big mistake!

[jsu]

Being new to casting I now know I have a lot to learn. I had casted around 600 ,158 gr. Swc in. 357 to shoot in. 38s in my. 357.bh . I tried some last week and they shot good with occasional flier. So this week I received a .358 sizer that I ordered. S o I preceded to size them thinking. How much better they were going to shoot! I loaded some and shot them today and don't know why but the horse threw a shoe! They wouldn't stay on a target at 25yards and were keyholing! I then panicked because I had sized the hole pile of them. I recovered though, I loaded some with trail boss powder at max load and all is good again. The groups were better than ever, I actually shot a .97 @25 yds and that's as good as it gets with my eyes. The moral is don't assume anything and work with small quantities until you know its going to work. Maybe someone here can tell me why the boolits did what they did because I sure don't know, im just glad I found a load they like so I don't have to melt them back down. Ps. They were made from coww

[Larry Gibson]

What SWC?

What lube?

What was the bad load?

Larry Gibson

[41 mag fan]

One nice thing about lead...you can remelt over and over till you get it right

[jsu]

The boolit was lee tl358-158-swc I used lee alox and tumble lubed before and after sizing and 5.7 grains unique did not. Work 4.2 grains of trail boss clocked in at 857 fps average, and like I said was very accurate.

[Mk42gunner]

Sounds like a size issue to me. What is the diameter as cast, and after running through your alleged .358" sizer? You may have to lap the sizing die to get the correct diameter, but if you are using a tumble lube boolit, and it worked before sizing, why size?

Robert

[jsu]

Sounds like a size issue to me. What is the diameter as cast, and after running through your alleged .358" sizer? You may have to lap the sizing die to get the correct diameter, but if you are using a tumble lube boolit, and it worked before sizing, why size?

Robert

The cast were .359-360 like I said shot with some fliers, like five really in there with one outside group over an inch, that's what I was trying to fix with the sizing
I measured the sized boolits they seemed to be .358. They shoot good with new load,just wondering what could cause such drastic results?

[Larry Gibson]

I would recheck that load; 5.7 - 6 gr Unique should be a good load with that bullet.

Larry Gibson

[leadman]

If you have a load that you like that is great. If you want to use the first load you could sort some by weight and see if this eleminates your flyers.
Try one of your sized boolits in the throats of your cylinder. If they do not touch you may want to use they as cast size.

[jsu]

I would recheck that load; 5.7 - 6 gr Unique should be a good load with that bullet.

Larry Gibson

I will check, like you say it should work. I'm a pretty careful reloader but I have made some errors before. No lost fingers or eyes!

[jsu]

If you have a load that you like that is great. If you want to use the first load you could sort some by weight and see if this eleminates your flyers.
Try one of your sized boolits in the throats of your cylinder. If they do not touch you may want to use they as cast size.

I feel foolish because in another thread I stated my throats were. 355 but trying what you said proved me wrong. The boolits push through the cylinder. With a little pressure but their not loose. And the boolits measure. 358 like they should. I have to eat a little crow on mismeasuring the throats, but i'm not a machinist. Any escuse is better than none. Some of the boolits seem to be small at the top I can see where the bottom driving band was sized but the top is untouched. Could this be an issue?