Ring around my boolits

[JJC]

When I size my boolis in a Lyman sizer I am getting a ring on the first quarter of the nose. The mold is RCBS 45 405 and top punch #600. My alloy is 14 BHN. Seems like the punch is undersized and is rubbing or swaging the nose. I have not had this situation before. Do I need to order a new top punch and check it against my current one? Boolits drop 460 and sizing to 459 so I don't think Im exerting to much force. Thanks John

[gray wolf]

It could be the top punch ? You may be able to use some fine-- as in 300 plus Sand paper.
Put the stem of the punch in a drill and spin it a little with a little pressure.
OR-- seat a bullet half way into the sizer --try not to bugger it up-- put a light coat of Vaseline on the nose of the bullet--mix up a little J-B weld or epoxy and put a little in the top punch--then let it come to rest on top of the bullet with very little pressure against the bullet-- let it harden and you should have a custom top punch. You can put the shank of the punch back in the drill and spin it again while you use a fine file to trim any extra epoxy that may have gotten on the out side.
OR--try a new top punch.


Sam

[anachronism]

Use a flat punch with no lip at all. It'll work better anyway.

[geargnasher]

I run into that all the time with the @Q#$@#$%@ Lyman top punches, the newer production ones are junk. My fix for the ring is to chuck the top punch in a drill press and "turn" the bottom of the bell out a little bit with the tip of a file, then polish with sandpaper. Often there will be a lip on the edge, just smooth that out. Other times I have to get "Western" with a coarse file and really open it up, especially with the SWC top punches.

Gear

[leftiye]

Maybe a 90 degree countersink?

[MtGun44]

Flat tip top punch works for a huge number of designs.

Slight deformation from minor mismatch of top punch is no big deal.
Back of boolit steers, front is no big deal, will not affect accy.

Bill

[steg]

+1 on the flat top punch...............steg

[JJC]

Apperciate the info. I never knew a flat punch was available. I know the ring is asthetics but it still annoys me.

[Lloyd Smale]

this may not be the answer your looking for but back when i used lymans i would run my bullets through nose first without lubeing then after i had the batch done id run them through again base first and lube them. I did it that way more because feeding them base first it was just to easy to push them through crooked but it also would probably cure your problem. to do that though you still need a flat punch or one that has had the concaved part filled with jbweld.

[lavenatti]

I do what Lloyd just said for all my 6.5 mm boolits. The nice thing about this size is you can use the rod from the center of the sizing die as your top punch.

[DLCTEX]

I had the ring on the nose with a Lee 457-340 boolit and I just did as Gray Wolf suggested and chucked it in a drill to sand off the lip of the nose punch. Just taper the lip a little and see if that fixes the problem.

[pls1911]

Depending on the extent of metal removal required, dab some valve grinding copound in the top punch.
Spin it in a drill, usung a bullet to true up the contour... repeat as necessary.
Then remelt the bullets!