How much is too much to resize

[wendyj]

I had posted earlier that my Henry seemed to like .454 bullets verses the .452. I reslugged this morning and high side is pretty much dead on at .451.5. I ordered a Noe mold that was sized .454 since this was measurement of my Laser cast bullets. Al at Noe told me they would probably be a .001 over. I had casted about 400 yesterday and was waiting to buy a Rcbs lube sizer but I wanted to shot some of the 260 grain this morning. The bullet measurement on calipers from the mold run about .456 to .456.5. Not a micrometer I know. I tumble lubed about a 100 or so to shoot and they were pretty tough sizing to a Lee .452 sizing die. Done ok but rough on the arm with pressure it takes to resize. I've looked at crimp grooves and bases and everything looks ok. I don't see any grooves deformed or bases funny looking. Will this make the bullets not accurate to size down this much. Anything I should look for. I didn't load and shoot but a few hoping they would feed and cycle ok. Wondering if I shouldn't order another mold if this is an issue. BHN around 11-12 I think I was told but they were water quenched. Hope it's ok because this mold is great compared to the Lee I tried out to start with.

[Tatume]

Size them to the largest diameter that will chamber easily when the loaded cartridge is inserted.

[wendyj]

I'm asking am I sizing too much to deform my bullets from what I've been reading.

[Tatume]

I've sized many a 350 grain 0.460" bullet to 0.452" for use in the 454 Casull cartridge. They shoot well.

[Tatume]

My point is, if 0.454" works well in your gun, why size to 0.452"?

[reddog81]

When the bullets deform and you've got a skirt coming off the bottom you've sized too much. You say the crimp groove and bases look OK so you should be fine.

I usually try to not size more than .006. Anything above that seems to have a problem for me but I guess it probably depends on the size of the driving bands and maybe eevn the alloy.

[country gent]

I prefer to shoot as cast or size as little as possible. I have seen bullets sized down quite a bit and still be accurate. .004 should be okay to size down with out a lot of deformation. Measure some known items with your caliper ( dowel pins, gage pins, are very good. You want things in the same size range that the dia is already known. see what your calipers read on these items and then measure the bullets. On super tight gages and tooling in the shop we measured pin gages or gage blocks of the same size then used the tool as a comparator to the parts.

One thing that may help you with the sizing force is to lightly polish the lee die with a dowel and flannel to a better finish. flannel on a dowel wrapped to be a snug fit and flitz, simichrome, or tooth paste will give a very fine finish and polish the transition edges from lead in and lead out making them less grabby and may help lessen force required. For your die a 3/8 dowel with a 3-4" flannel patch cut to length for a snug fit when wrapped and then coated in the above.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

My thoughts are...
since you have a .452 size die and "if" you have a .454 size die, it is time for you to do some accuracy testing of the two different sizes of your own cast boolits, from the same mold, cast from your own alloy, to see what your Henry actually prefers.

But to answer your question, Sizing large bore pistol caliber boolits down .004" or .005" shouldn't be a problem. You have already mentioned what to look for in lube/crimp grooves. If they look good and the base looks good, you'll be fine.
...But the real question is what does your rifle prefer?

[wendyj]

I haven't bought a .454 resizer yet and not going too until I can scrape up enough for a lube sizer. I already had the .452 sizer. It wasn't until I started sizing on the Lee classic cast that I could feel how much pressure it was taking to do it. When I measured the new cast bullets they are bigger than .454 and are around .456 to .4565 or .4567. It's calipers so I can't call that exact. I didn't want to try a .457 bullet through my rifle without sizing first. Also don't want to ruin accuracy by shooting a deformed bullet through it but inspecting I can't see anything but may be missing something. I'm still new at this and wasn't having much luck with the Lee 2 cavity mold so I opted for the Noe instead. It may cost more but casts great looking bullets and should last my lifetime. I plan on buying a few more but going to make sure of barrel dimensions first. This one is casting a few thousands larger verses one. I called and gave all the information to Al at Noe and it was the mold he suggested. After getting it he recommended a .453 Noe sizer. The laser cast I bought at Carla's show .452 on the box but they are .454 when measured. The Rimrock bullets I bought at .452 measure .452. My rifle groups better with the laser cast. 9.5 grains of Unique under each bullet. Laser cast groups 1/2 of Rimrock. Live and learn I guess.

[wendyj]

Attachment 222250

2 on bottomhave been resized. 2 on top have not. Stupid I pad turned pictures sideways. Should have been left to right.

[Grmps]

You could polish your .452 out to .454.

You said the boolits dropped about .456 to .456.5. + the lube. measure after the lube and see what you have. looks like your trying to go from lubed .4565 apr.4575 to .458 down to .452.

Lanolin case lube helps with sizing.

I'm not much help, I gave up on lube and only use PC and HiTek coatings.

In ordering a mold let them know what alloy and lube style your using (different alloys will give you different size boolits out of the same mold, a lube sizer doesn't add to the diameter it sizes the .456 to .4565 as dropped to .454 easily.

[wendyj]

I've got some case slick. Don't know what it's made of. I usually use Hornady paste lube or one shot for bottleneck. I don't care for the case slick. It gums up my sizing die. The bullets are coming out of the mold that large. I was informed at Noe that bullet size is based on Lyman #2 but could vary. I think the lead I got on here was from wheel weights. They are all weighing really close to 259.7 grains on average give or take a few thousands as I was culling some out. Had a few weigh more but my fault for not having handles tight enough on the mold. They go back to the pot again. This mold was a lot different than the Lee as it took about 10 casts in a 4 cavity to ever get heat up enough but when it did it held it. They told me it needed to be around 600 degrees to start doing good but my hot plate will only get it to around 450.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I hope you got my point about the experiment with "your" boolits.

It doesn't matter what LaserCast or Rimrock bullets will do in your rifle, because they are NOT your boolits. But it did tell you that your rifle will function with a .454 sized boolit.

From the info you gave, I'm pretty sure your rifle will shoot "OK" with your Fat boolit sized down to either .452 or .454
...But if one size shoots 100 yard groups smaller then the other size, only your rifle will tell you.

[wendyj]

That part I understand. Only curious of how much I can resize without deforming.