POINTY rifle bullets not working well in a Star... Solutions sought

[DukeInFlorida]

I'm hoping that this thread will turn into a Sticky at some point. I have looked and failed at finding lots of details on this subject.

I had two recent casting jobs which I had hoped would run smoothly through my Star lubricizer. Both designs are gas checked. I spent hours and hours setting up.

The first one I was able to do, 311-150 spire point. Single lube groove with bore rider. It's the mold NOE made for AR15 300 Blackout boolits. It took a while, but I was able to block the correct holes, and get that bullet to run manually, but just barely. I saw a lot of pointy nose damage, dented gas checks, etc.

The second job was 311-198 spire points, also a NOE gas checked mold. Nose profile was similar to the 150 grain version. The 198 has no bore rider, and has three lube grooves, vs the one lube groove for the 150. This one I could not get to run at all. Even after a brief call to Magma, I gave up after a lot of time trying.

I will run all pointy rifle bullets in the future in my Lyman 450. I never have any trouble running pointy rifle bullets in the Lyman. No damaged noses. No dented gas checks (which causes the gas checks to come loose). In both instances, I was using a Lathesmith gas check style punch. The gas checks were installed correctly, only to get disrupted by the second boolit denting and loosening the gas checks. Major frustration.

So, I am hoping that some of you have had success with running pointy rifle boolits in a Star, and can shed some light on how to achieve success. I'd sure like to have the star run batches faster than I can achieve with the Lyman. But for now, it's looking like I have to keep and use both machines. The Star for blunt nosed pistol boolits, and the Lyman for pointy rifle boolits.

Please help me use my Star for both.

[bangerjim]

I powder coat everything, but do run several "pointy" 30's and 38's thru Lee loading dies. Had severe point/nose deformation so I just made a new nose punch for the Lee's according to the profile of the boolit. Easy to change out in the Lee seating die. No damage now.

It helps to have a full machine shop and tons of tooling to be able to make anything.

banger

[rollmyown]

Try using a cylinder of brass narrower than the bullet diameter to push each bullet out after the lube grooves are filled. On the bullet eject stroke stop the lever short of the bottom where the lube is forced into the die.
I've not tried it yet but I was planning to.

[garandsrus]

I size nose first and use a flat point boolit of a smaller diameter to push the pointy boolit out of the die with no damage. Still faster than other sizers.

[floydboy]

With the star it's hard to size pointed boolits one right after the other without deformation. I usually size a boolit then use in a small wood dowel to push it out. The dowel will drop out the bottom of the die after the boolit. Repeat. I use wood to keep from scratching the die. Like previously posted it's still faster than bottom first sizers.

Floyd

[DukeInFlorida]

Good idea about the wood dowel or brass pin .
I tried using a 22 cal bullet to push a pointy 30 cal bullet through, but got a lot.of messy lube on everything because of the extra press stroke

[montanamike]

I also push out pointy boolits with another flat nose bullet of the same caliber. It's a little slower but it works.

[floydboy]

Too keep from getting a mess of lube don't pull the handle down all the way. You won't move the lube plunger injecting lube into the die. You can cut a dowel long enough so the bullet is pushed out enough to fall the rest of the way out of the die. I like the small dowel because it will fall out after the bullet. You can get pretty fast with this set up. I'm not really into speed that much with my rifle boolits. I always inspect each one incase I need to run them through again.

Really this is the only downside I can see to nose first sizing on the Star. Everything else is much better.

Floyd

[pjh421]

I think montanamike and floydboy have it nailed. I was going to say make a nose protector like when you adapt a Lyman/RCBS lubrisizer nose punch to a boolit nose with epoxy...but the same caliber flat point boolit idea sure beats that.

[Lance Boyle]

my casting coach taught me to use a sacrificial boolit over and over. Lube the new one point down, put your sacrificial boolit on top base down and push out the good bullet. Not near as fast as on the LAM when you have to do that.

[PaulG67]

As in post #3 I use a brass rod about .010" smaller than the boolit, this insures no deformation of the gas check.

[Oklahoma Rebel]

so are you guys saying nose first or base first is better? I am dealing with the same issue, I am using the lee 312-155-2r for my sks, it only has one lube groove, and maybe it will hold some lube in front of the gas check. is that enough lube? coming from castin 45-70 boolits with like 4 big grooves, it doesn't seem like it would work. does anyone lube their boolits ,then do a coat of alox or two? if so how does it work? thanks, travis

[runfiverun]

nose first like normal then push the boolit out with a dowell.

the single lube groove is my most used boolit design it holds more than enough lube.
waay more than enough in some designs with some lubes.
you can add a coat of tumble lube after or before size lubing.
I like to use a 50-50 mix of bees-wax and lanolin on just the nose portion of my long bore ride boolits.
I give them just a swipe of lube on the nose by rubbing it between my fingers first then just pulling them over the long nose, this seems to help tighten the groups.