GrizzLeeBear
08-15-2008, 02:13 PM
Got the Lee C324-175-RN mold and a .325 sizer for the 450 this week. Cast up a bunch. Man, I forgot how finicky their 2 cavity molds are. I've been spoiled by using the 6 cavity Lee and Lyman molds, but after a little while got to know its quirks and got a couple hundred good boolits. Dropped out at just over .325. Gas checked and lubed 50 - 60 of them with Lars BAC in the .325 die.
Loaded one so the base was at the base of the neck and then eased it into the chamber. Was a fair amount of resistance, so I knew it was pushing the boolit into the case. When I pulled it back out, the boolit had been pushed in almost to the crimp groove. Also, I could see where the front band was sqeezed into the throat and even shaved a little. So, I decided to slug it.
Using a couple egg sinkers that I squeezed in a vise to fatten up, I drove one into the throat and one about 6" into the muzzle. The throat measured .324 and the barrel measured slightly under .323 in the grooves and .312 on the lands. No wonder it didn't want to chamber a .325 boolit! Lesson learned. Slug your barrel BEFORE you order your sizing die!:groner:
So, I ordered a .323 die from Midway today. That's OK, I wanted to order the Redding file trim die so I could turn some more of this LC 69 30-06 into 8mm anyway.:mrgreen:
Loaded one so the base was at the base of the neck and then eased it into the chamber. Was a fair amount of resistance, so I knew it was pushing the boolit into the case. When I pulled it back out, the boolit had been pushed in almost to the crimp groove. Also, I could see where the front band was sqeezed into the throat and even shaved a little. So, I decided to slug it.
Using a couple egg sinkers that I squeezed in a vise to fatten up, I drove one into the throat and one about 6" into the muzzle. The throat measured .324 and the barrel measured slightly under .323 in the grooves and .312 on the lands. No wonder it didn't want to chamber a .325 boolit! Lesson learned. Slug your barrel BEFORE you order your sizing die!:groner:
So, I ordered a .323 die from Midway today. That's OK, I wanted to order the Redding file trim die so I could turn some more of this LC 69 30-06 into 8mm anyway.:mrgreen: