"Bore Rider" bullets that don't work after powdercoating.

[2TM101]

It seems that all of the "Bore Rider" bullet designs you can get in molds predate powder coating. If you coat them they are too large to chamber.

I have seen examples of people who somehow manage to coat just the lower half of the bullet, and other where the whole thing gets powder coated and they are "Nose Sizing" just the upper half. All done by hand or with custom made equipment.

You can buy molds intended to take gas checks. Intended for Pan Lubing, and intended for tumble lubing. But nobody makes one where that "Bore Rider" portion is small enough so that it will still work after powder coating. Is there not enough demand?

[405grain]

If a mold manufacturer makes that I'll be the first in line to buy it!

[Driver man]

I use 32 S&W long case to cover the bore riding section of 30 cal boolits. Works just fine

[charlie b]

Never say never. First, Accurate molds will modify the size of their bullets, including the nose section. I did that with the bore rider that I use now.

Many of the Lee rifle designs are bore riders and are typically undersize. Powder coating can improve their fit.

Second, NOE makes a series of nose size dies. I've used them on several bullets to fit the nose to the bore with PC.

[Joby]

Hydro-dipping works but is slow compared to swirl and bake. With different powders or different techniques you can obtain a very thin but adequate cured layer which works some of the time. Most pre-64 Winchester lever guns I’ve found are susceptible to this.
Or you could have the throat/leade of the barrel opened up.
And as mentioned above get a mold for this application from Accurate.

[2TM101]

Looking through youtube I find the equipment does exist (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRJv7yu67n8) If I owned semiauto rifles and went through a lot of ammunition this would probably be too much work - in this case he is loading .300 Blackout. But all my high power stuff is bolt action or single shot. If I start casting for .30-06 I'll have to get this.

[mehavey]

I powder coat most every thing now....
except bore riders.

Those I deliberately ALOX to great effect.
https://thefiringline.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6682694&postcount=6

[Finster101]

Looking through youtube I find the equipment does exist (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRJv7yu67n8) If I owned semiauto rifles and went through a lot of ammunition this would probably be too much work - in this case he is loading .300 Blackout. But all my high power stuff is bolt action or single shot. If I start casting for .30-06 I'll have to get this.


Difficult video to sit through (for me anyway) Skip to about the 22 mark and you will get the nose sizing portion.

[HWooldridge]

You could get a moldmaker to cut that portion of the bullet to a smaller diameter. Shouldn’t be a problem for anyone who uses a CNC machine.

[Finster101]

You could get a moldmaker to cut that portion of the bullet to a smaller diameter. Shouldn’t be a problem for anyone who uses a CNC machine.

That would be great ordering a new one, but what about many of us that already have them.? No flames meant. I have the same mold in that video and without nose sizing it is really hit or miss on feeding.

[405grain]

Years ago I made up a nose sizing die that used Redding neck bushings as inserts inside the die body. A post attachment on the press ram would push the bullet up into the die, and because the die screwed into the top of the press it could be adjusted just like a regular reloading die. The die could be positioned so that the bore riding section would get sized fully when the press ram was at it's highest position. I made a bullet ejector that worked similar to the ones that BT Sniper makes for his swage dies. The nose sizing die would make the bore riding section the correct diameter, but then it would no longer be concentric with the driving band section of the bullet.

To visualize what this means take two cans ( a soup can and a can of beans will do). One can is bigger in diameter - we'll call this the driving bands. The other can is a little smaller in diameter - we'll call this the nose. Stack the smaller can on top of the bigger can and line them both up so that the upper can is centered on top of the lower one. This represents our bullet "as cast". Now when you run the bullet through a nose sizing die it's like moving that upper can a little bit over to one side. With a bullet like this it's going to be imbalanced and the accuracy will be terrible. Will it chamber? Yes. Will it go bang? Yes. Will you be able to hit a distant target with it? Maybe, maybe not.

There's also an issue with the way NOE sets up their dies. The die body screws into the bottom of the press, not the top. This means two things; First, you can't position the die so that the ram will stop before the driving bands on the bullet will reach the size bushing. The guy in the video says that he can feel when the ojive has been sized, but his weird bullets have a bulbous section on the nose, and this is the only portion of his bullet that's getting resized. On a typical bore rider the section that needs to be resized is considerably longer and requires a lot more force. Unless you installed some sort of collar around the post on the ram to create a mechanical stop it would be difficult to make uniform bullets, or not damage the front of the driving bands.

The second issue is the force required to resize the bullets nose. On a typical reloading press the maximum amount of mechanical advantage is applied when the ram reaches the top of it's stroke. Because NOE uses a die body that is inserted into the bottom of the press the ram is never allowed to reach the top of it's stroke. The typical bore riding bullet with a straight sided nose section requires more effort to size than the type of bullet that the guy in the video was using, and the lack of optimal compound leverage when using the NOE die body adds to the effort required.

Since I already own a bunch of the NOE sizing equipment I will give a nose sizing bushing a try. I like shooting the Lyman #311299 in my 7.65x53 Mauser. When I powder coat this bullet the driving bands can be sized .3125", and that works great. But the nose on that bullet ends up .0015" too fat. I'll give a nose bushing a try. But I'll also machine a collar to go around the post on the ram so the bullet can't be pushed too high up into the die. I'll also make up an ejector rod that is made to accept a top punch for that bullet so the the nose tip won't get deformed when I knock the bullet back out of the bushing. One other thing; I'm going to order a box of brass set screws to use instead of the steel ones that come with the NOE stuff. They will be less likely to chew up the parts.

Note: I looked on NOE's website and Al's out sick + the nose bushing that I'm interested in is out of stock.

[charlie b]

If you want accurate control on the nose sizing then make a ram for the bullet. I 'over filled' a shell holder with JB Weld and then drilled a hole in it as close to bullet body size as I could get. The depth was determined by trial and error. When it is set the way you want it is a simple matter to just run the bullet all the way up until the shell holder touches the sizer. Then push it back out. If you want to get fancy you can drill a hole through and tap it for a setscrew to set the bullet depth in the ram.

I did not like the 'hammer' method to push the bullet back out so I made a 'top lever' for my press to push on the plunger.

PS This does not take a lot of force. If you are sizing the nose a lot then you run the danger of being off center when done. I only size .002 at a time. One bullet I have is enough oversize I size it twice with different size bushings.

[Hannibal]

I just powder coat the driving bands and leave the rest plain. A bit tedious, but I'm in no big hurry.

[WILCO]

Looking through youtube I find the equipment does exist (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRJv7yu67n8) If I owned semiauto rifles and went through a lot of ammunition this would probably be too much work - in this case he is loading .300 Blackout. But all my high power stuff is bolt action or single shot. If I start casting for .30-06 I'll have to get this.

Pretty impressive bench set up.

[rbuck351]

I have several Lee nose rider molds. None of them are .300 on the nose. They range from .002 under to .005 under. The problem is, you don't know what your going to get until you get it.

[Bigslug]

This is really pretty easy: The old Lyman 311299 / 314299 / 316299 are the same bullet scaled progressively larger in not only shank/groove diameter, but also in bore-ride section to accommodate the wide range of .30-ish caliber milsurps. The progression of the noses is .300 / .303 / .305

The Accurate 31-200L is that bullet, albeit with a flat nose in place of the streamlined round nose due to the limitations of Accurate's tooling. It would be a simple matter to request a reduced nose section to compensate for your paint. Same could be done for any of his molds.