The biggest disappointment I had with cast boolits was the shelf life. In other words if I developed a load for current hunting season and had plenty of ammo left over I could not expect the same results 1 year later. Has any one tried these pc boolits in loaded form a year or 2 later and get the same results as at beginning of assembly?
Look twice, shoot once.
Powder coating parts adds a very long lasting, durable finish. I can't imagine why coated boolits would be any different. My rounds coated and loaded almost a year ago work fine. That's as long as I have been PCing.
I think a possible problem with Cast Boolits loaded for long periods of time is case neck tension. I have disassembled cast 30-30 rounds that were sized .310 but measured .308 after 4 months in the case. I have begun using custom Lee collet dies that expand the necks to have an inside diameter of not more than .001" less than sized diameter. Seems to improve accuracy but it may just be wishful thinking.
My 308W loaded ~2 yrs ago shoot the same. I don't use tin so no age softening and they were PC'd & H.T.'d.
Whatever!
TheCelt Do you think you may have sized the bullets down when you loaded them? Not a expert but it is hard for me to get my thinking right on the case neck sizing the bullet down. Not saying that it doing that but that sure throws a wrench into my little world I have to many things bouncing around my head.
Reloading to save money I am sure the saving is going to start soon
The only way I can envision PC'd boolits changing over time is if you use a grease-based lube while loading them. Some seem to still insist on lubing the boolits when pushing them thru the sizing die. I have NEVER scraped off PC with a sizing die....ever. And some go thru pretty darned hard!!!
We do not know what petroleum-based lubes will do to the PC back under the brass case over time. I recommend just NOT using it at all.
If you resized your boolit by over crimping while loading..........that is not the PC's fault.
I have rounds well over a year old loaded and they show no signs of degradation of PC or shooting accuracy.
banger
Originally Posted by RP
The sizing die for a j-word sizes to provide approximately .002" interference fit. For a .308 the sized case neck ID is about .306". I size my cast 308 boolits to .310", PC and then size to .311". That is a .005" interference fit! I do think that excessive case neck tension will cause the boolit shank to be compressed over time. I started using a custom Lee collet neck sizing die with a .309" mandrel and noticed a marked improvement in accuracy with everything else being the same. This was with the 311299 cast from WW with a little lino added. Like I said before it may be wishful thinking but I have noticed an improvement!!!
I do not think the boolit is sized by the case neck on loading but do think excessive case neck tension does alter the boolit shank with time.
I'm curious about your dies. What size collet do you use with the .309 mandrel? I have the very same problem with almost every .30 caliber cast bullet I've tried.
Practical Man, I bought a custom mandrel from Lee and a standard 308 Win Collet die. I used emery cloth to open up the bushing to accept the mandrel. Now that NOE sells custom neck ID Expander plugs for Lyman M dies I think that is the best way to go.
My bad, the NOE expander plug is for the Lee universal die, not the Lyman M die.
Last edited by TheCelt; 01-14-2015 at 05:33 PM.
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