sizing after coating ?

[edwin41]

hello ,

i have been experimenting with hitek bulletcoating , exellent product and i believe its the best on the market today !
so far my results are far from good , but thats really just me trying to figure out the correct procedure .

now , i want to hitek the lead hollowbase wadcutter for my hammerli 280 pistol and they come from the mihec brass 4 cavity mold.
my question would be if any sizing after the 2 coats of hitek is really neccesary ?

i size my brass with the lyman die set , wich comes with the M die to expand and flare the casemouth .
after using this die i can almost set the coated boolits with my thumb pressure , and after setting the correct depth i run the finished
cartridge through a lee factory crimp die to smooth out any form of flare , no roll crimp of course.

so my thinking would be that the coated bullets will be formed inside the casing , by the casing and the factory crimp die , or am i missing something here ?
my boolits are of a very soft alloy , i mix lead to tin at a 40 to 1 ratio.

with the procedure as described , do i really need to size my boolits before seating them ?

[igolfat8]

To each their own but I size EVERY bullet I cast and coat. That way I know they are the right size without any surprises.

[Ausglock]

Suck it and see.
You are using soft alloy. The rest of us use hard alloy.
It also depends on what Dia you mold is dropping bullets at.

[flyingmonkey35]

Measure a few bullet post and after the hitek coat.

Is it within the tolerance you want for your gun?

If not re size.

Or shoot-em and find out.

I personally resize every one. As this gives me contestant results.

Ya it's a extra step. But for me it's worth it. And you can do that while drinking a beer.



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[Conditor22]

IF the diameter is within .001 I'd just go with it.

If the sized boolits are going in the easily I would be wondering if the M die is too big.

You crimp too hard on any lead boolit (especially softer lead) you will most likely downsize the boolit and cause problems.

This is the biggest mistake people make loading 9MM.

40 - 1 = 8 BHN

[edwin41]

So it would be best to invest in a correct sizer.
Thanks for the input!

[stubshaft]

I don't understand your problem. You size, seat and crimp. If you are concerned about the boolit being undersized after crimping then use a hammer puller and pull a few and measure them.

[edwin41]

well stubshaft ,

its not really a problem , i was just wondering how the more experienced hitek coaters were reloading this kind of boolits .
something tells me that the boolits would be sized correctly inside the casing by using the lee factory crimp die , and ofcourse i mean the
taper and not the roll-crimping feature.

the coating itself is getting way better than it was.
now i got some good boolits to compare with store bought H&N high speed hbwc boolits.

my boolits are casted from a mihec hbwc wadcutter mold , and coated twice with hitek coating .
i measured them both side by side with a digital caliper and it seems to be that my homemade boolits unsized and the H&N boolits bought
are just about the same size , and that they both are a little bit larger at the bottom end than in the middle , also almost identical.

it seems to be that the homemade boolits are more on the small side than the H&N , but is a very tiny difference.
im gonna test a few without sizing them and see what happens,

last batch i shot was every bit as accurate as the storebought boolits , but the coating was not done correctly and heavy leading was the result.

it also seems a good idea to use a little less powder , as it felt like the hitek coated boolits went faster through the barrel , so yes ,
ive got some experimenting to do !

[fredj338]

I size all my bullets regardless of the lube or coating. I want them as uniform as possible, especially when loading in mixed cases.

[edwin41]

so , about the sizing part...

today i made me a sizer of the H&I sizer dimensions , so i can use this in my LYMAN 4500 lubrisizer.
its made of stainless steel , and i took the dimensions of a storebought H&N hi speed HBWC for correct dimensions.

it turned out pretty good i think , i didnt drill the holes for the bulletlube to get into the sizer , cause i want to use this sizer for the sizing of
my HITEK coated HBWC.

no for the sizing itself ...
the H&N boolits get just a very tiny sizing , but my homecasted boolits with two coats of HITEK only get a sizing in the skirt section of the boolit.
so they are a tiny bit undersized with the soft alloy i use to cast them.

the only advantage i see so far in sizing would be a little easier setting of the boolit in the casing , but i think the casing itself and the use of the lee factory crimp die will form the skirt portion pretty good.

i have some testing to do but i think these boolits wil be doing just fine without sizing them..

[edwin41]

My homemade sizer...

[Lloyd Smale]

I size them all. gas checked bullets as I seat the check and again after there cool and out of the oven. You will feel some resistance (bullet being sized) with one coat. Im sure you will gain in size appreciably with two coats.