Nose First Sizing in a Lyman 450

[gunboat57]

I was having trouble with boolits for my 30-30 Stevens 325B. My Lee 90371 would drop boolits with a .300 bore riding section and .312 bands. When I ran them through my Lyman 450 sizer to get them down to .309, the bore riding section would come out at .305 which made it hard to chamber in my rifle without seating the boolits real deep.

So I took the push rod and adjusting sleeve off the Lyman 450, and took the rod out of the sizing die. I push the boolit down through the die nose first, pushing on the gas check with the top punch. When the top punch has pushed the boolit as far as it can, then I push on the boolit with the die's rod to shove it out the bottom. The convex end of the die rod is centered by the top punch. The boolit and the die rod fall right out.

Now my boolits are .309 but still have a .300 nose section. Gas checks are squarely seated.

Of course, I have to tumble lube separately. I can only imagine the mess I'd have trying to lube while sizing using this method.

I'm guessing I'm not the only person to do it this way but I thought it was a stroke of genius. Didn't have to buy a Lee sizer die either.

[dromia]

I've done that in the past but then I got the Perfessors doofur for using my H&I dies in a press which means I can now use all my H&I dies as push throughs rather than having extra push through dies.

[gunboat57]

Great idea. I have some 7/8-14 threaded rod left over from when I made my own Snider dies. I could hollow a piece out to fit my Lyman sizing dies and make a plunger that fits the ram shell holder. A .300" plunger would work with all my 308s and "fat" 30s.

Aside, I think I see now why I was getting such good accuracy from my No1 MkIII with 90371 boolits. The nose was getting bumped up to bore diameter.

[Walter Laich]

I've wondered if this could be done. Thanks for confirming it. One less experiment to run from scratch

[gunboat57]

I've got a local machinist making a sizer die holder and plunger for my reloading press. Pretty soon I'll be able to size all my boolits nose-first. But I will add one significant improvement: I will mount my reloading press upsidedown to make inserting boolit and GC easier. I can do this because my reloading press is bolted to a plank. The plank is held down to my bench by C-clamps for portability. All I have to do is unclamp, invert the press, and reclamp.

[gunboat57]

Update:
For $20 had a 7/8"-14 threaded sleeve made to hold my Lyman sizer dies, and a .295" diameter plunger that fits in the ram of my reloading press. Now I can size boolits nose-first from .308 to .314 in my reloading press.

And my .300/.308 bore riding boolits sure shoot. My Stevens 325B is now making 3 shot groups at 50 yards that are under 1". I think it can do better but I'd need to mount a scope to do it.

[Walter Laich]

Interesting idea about upside down. Think that might work for me

[gunboat57]

100568100569100570

Here's how it all came together.
The plunger fits in an extra shell holder. It's a little wobbly so it can line up with the sizing die.
The sizing die is a sticky fit inside the 7/8"-14 threaded sleeve.
Turn the press upside down and it's easy to see what you're doing.
Boolits presently fall onto the carpet. I'll probably catch 'em in a padded piece of tupperware though it's just as easy to catch 'em in your hand.

[odis]

I really like the kit that I bought from the perfessor, its what I use for my rifle slugs.