking boolits, the problem is that using a micrometer to measure them they are coming out to .405 +/- .0005. Most everything i have read is saying i should be able to shoot these lee tumble lube boolits without sizing but i think that these are a bit to big.
I have slugged my bore and it came out to .4013-.4015, the slug's didn't turn out perfect but it was pretty good and i will be slugging it again soon to get more precise results. i did purchase a lee .401 sizing die and it is turning the .405 into a better sounding .402, but in doing this it has flattened the micro grooves into near non existence.
I guess its about time i should be getting to my real question now lol. Should i just return the mold to lee and see if the can repair/ replace it under warranty, or should i give something else a shot.

thank you for your patience in my long winded ramblings, and any help you can provide. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.

excess650
11-25-2010, 08:08 AM
If the chamber will accept your loaded ammo, its probably OK. I suspect that .405" is too large, and .402-.403 might work better, provided they would chamber. The forcing cone will size the bullet, but the case needs to have room to release the bullet.

If the bullets are round, the mold cavities seem too large to my way of thinking. Make sure there isn't anything between the blocks to keep them from closing completely. If that is the case the bullet will be noticeably out of round along the parting line vs perpendicular to it.

frkelly74
11-25-2010, 08:49 AM
If they will chamber easily try shooting them with a starting load of your chosen powder. If it is the TLTC boolit look up the discussions on the same design for the 45 regarding seating depth and overall length.

I do size my TLTC Boolits for my 45 in a 452 push through sizer. It moves the lube into the lube grooves and fills them and works okay now that I have accepted seating them deep enough in the case. The angle where the body of the bullet transitions to the nose has to be at the mouth of the case or the round will not chamber in my gun. Good Luck

onesonek
11-25-2010, 08:55 AM
What does the mouth of your fired cases measure?

beagle
11-25-2010, 02:32 PM
You will probably encounter seating problems with a bullet that big. The crimping shoulder will try and seat the bullet and drive you nuts.

I've encountered this problem when using big bullets (over .432" in the .44 Magnum and over .460" in the .45/70).

IF it will seat all right, load and try a few and see. They may prove to be exactly what you want but I'm thinking they're abit oversize./beagle

Blammer
11-25-2010, 04:48 PM
I would cast them, then tumble lube them then size them and then load them and see if they chamber, (only do one or two) if they do chamber, then shoot them.

:)

ketchup57
11-26-2010, 03:23 AM
I have made a few dummy rounds without sizing to see if they would chamber properly. The only way the get the boolit to chamber was if i seated it far enough down to were the meplat was level if on a hair below the case mouth, but that really didn't leave a whole lot of room for powder and the case was being expanded a great deal by the boolit but it would cycle fine. If the boolit was seated any further out the slide would not go all the way forward. I sized the boolits and that flattened out the tumble lube grooves and i dont mean just a little they are practicably smooth down the whole side of the boolit with barely a line where the grooves should be. I think my best bet is to just send in the mold and see if lee will send one back that will drop boolits a little closer to the proper size for a .401 mold.

Wayne Smith
11-26-2010, 07:00 PM
Try sizing them with lube in the grooves and see if you have adequate lube left after sizing.

skeet1
11-26-2010, 07:10 PM
Onesonek gave some good advice, check the size of a unsized case mouth fired in your gun. If the unsized bullet will fit in loosely with your fingers you are probably ok to shoot them as they are with just lubing.
If the bullet wont fit measure the case mouth and see what size it is, this will help you determine what size to make your bullets. Usually slightly smaller than a fired case mouth is how I would go about it.

Skeet1

Jech
11-29-2010, 10:28 PM
I may or may not be a known associate / cohort of the creater of this thread...welcome to the forums buddy:drinks:

Let's see if I can help illustrate the issues ketchup57 is having...

In this first picture, the left pair has been lubed in 45/45/10 and sized with his Lee .401" Push-through Sizing Kit. The right pair are from the same batch but are as-is from the mould...no sizing or 45/45/10. You can see how bad the TL bands have been swaged into oblivion...there are shavings and bits of sloughed-off lead in the bands now. My pondering says the shaved-off lead has the potential to create aggravated leading.

http://i792.photobucket.com/albums/yy207/raexis/401-175-tlswc.jpg

A measurement of an unsized boolit before sizing...

http://i792.photobucket.com/albums/yy207/raexis/11291095175500.jpg

...and after sizing.

http://i792.photobucket.com/albums/yy207/raexis/11291095175700.jpg

x101airborne
11-29-2010, 10:39 PM
Isnt that about right... my lee 40 cal mold drops large also. Around .4037". My 44 mag swc lee mold drops around .4279". If i could just reverse the size variance, id be golden.

runfiverun
11-29-2010, 11:07 PM
i'd leement it up and use it in my 41.
send it back.
i need that mold, but undersized would suit my purposes better like 399.