JohnH
01-01-2015, 09:15 PM
A couple weeks back I ordered an NOE 434429 plain base boolit mold. I've had trouble for several years with 44 Magnum rifle barrels not shooting well and recently discovered that SAAMI specs allow two different bore and groove diameters for handguns and rifles so chambered. The 434429 boolit drops beautiful .434 diameter boolits and has resolved accuracy issues with two different rifles, and NEF and a Rossi '92. Now its a question of case dimensions. I'm using the boolit as cast, except for sizing the forward most driving band to .431 to seat in the chamber of the Rossi without interference. The NEF will take it completely unsized, but shoots the boolit equally well either way. Good thing, I don't have to keep up with separate sizing of boolits. The matter at hand now is a question of case sizing. Obviously dies are sized to work best with .429-.430 bullets. After FL sizing and then expanding, the inside of the case at the bullet seat area is .426. The rifles will chamber loaded cases which have not been full length sized, the boolit diameter is such that no sizing is required for firm seating and obviously the crimp aids the situation. But after a few firings of ammo so loaded, the Rossi lever gun begins to balk as chambering becomes a bit stiffer.
My question is this, would it be worthwhile to have a sizing die made which is slightly larger by a few thousandths than a standard die, which does not "squeeze" so tightly on the as cast boolit, allow me to seat the oversize as cast boolits without trouble, and get a little extra life out of the brass, I'd like to completely eliminate FL sizing altogether, but may not be able to. Hmmmmm.
My question is this, would it be worthwhile to have a sizing die made which is slightly larger by a few thousandths than a standard die, which does not "squeeze" so tightly on the as cast boolit, allow me to seat the oversize as cast boolits without trouble, and get a little extra life out of the brass, I'd like to completely eliminate FL sizing altogether, but may not be able to. Hmmmmm.