Casting drops significantly larger

[Boolit_Head]

After my last casting session I'm noticing several bullets are more difficult to size and must be dropping much larger. In fact they seem to have markings farther up the nose than the others. If they were from the same batch as the normal or other ones is there anything in the casting process that could cause them to be larger from one drop to the next? I have not had a chance to measure them yet as I was running a few through the lubrisizer last night and got to thinking about it today.

If it is of any value these were ~9lb WW with ~1lb Lyman #2 per pot and I was using a NOE 452-230 HP mold.

[243winxb]

There are a few reasons your cast bullets are oversize. 1) There is a nick or burr on the mold face 2) Splash of lead on the mold face 3) No or insufficient lubrication on the mold alignment pins. http://leeprecision.net/support/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/332/62/oversized-bullets

[fredj338]

If you are adding mystery alloy as you cast, will change the size. If you allow the pot to get low, alloy temp changes, also affects final size.

[rintinglen]

Carefully inspect the channels that the pins for the HP ride in. I had a similar problem with my NOE 358-125 HP, which I discovered was due to me filling the hot mold and not having the blocks fully closed, allowing lead to seep down into the channel and wedge the blocks apart. My boolits were slightly out of round and I was getting flashing on the noses of the hollow points. The cure involved removing the pins and heating the lead in the channel with a propane torch until I could scrape it out with a bamboo skewer.

[Boolit_Head]

I just realized I found a flake of lead on a pin and I spun in in my drill and hit it with some steel wool to get rid of it. That could account for what I was seeing.

[rosewood]

Sounded like unintentional "beagling"