Time between curing and sizing

[Area Man]

Does it matter if you size boolit shortly after casting or should you typically wait until its fully cured?

[engineer401]

I wait until I am ready to reload the bullets. I don't know if this makes a difference but some have reported bullet swelling after a time. See this thread as it may shed some light or add to the confusion:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...t=bullet+swell

[454PB]

If they are water dropped, I size within hours. If they are air cooled, I size within years. I have some stored that were cast in 1986, and they aren't sized.

For air cooled, I've never seen any ill affects from sizing immediately. Some guys say they "grow" as they age.....I've not seen that.

[David2011]

This may be something about the alloy I normally use but I've learned to size promptly. My standard alloy is 20 lb coww and 1/2 lb monotype- just cause it makes purty boolits. If I wait a couple of weeks they're much harder to size. Not sure if it's that they're bigger or harder. It wouldn't require any less pressure on the sizer handle if I knew but next time I cast I'll have to make some notes and report the findings.

David

[joesig]

To elaborate a little on 454PB's answer, if you water drop your antimony boolits from the mold, they will begin to harden after a period of time. (24hrs?) You have a window before that to size where it won't be too difficult and you will still achieve maximum hardness. After that point, the boolits will be tough to size. Sizing will also destroy the hardness of the sized area (driving bands).

After casting water dropped wheel weight boolits, I dry them off on newspaper and size quickly. They can be lubed at that time and store or lubed later if you use a slightly larger die (Lyman/RCBS/Star system) the second time through the sizer.

If you have a lead/tin alloy, size whenever you want.