Sizing Pope-type boolits

[PBSmith]

Just received my first Pope-type molds for .32 WS and probably don't know what I'm doing. These are tapered bullets, similar to the Loverin designs, but apparently preceded Loverin. They are old Lyman Ideal molds and a Rapine. I suspect the people who used this style of bullet long ago might have loaded them unsized, but even in the soft lead I plan to use they are going to be oversize for my application by a few thousandths. I've sized the Loverin bullets before and had good results so I'll try it here with the Pope.

Question: in sizing this type of tapered bullet, am I better of using a Lee push through or a Lyman 45, or doesn't it make any difference? I'd prefer to use the Lyman with the H&I die but my hunch is the Lee might give more concentric sizing for this style of bullet.

Your thoughts?

Thanks,
PBSmith.

[Green Frog]

Not to throw cold water on your hot lead, but you already know the answer... they were meant to be fired as cast and without sizing. A variety of methods to lubricate these unsized bullets was devised, so they never saw a lubri-sizer. If you do try to size these significantly tapered bullets, I fear you will experience smearing and distortion. JMHO, but I think you'd be a lot better off finding someone who needs those highly specialized bullet moulds and buying (or trading for) the size you actually need.

Froggie

[3856imp]

Shoot as cast your barrel is the size die. That's the point.

[PBSmith]

Shoot as cast your barrel is the size die. That's the point.

I'll do that if the bases aren't too large in diameter. Will discover when I do the first cast. Thanks.

[Green Frog]

Some of us use mechanical breech seaters with lots of mechanical advantage. This works to seat oversized, tapered bullets into the chamber lede for a perfect alignment with the bore. This is not an option with repeaters, only single shots. Then again, most tapered bullets are not intended to be shot in fixed ammunition through repeaters.. they are for breech seating in single shots.

Froggie

[PBSmith]

Froggie,
Very interesting. Thanks for you notes.

While you're on this topic, would you mind telling me the difference between a Pope-style bullet and a Loverin bullet? The two Loverin molds I've got cast tapered bullets. One of them out-shoots everything else in my .30-30. I size them slightly but doing so only cleans up the bottom bands.

In your single-shot work, what do you do if the base of the tapered bullet is larger than the case neck ID? Or are your molds custom-made for each rifle so this is not an issue?