Patrick L
07-31-2016, 01:54 PM
I've been loading for nearly 30 years, and yesterday something happened to me yesterday that proves you've never seen it all.
I've heard that when loading cast boolits, you need to watch out for lube building up in the seating die, causing boolits to seat deep, possibly raising pressures, etc. While I've heard of this, I've NEVER experienced it, in spite of all my years loading. Well, that changed yesterday.
I have been loading a batch of my usual .44 special load, which uses a Lee 200 gr RFP that I run as cast lubed in thinned LLA. I've shot thousands of these over the years. I loaded about 250 or so without incident on Friday, then called it a night. I started up again yesterday, and after about 125-150 I noticed my rounds were looking VERY stubby. Sure enough, boolit lube had built up in the seating die to the degree that I needed to dig it out with a scribe and sharp hook. Boolits were seated a good 3/16ths deeper than normal. I checked all of the rounds loaded the previous day, and they were all fine.
I ended up using my inertial bullet puller to half disassemble the rounds (meaning usually I could tell by feel if the boolit had moved, rather than completely disassembling the round) then run them back through the seat/crimp die.
So the moral of the story is, pay attention and don't assume you know it all. You don't!
I've heard that when loading cast boolits, you need to watch out for lube building up in the seating die, causing boolits to seat deep, possibly raising pressures, etc. While I've heard of this, I've NEVER experienced it, in spite of all my years loading. Well, that changed yesterday.
I have been loading a batch of my usual .44 special load, which uses a Lee 200 gr RFP that I run as cast lubed in thinned LLA. I've shot thousands of these over the years. I loaded about 250 or so without incident on Friday, then called it a night. I started up again yesterday, and after about 125-150 I noticed my rounds were looking VERY stubby. Sure enough, boolit lube had built up in the seating die to the degree that I needed to dig it out with a scribe and sharp hook. Boolits were seated a good 3/16ths deeper than normal. I checked all of the rounds loaded the previous day, and they were all fine.
I ended up using my inertial bullet puller to half disassemble the rounds (meaning usually I could tell by feel if the boolit had moved, rather than completely disassembling the round) then run them back through the seat/crimp die.
So the moral of the story is, pay attention and don't assume you know it all. You don't!