Sizing Bullets.... Another Greenhorn Question

[Greenhorn44]

When Sizing bullets. I first pan lube, let them cool, pop them out of the cake, and then size. When i size it takes quite abit of force. Lee round nose 240 grain. Lee 430 sizer. Exact size as my JHP's Comes out nice, but i notice lead shavings in my loob grooves? Is this normal. Also at the base of the Boolit, has a fin where excess lead ends up. Is this okay.

[mran1126]

What size are you boolits coming out of the mold? And you need to lube them to size them in the Lee sizer die.....not just in the lube grooves.

[Greenhorn44]

.430, using liquid alox before sizing

[405]

Well,
To have fins on the base shows a lot of sizing. The LLA before sizing could also be a problem?? What diameter do the bullets start out before running thru the sizer? More than a couple or three thous may be contributing to the finning.

Try this. Cast the bullets. Lube them with a little case sizing lube, lanolin, dish soap, something, anything.... You can roll them across a case lubing pad same as with case lubing. Run them thru the Lee die. Then pan lube.

[243winxb]

Your bullets as cast should not be larger than .433" Sizing down more that .003" is not good for accuracy. The fin must go.

[sagacious]

Are you holding the sprue-plate handle while casting? That will up the as-cast diameter.

Lead shavings in the grease grooves isn't necessarily a problem. I use a .431" LEE sizing die for some of my 44cal bullets. Going to a .431" sizer may help reduce the lead shavings in your situation.

Finning on the bullet base is a problem. That situation needs to be remedied.

What is the as-cast size of the bullets?

[Buckshot]

.............Sounds to me like the sizer ain't all it's supposed to be.

You said, "When i size it takes quite abit of force. Lee round nose 240 grain. Lee 430 sizer."

mran1126 asked, "What size are you boolits coming out of the mold?"

You replied, ".430, using liquid alox before sizing"

Now I could very well be missing something here, but if the above is true with the boolits dropping at .430" and you're using a Lee .430" push through die and you're seeing sheared lead in the lube grooves, and expressed lead finning around the pushrod head ............... just what do the sized boolits mike after passing through the die?

Sheared lead 'sparklies' in the lube grooves points to 3 things. One could be an exceedingly high antimony content. Two could be a rough die bore and three could be both. However from the info I cut and pasted into this post, your boolit's should be barely touched by the die and sheared lead and finning simply do not compute.

..............Buckshot

[Buckshot]

Your bullets as cast should not be larger that .433" Sizind down more that .003" is not good for accuracy. The fin must go.

.............Very probably if you're using a base first/nose punch type press. However a Lee or other push through (nose first, base push) die is THE most accurate way to size, if sizing is required. You can do more damage in a worn base first press sizing only a thousandth or so vs. sizing 5 thousandths in a nose first die. I have BENT long 30 cal slugs (311284, Saeco RG4) in a Lyman 450 before and that was going from .312" to .310". The slugs were cast of lino so they were hard plus they have a (so called) dirt groove at the top drive band, which is a weak spot but the culprit in the end was mis-alignment.

I've successfully sized Lyman 8mm 323470's from a lube-sized .323" to .314" in one fairly effortless downward movement of the press handle, sending the slug up through a .314" push through die. I was feeding an Argentine 7.65x53 with a .303" bore and none of my bore riders went larger then .302". The rifle was nicely accurate with them doing 1.5" at 50 and a bit under 4" at 100 yards.

I've also sized the Lee 458-340F down from an as cast OD of .458" to .452" to use in a fast twist 45 Colt levergun and they shot superbly. It's more how you do the sizing then how much you're sizing.

..............Buckshot

[DLCTEX]

Have you actually measured the boolits after sizing? Just because the numbers on the die say .430 doesn't necessarily mean the boolit will be that size. You also do not state the alloy you are using, which can have an effect on size outcome and difficulty of sizing. For instance, if you water drop boolits and wait a week to size the difficulty factor will go way up.

[Meatco1]

Buckshot:

Those are both very informative posts.

Richard

[prs]

I've heard of Lee size dies being generally on the tight side of spec. My sample in .454 yields a ww alloy boolit of about .453. I have not tried to enlarge it, but I'll get around to that some day. My Clymer reamer might take to .4535 like it did my cylinder throats.

prs

[Blammer]

sounds like he's shoving it through a .425 sizer die. :)

[stubshaft]

sounds like he's shoving it through a .425 sizer die. :)


Or the boolits are not being measured accurately as cast?