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Thread: Where would we be without a Star Sizer?

  1. #21
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    I've got three of my Star machines set up with the bullet feeders and use tubes that hold from 50 to 60 bullets, depending on the length of the bullet. I can go through a tube of bullets in about two minutes or less, if I really get on it and want to see how fast I can size and lube. I just normally set a pace and go with that, though.

    Of course, there is the time it takes to fill tubes, but I've made a little rectangular box with V-grooves in the bottom for filling the tubes. Put a handful of bullets in the box, shake it a little, orient the few that fall into the grooves backwards, then place a tube in the hole in one end and tip the box and tube so the bullets run into the tube. Repeat as necessary, and I do it while watching the news, or some silly TV show...

    Hope this helps.

    Fred
    After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. - William S. Burroughs.

  2. #22
    Boolit Grand Master

    Beagle333's Avatar
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    I love Stars. I have 7 Lymans and 5 Stars. I still like the Lymans, because I do make a number of pointy rifle/pistol bullets that fit my Lyman top punches well.
    KE4GWE - - - - - - Colt 1860, it just feels right.

  3. #23
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    I have used a star sizer since I was a kid. Love it to death for pistol bullets. you can literally run out of bullets you just cast in no time.
    that just starts the whole process over again.
    KW
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  4. #24
    Boolit Master FISH4BUGS's Avatar
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    Just finished another run of casting/sizing/reloading. 357 magnum this time.
    With this Wuhan virus flying around, and basically all my projects on hold, I have been spending a lot of time in the casting/reloading stall. (also stacking 6 cords of wood for next season). Yard work is next when the wood is done.
    I did a run of about 1500 H&G #51's, gas check version, this time. Sizing them on the Star with a gas check is certainly slower but goodness does that make a pretty bullet. I used Gator's Gas Checks and they made such a nice little pop when you put them on the shank with a perfect fit. Once sized, lubed and swaged, they surely would win beauty contests.
    Again, after a long run sizing/lubing/checking, I still marvel at the Star and how efficient a piece of equipment it is. While I have only done about 2 hour stints here and there over a week or two, I can imagine what a dedicated operator could do in an 8 or 10 hour day!
    Thanks to the one that invented the Star Sizer.
    Anyone know who that was?
    Collector and shooter of guns and other items that require a tax stamp, Lead and brass scrounger. Never too much brass, lead or components in inventory! Always looking to win beauty contests with my reloads.

  5. #25
    Boolit Master

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    I'm with you FISH4BUGS, I spent the day yesterday of an on using a RCBS for .30 cal rifle gas checked bullets and the star for some .45 bullets. I had a
    plastic ice cream bucket nearly full of the .45's and zipped through those in no time at all. It took longer to put less than a hundred of the .30 cals
    through the traditional sizer.

  6. #26
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    Mal Paso's Avatar
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    I started with a 4500. It wasn't fireproof and I wasn't fond enough to get another. The Star does it better, faster.
    Mal

    Mal Paso means Bad Pass, just so you know.

  7. #27
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    Where would we be without a Star Sizer?

    If I want to lube a lot of bullets at once I will use the Star. Have punches w/ locknuts setup for certain bullets. But if I’m only lubing a few bullets I will use a LAM1. Quicker to setup and start turning out bullets. I also tend to use different lubes for different applications, don’t know why I ever started that nonsense. But I have multiple LAMs that all have different lubes in them. The Star has CR in it and I don’t use that for a lot of bullets.

  8. #28
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    Taking the bullet out of an RCBS or Lyman sizer takes longer then pulling the handle up and down. So without any additions a Star is at least twice as fast. Adding the bullet feeder and air pressure knocks it up another 50%. I have 3 Stars and would never go back to a Lyman, even for short jobs.

  9. #29
    Boolit Buddy gnappi's Avatar
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    Add to all of the positives, for those like me with limited bench space the heated base makes a dandy quick change for my second sizer which I'd rather do than change dies.
    Regards,

    Gary

  10. #30
    Boolit Master FISH4BUGS's Avatar
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    I just did a run of 1500 H&G #331 9mm bullets on the Star. Just a couple of hours at a leisurely pace.
    This one didn't use too much lube.
    Again, my thanks to whoever invented this great piece of equipment.
    Collector and shooter of guns and other items that require a tax stamp, Lead and brass scrounger. Never too much brass, lead or components in inventory! Always looking to win beauty contests with my reloads.

  11. #31
    Boolit Grand Master In Remembrance
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    How on earth can people size and lube without a Star?
    That's personal
    Lee Lube/Sizer and pan lube served me well for many decades
    PS: Have a box full of H&I dies that I never use
    Regards
    John

  12. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by FISH4BUGS View Post
    I cast about 2500 H&G #51's over the last week in the evenings.
    Lots of lead was changed from ingot form to bullet form.
    I just sized and lubed 1000 of those in about 2 hours, taking my time and used 2 1/2 sticks of Magma Red. The 51's have a lube groove the size of the Panama Canal.
    Another 1500 to go.
    I will load 38 specials w/ 4.0 gr WW231 for about a year's supply of 38's.
    I cannot fathom doing this any other way.
    Next up H&G #503's.
    How on earth can people size and lube without a Star?
    Lube sizers all seem to be back ordered. Have not looked at a Star though.
    "If everyone is thinking the same thing it means someone is not thinking"

    "A rat became the unit of currency"

  13. #33
    Boolit Master
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    I shoot a lot of gas checked rifle boolits. Love that Star!

    I still use an old Lyman for my big, fat greaser BPCR boolits. No gas check involved with them and they get my homemade black powder lube. Everything else goes through the Star.

  14. #34
    Boolit Master

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    I have 1 Star and a pair of 450's. The Star gets the most use, in the past is applied lube and gas checks for me now it mostly sizes PC bullets. I do keep 2700+ in it for a few that I do not PC. The Lee App is beginning to take over the duty of sizing PC bullets, it is really fast once you have it dialed in. But, you still have to gas check on something and for me that is the Star.

  15. #35
    Boolit Bub
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    I ordered a Star back in June. I can already see myself picking up at least one more. Well after the pandemic pricing settles back to reality.

  16. #36
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    Quote Originally Posted by Springfield View Post
    Taking the bullet out of an RCBS or Lyman sizer takes longer then pulling the handle up and down. So without any additions a Star is at least twice as fast. Adding the bullet feeder and air pressure knocks it up another 50%. I have 3 Stars and would never go back to a Lyman, even for short jobs.
    I never thought that I'd agree with anyone from California but I am now, with the normal air unit on top I believe it to be 5 times faster then my other machines, drop 'em in the hole, quick up and down and you're done. No cranking on things, no handling the lubed boolit, done!

  17. #37
    Boolit Buddy Texas Gun's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by obssd1958 View Post
    The Star still has to have the handle moved "down then up" to complete a sizing operation, but you don't have the "remove the sized bullet" operation to complete before putting the next bullet in place to be sized. So it's not twice as fast, but can definitely be faster.
    If you have a feeder for it and a motor in my case kid’s it’s automatic

  18. #38
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    When I first started casting some 40 years ago, I bought the Lee pot and a friend bought the mold and a lube sizer.

    We cranked out a lot of the Lyman heavy 357 SWCs.

    After leaving home, I took a break from casting for several decades. When I got back into casting, I tried a few things but did not get a lube sizer.

    When I tried ASBB HF Red powder coat, my casting applications went from plinkers and target practice to full power loads suitable for my IHMSA needs. My appetite for J words went to near zero and my need to crank out boolits went way up.

    About this time I figured out that BLL would take care of anything that did not need PC. It is hard to get much easier than BLL. Some of my BLL boolits get sized, some get run "as cast".

    I still do not have a lube sizer and have zero desire to go looking for one.

    This is not to take away from those that like to use them. I am just saying that for a lot of us, being "without a Star Sizer" does not slow us down or limit what we do at all.

  19. #39
    Boolit Master
    Mal Paso's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by P Flados View Post
    I am just saying that for a lot of us, being "without a Star Sizer" does not slow us down or limit what we do at all.
    Heathen! LOL



    This is a diverse group and not everyone needs a Star. It's very good at what it does but useless if you don't need it.
    Mal

    Mal Paso means Bad Pass, just so you know.

  20. #40
    Boolit Master
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    Hey Mal, I resemble that remark.

    Now actually I must admit that I have considered looking for an inexpensive used lube sizer.

    Not that I would use it to apply lube. It would be converted to a base first "in then back out" tool that would also do some amount of what I call forming (nose shape adjustments) in addition to sizing. However, I am not so sure that any would have the grunt to do what I want.

    I previously shared my current methods for boolit forming with a press at http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...23#post4814323

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check