Excesive diameter?

[nueces5]

Good morning and happy year!
I bought a new mold for me .40
It has a strange shape, similar to Lee's TL series
The seller told me that it was not necessary to size him, I have measured and the boolits fall to .404-.405 and pc .405-.406
I think it's a lot of diameter, but I wanted to check with you before testing.
Pistol is a Glock 35
https://i.ibb.co/GJxJYGf/image.jpg (https://ibb.co/TTvTjJD)

[ioon44]

I have shot .404-.405" bullets out of my Walther PPQ, it all depends on the round clambering.

The TL style of your bullets will be sized down on loading, you should pull a loaded bullet and see what it measures.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Did you load any?
Did the loaded rounds chamber reliably?
If they don't chamber reliably, then you'll have to size them.

FYI, I size all the boolits I make. Even if your boolits would drop to the correct size, I think it's best to size them. The best caster will still get some blems...while you can and should sort them out, some will still sneak through, and sizing them will at least make a un-uniform boolit the correct diameter.

[Phlier]

Good morning and happy year!
I bought a new mold for me .40
It has a strange shape, similar to Lee's TL series
The seller told me that it was not necessary to size him, I have measured and the boolits fall to .404-.405 and pc .405-.406
I think it's a lot of diameter, but I wanted to check with you before testing.
Pistol is a Glock 35
https://i.ibb.co/GJxJYGf/image.jpg (https://ibb.co/TTvTjJD)

It may not have been necessary for the previous owner to size them with the particular alloy that he was using. But IMO, your boolits are pushing the chunkier side a bit... I'd size 'em.

But as ioon44 says, you'll want to pull a loaded round and measure the boolit diameter to see how much those thin TL style drive bands are getting swaged by the brass before making any decisions. You might find that you end up with a .402 diameter after pulling a boolit that measured .404 prior to loading. Those thin TL style drive bands are notorious for case swaging.

[Dusty Bannister]

Less tin does not make a bullet smaller, but more antimony makes a bullet harder and larger.

[454PB]

What Dusty said. Pure lead casts the smallest, as antimony rises, so does diameter. Slug your barrel, size accordingly, and make sure the loaded rounds fit and feed correctly.

[Phlier]

Less tin does not make a bullet smaller, but more antimony makes a bullet harder and larger.
Whoops, you're right... I had that backward.. More ANTIMONY makes a bullet larger. I'll fix my prior post.

[kmw1954]

Still learnin al those fine minute details but I still think they look great!

[dverna]

One of my goals is to cast a .38/.357 bullets that I do not need to size, so I will disagree with JonB on this. But it may depend on your uses.

For IPSC, CAS and general plinking and training, getting optimum bullet accuracy is nice to have but not needed. At least for me.

Even using a Star, doing a 1000 bullets takes time and effort. It would be so much easier to cast a boatload, squirt on some BLL, shake and let dry, and shoot. If you test them unsized, and they perform well, my suggestion is to shoot them unsized. If the PC makes them too large, try BLL unless you want colored bullets.

[MT Gianni]

My Kahr will not chamber .402" bullets which my Smith prefers. The Kahr has to have them sized .401 to feed. Only your gun knows what it wants.

[nueces5]

Thank you all for your advice.
I think I'm going to size all of them to .401 and I'll make them a new layer of pc.
The .40 in a glock is a caliber with little tolerance, I don't want to lose my fingers
It catches my attention that Lee has not done any of .402, but hey, I will solve it with the extra layer of pc

[mdi]

I'm with JonB on this subject. Either load a few and plunk them or make a few dummies to make sure they chamber. I believe in the K.I.S.S. method, try them then if there's a problem you can attack it, rather than trying to fix a problem before it presents itself.

[onelight]

I'm with JonB on this subject. Either load a few and plunk them or make a few dummies to make sure they chamber. I believe in the K.I.S.S. method, try them then if there's a problem you can attack it, rather than trying to fix a problem before it presents itself.
Me to !

[fredj338]

Give them a try unsized & see. I doubt that they would fit in every pistol unsized. I assize everything because I use mixed brass & once & awhile, a fat bullet & a thick case will cause a chambering issue.