How do you measure your boolits?

[bdecker9]

This is my first post so bear w/ me, I have a sr9. been reloading for just about a year and casting boolits for maybe 6 months. i get leading pretty bad. usually all the way thru the barrel. i just slugged the barrel, and got .3565, so this means i need .3575+, as ive been reading for a while. well my boolits aren't round, as i've found many others say theirs aren't either. do you guys avg your measurements or take the smallest or...anyway i just wanna shoot lead w/o scrubbing the heck outta my barrel all the time. also, have tried many loads/powder combos, best luck i had was w/ blue dot. got it to where only leaded toward the muzzle end of the barrel but figure it was a better or bigger batch of bullets. as now i have more lead and able to adjust alloy somewhat. but mainly would like to know the "proper" way to measure my lead pills. thanks, brando

btw shooting 356-125-2r and they measure from on the same pill 356-358, that was on a pretty hot batch, some light frosting on half the boolits

[captaint]

decker - If it were me, and I've been there - I would, first - try to get bigger boolits. .358 at the smallest diameter, measured with micrometers should help. Sounds like your lube might be failing you also. That smaller diameter will allow gas blow by and then we have leading. So, better lube, bigger boolits. Some tin in the mix might make them a little larger diameter. Also, if you get things too hot while casting, you can actually end up with SMALLER boolits. Mike

[bangerjim]

You might try electrostatic gun powder coating. That adds about a thou or so to the diameter and removes all need for any kind of lube!

Search this site for powder coating and read the several threads. You will learn a lot. Some of the threads are VERY LONG, so plan to spend some time reading.....it will be worth your time!

Here is a start: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?209151-Powder-Coating-101-Electrostatic-Method

The $59 (-20% coupon) Harbor Freight spray gun is the only way to go for accurate, smooth, reliable coating of boolits. Their powder is also very inexpensive as opposed to the "gold dust" on-line places peddle.

I now coat all my slugs, quite making/using greasy lubes, and have absolutely ZERO leading in my 9/30/38/40/45 cal barrels.

bangerjim :guntootsmiley:

[Wayne Smith]

Your smallest measure is where the gas blows by, thus creating leading. This is the only one that matters, practically. You need a diffeerent mold or to enlarge the one you have.

[bdecker9]

well "fit" would seem to be the problem then. i have a six cav mold i haven't got handles for yet. hoping it drops a tad bit bigger. either way when i get them handles i plan on trying to mod the 2 cav to drop what i need. thanks a bunch. decker

[Wayne Smith]

well "fit" would seem to be the problem then. i have a six cav mold i haven't got handles for yet. hoping it drops a tad bit bigger. either way when i get them handles i plan on trying to mod the 2 cav to drop what i need. thanks a bunch. decker

Yup, you got it. You have several suggestions above for enlarging the boolit as it is, or you can modify the mold. Either way you have some work to do!

[oldandslow]

bd9, 9/13/13

I first started out casting 9mm with a couple of Lee molds including yours, the 356-125-2R and had a number of problems like you.

First- you need to make sure you're using a micrometer and not a caliper to measure your barrel slug and boolit diameter. The caliper is too inaccurate. Your Ruger SR9 measurement of 0.3565" seems a bit on the large size as most current manufacturer 9mm barrels are pretty close to 0.355". It might be worthwhile to re-slug and recheck with a micrometer. As for your desired boolit diameter I like 0.003" oversize. This allows for a little bit of swaging to smaller diameters when loading the boolit into the brass.

When I measured my Lee mold boolit diameters I got minimal variations between cavities running 0.357" to .358" diameters unsized. I tried loading unsized boolits but the fat ogive (the round part of the boolit between the drive bands and front of the boolit) was too big to fit both a chamber gauge (Dillon) and my pistol's chambers. When sizing the boolit diameters were 0.356" but still had to be loaded at quite a bit shorter COAL (cartridge overall length) to fit in the chambers. I was also getting a moderate amount of leading throughout the barrel. Then, thanks to the helpful folks here at CBF I was told to measure a boolit, then load it and then pull it and remeasure it. The act of loading the boolit caused the brass to swage down my boolits to 0.355" causing gas blow-by and leading.

The answer, unfortunately for my wallet, was to order a different mold. I ordered a 135grain mold from Tom at www.Accuratemolds.com (357135-A) that mic'd out at 0.3575-.358" or approximately 3 thousandths oversize. The ogive was slimmer than the Lee mold so I can skip the sizing step and go right to pan lubing. I get no leading now in any of my 9mm's.

The problem with enlarging the size of your Lee 9mm molds is that you're going to be enlarging an already oversized ogive and may have trouble chambering the rounds unless you load them with a really short COAL. Good luck.

best wishes- oldandslow

[dale2242]

I use a good quality micrometer to measure boolit diameter.
The Chinese digital calipers are good enough for case and overall length measuring.
I don`t feel they are good enough to get precise boolit diameters....dale

[mdi]

I have found that casting with cooler alloy my bullets come out closer to mold size (less shrinkage) and usually +- .0015" out of round. I will often just run my bullets through a Lee sizer (.357" for my 9mm, .358" for my 38/357, .432" for the majority of my .44s, and .451"-.452" for my 45 ACP) and that "rounds them out" pretty good...

[WILCO]

i get leading pretty bad. usually all the way thru the barrel. anyway i just wanna shoot lead w/o scrubbing the heck outta my barrel all the time. also, have tried many loads/powder combos, best luck i had was w/ blue dot. got it to where only leaded toward the muzzle end of the barrel but figure it was a better or bigger batch of bullets. as now i have more lead and able to adjust alloy somewhat. but mainly would like to know the "proper" way to measure my lead pills.

My best advice is to stop, go back to square one. Too many variables to give a correct answer. You're only going to run in circles until full grasp of endeavor is at hand.

Some issues your dealing with run the gamut of measuring tools, boolit size and fit, alloy BHN, lube, powder selection, gas checks and so on. Start with these two reloading manuals and go forward from there.

Best wishes!

[trixter]

I have been casting for about 4 years and run Lee TL 200 SWC, lubed with straight Lee Liquid Alox, size them through a Lee 451 push through sizer and then tumble lube again. I have seen some slight smudges in my barrel on very few occasions. I have found that If I take 1 jacketed bullet and make that my last shot for the outing, I go home with an immaculate barrel.

[leadman]

As far as Ruger barrels being .355' I had a P95 that was .357". My son has it now.

Are you measuring the boolit after sizing? Sizing can make them a little more round if one side is over the sized diameter.
If you are using the same caliper to measure the boolit and the slug out of the barrel it should be good enough. It is not rocket science and I can slug revolvers without a measuring tool at all!
You did not mention lube but use a quality lube like White Label lubes sells on this board. I prefer the Carnuba Red but all his seem to work well.
How hard is your boolit or what alloy? If you can drive one of your cast boolits thru the bore (make sure the bore is clean and oiled). This will tell you visually if the boolit is too small.
If the boolit is too small the addition of antimony or linotype can increase the size and also make it harder. Or you can lap the mold out a little, there should be directions in a sticky.
When you determine the proper boolit size make sure it will slip into the mouth of a case fired in your gun. This will ensure the boolit will be released safely when fired.

[bdecker9]

Okay, all in all, i am pretty confident that the barrel on the ruger is over size. the one post above talks about my bullet prof. well i can seat a bullet bigger than will fit in the mag and still chamber fine (plunk test.) and recovered lead from the dirt pile would suggest that the rifling is not "diggin"
in to the bullet. another gun i have, hipoint 9mm rifle leave many signs of the rifling. it barely leads as far as i can tell. longer barrel but i have bore light and seem to be pretty clean. any of the lead i did get in that gun was probably from lube failure. at any rate it was way less than ruger. anyway, really guys i love all the help and suggestions.

also, finally ordered my handles for my six cav. same bullet tho. but i won't be as scared to tamper with the 2x now. really hoping the 6 drops a bigger or least rounder bullets. thanks again guys, decker

[Gee_Wizz01]

My Ruger P89 also slugs out at .357. When I started shooting cast in the P89 my barrel looked like a sewer pipe, and it took me forever to get the lead out. I had several other 9mm's that shot clean with the same load, so I was perplexed at first. Then I slugged the barrel and found it was .357, and I was sizing to .356. I then used a different mold and sized to .358 and the problem was solved.

G

[bdecker9]

just got back in from shooting range(back yard:razz:) shot the same boolits outta my hipoint 995. shot some the other day and cleaned the barrel and i thought there was no leading. well there isn't again. also bullets fired from the hipoint have rifling "evidence" on the as the ones from the ruger are(hard to explain) scratched or rough buffing marks on them. i'm 99% sure its just a big az barrel. i used calipers to measure when i slugged the sr9. but i'm pretty confident with the measurement. thanks g, for giving me hope, to be able 2 fire 50 rounds off for around $4 w/o having to scrub the barrel.