Do I HAVE to size 'em?

[Triggernosis]

Thinking about getting the Lee 358-125RF double-cavity mould for .38 Special to start with....absolute newby here. Should I go ahead and get a .358 sizing die, too?

[nhrifle]

If you are going to tumble lube them with Lee Liquid Alox, no. Just cast, lube and go.

[bowenrd]

Depends on a few variables. What size will they drop from the mold? You won't know till you start casting. Cast size will vary from mold to mold and the alloy can make a difference in size. What size is the cylinder throat? What size is the bore? Fit is the one single thing most important for success with cast. It is going to take some experimenting on your part to find what will work for your mold and your firearm.

[ipijohn]

Agree with #3 above but will also add that when I have a size/firearm/alloy match made, I size all before TL process to make certain that I don't have any "fat" ones due to not getting the mold closed all of the way.

[rsrocket1]

I bought all my Lee moulds before buying the sizer except for my most recent purchase for a 9mm mould. I eventually bought a sizer for the 401-175-TC, but I don't size the 358-158-RF or TL452-230-TC's because they don't need sizing to shoot well in my guns. You should try casting and shooting the bullets before buying the sizer unless turn around time of another purchase is worth more than the cost of the sizer.

[DxieLandMan]

I have the tumble lube for 9mm and I think that I need to get a sizing die because they will not feed in my pistol.

[dakotashooter2]

The biggest issue you might run into is a bullet on the large size in conjunction with some thick brass. That combo could cause some chambering issues otherwise the bullet will "size itself" going down the barrel..................

[Wolfer]

The only way to know is try some. Most of the time they will work just fine.

[ipijohn]

The only way to know is try some. Most of the time they will work just fine.

I am from the school of "work just fine" every time.

[mdi]

Measure the bullets as they come from the mold. Slug the barrel of the gun. Without facts (measurements) it's all just a guess...

How could you possibly know if they need sizing if you don't know what size they are?

[williamwaco]

You CAN shoot them unsized. IF you can get them into the chamber.

In my experience at least one or two out of every ten will be to large in diameter to enter your chambers.

I tried it.

I didn't like it.

Sizing all of them is a lot less work than pulling 10% of them.


.

[MtGun44]

Biggest advantage to sizing is you KNOW what size each one is. William's comments are
dead on - it is easy to relax your grip a touch or get a bit of debris between blocks and
cast a slightly oversized group (number of cavities). Lee molds are somewhat more
prone to this than others.

Bill

[rintinglen]

Buy a Lee .358 sizer kit. It will save you much grief in the long run.

[reloader28]

I've had a 2 cav and now a 6 cav molds with this boolit and they both drop at 358-3585 and weigh 130gr with straight WW if that helps you out any.
I aint tried liquid alox, but it should be fine to just dip them in and load em up.

[runfiverun]

size them.
it amazes me when i am sizing and i can feel the difference between a .001 and an .002 oversized boolit.
i have a couple 2 cav molds i could sort into both cavity's piles when sizing.

[uaskme]

I dont size revolver boolits. I just tumble lube them and load. All guns are a little different. Try to shoot them as cast. I can load a round with my Dillon about as fast as I can size a boolit. You can spend a lot of time slugging barrels etc, measuring and not now any more than what you started with. It takes the proper equipment to do it. I use pin guages to measure the throats and go from there.

[alamogunr]

Thinking about getting the Lee 358-125RF double-cavity mould for .38 Special to start with....absolute newby here. Should I go ahead and get a .358 sizing die, too?

I used that boolet with 2 Ruger P95's I had purchased for my sons. Tumble lubed with LLA/JPW and loaded unsized. Worked fine. Haven't tried with .38 Spec. but plan to soon.

[MBTcustom]

I don't size pistol boolits unless I have to. I have made special equipment that makes it so that I never have to worry about it though. The Lee factory crimp die has a carbide ring in it that sizes the final cartridge one more time to make sure it will chamber in any gun. The problem is that it will size down your boolit inside the case and cause leading the likes of which mere mortals cannot fathom.
I have an absolutely limitless supply of one kind of brass for my 45, so what I did was to polish out the carbide ring so that it actually sizes the boolit to .452 inside the case no matter what size they started out as. I just lube with 45/45/10 and let it ride.

If you are going to be using a traditional wax lube, then a sizer is used to make the wax go into the lube grooves cleanly.
There are several ways to do this, but if you can scrape together enough coin for a Lyman 45, 450, or 4500 that is the cheapest and easiest way to get where you are going.

If you are broke, you can pan lube with a stiff wax lube in a silicone dish, peel the dish off the lube cake and boolits, and push them out with a pencil. You may or may not size these boolits as the right lube will come off very cleanly.

You can pan lube in a stiff metal dish and use a cartridge like a cookie cutter to cut the boolits out of the wax, then run them through a lee sizer.

Another option is to dip lube. This is where you take the boolit and "dip" it in melted lube till the grooves are covered, pull it out, wipe the base on a paper towel, and run it through the Lee sizer. This is the method I use for rifle boolits.

For pistol, I am blessed to have a 450. Its not as accurate as a saeco, RCBS, or a Star, but it certainly is good enough on short pistol boolits.
Honestly though, since I discovered 45/45/10, the 450 has set idle for a long time.

[BAGTIC]

I don't size pistol bullets either. They have always worked. Just work up your load with the unsized bullets you will be using.

[Elkins45]

It comes down to an economic decision based on how you plan to acquire your hardware. If you're ordering it online then your options are risking having to pay shipping all over again for just a sizer should the boolets drop too large. The other side of that gamble is the risk of spending $20+ on a Lee push thru sizer you don't need. If they are in stock at the LGS then it's not so much of a big deal...just go back and buy it if you need it.

My default position on pistol boolets for plinking or volume shooting is to always try to find a tumble lubed boolet I can shoot unsized. I find lubrisizing 1000+ pistol boolets to be just a tad dull when compared to just tumbling, drying and loading them. The only way I consider sizing pistol bullets is when it has been proven shooting them unsized doesn't work, when gas checks need to be seated, or if I'm driving them so fast I need to use a conventional lube groove design filled with a high-performance lube.

Having said that, the small investment in a Lee push thru sizer is probably worth. Even though I just said I'm not a big fan of sizing I still have push thru dies in all the pistol calibers I shoot. You never know when you'll get a new mold, gun or batch of brass that causes you to have to change your normal loading routine.

[Tbird]

I size all of mine

[MikeS]

Buying a Lee sizer is a cheap way to make sure all your boolits are the proper size. If you don't size them, it's possible to get an occasional few that are too large to chamber in your gun. Having the sizer is good insurance that they'll all fit your gun. Before buying the sizer, slug the cylinders of your revolver, and get a sizer that's either the same size, or .001 larger than your cylinder throats. Once you have the sizer, then you can choose between tumble lubing, or pan lubing, or better yet, you can try both to see which one you like better.

I normally size all my boolits, but lately I haven't been sizing the boolits I've cast for my BPCR rifle as the Lyman moulds I have all drop boolits as cast at the proper size for my gun, and I've been pan lubing them as BPCR uses different lube than smokeless, and at the moment I don't have an extra lubrisizer to dedicate to BP lube.

[Muddydogs]

I just got the Lee 358 158 RF 6 hole mold which drops 360 to 362 bullets which could cause problems if not sized. My other 2 Lee 6 hole molds one in 44 and another 40 both drop bullets the size they are supposed to which probably don't need sized.

[prs]

I typically do not size revolver boolits and when I lube size them its usually with a size die at or even 1 thou over the drip diameter, but that is 6 cavity moulds that have better alignment pins and which close way more consistently with hot (at least for me) than do the Lee two cavity moulds with the tongue and groove alignment arrangement. Now, if your new mould arrives with the new alignment system similar to that of the 6 cavity moulds, you can report to us about how consistently it drops. With revolvers, I mostly shoot .454 boolits through .453 throats and down tight .452 or even.451 barrels and the boolits don't complain one itty bit. Now semi-auto boolits, I learned the hard way, do what you gotta do to make those fit.

prs

[XWrench3]

as long as they drop big enough to plug up the bore, they should work. worse case scenario is they are to small. then you are going to have a LOT of scrubbing to do each and every time you shoot. do yourself a HUGE favor. make some up, and measure them. get a small package of egg sinkers (make SURE they are lead, ZINC will be extremely hard to push thru the bore) and push on thru each (oiled) cylinder bore, and one down the barrel, and mic them. the boolits you shoot will NEED to be at least 0.001" LARGER (sometimes +.002") than the size of the bore of the cylinders or barrel. also, if the cylinders (throat) are smaller than the barrel bore, it is going to give you nightmares. they will swag the bullet smaller than the bore of the barrel, and that will allow hot gasses to blow past the bullet, leading your barrel. getting a revolver right to shoot cast boolits can be a bit of work, but once done, will be a great shooter. and it will not hurt shooting "j" bullets one bit. it is actually the way they should be before they leave the factory. but it is much cheaper for a factory to just ship them, since many shooters will only shoot factory loaded ammo, which is mostly "J" bullets.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I just got the Lee 358 158 RF 6 hole mold which drops 360 to 362 bullets which could cause problems if not sized.

same here, I bought a New Lee 358 158 RF 6 cav. mold about 1 year ago...drops boolits around the .3605 to .3610 using WW alloy with 1% Tin added.

BUT, load a few, if they chamber reliably in all the cylinders of your revolver, you're good to go.