Rusty W
09-18-2010, 12:04 PM
I've just started loading and casting for my Single Six and noticed my boolit diameter is reduced when I seat the boolit. I'm using a Lee TL314-90-SWC mold with WW metal, BHN is about 12 according to the Lee tester. Boolits drop .316 from the mold. I loaded a few different powders and charge weights to find a good load only to find none of them would do better than about 2" @ 25yds. Using 3gr of 231 was the best but I felt something else was going on. I pulled the bullets from a few loaded rounds and found the diameter was .310. I started to blame the Lee FCD but that wasn't it. I ran a couple empty cases through the sizer and seated a boolit. I then pulled the boolit and it measured .310. I then thought too much neck tension so I started to look at the "M" die. The Lee has no expander so to speak, just a powder through flare/bell die. Next I thought about the RCBS die set. I've not seen them in person, just pictures online. It looks to have an expander similar to the "M"die.
I also performed a little BHN test to see how hard the boolit had to be so as not to change diameter. I had some lino so I cast a few just as a trial, BHN was a 22 again according to the Lee tester. I sized a case, flared the mouth, & seated a bullet. I pulled the bullet and the diameter didn't change. It stayed at .315. So my question is which die do I need to set the neck tension so as not to change the diameter of the boolit with a BHN of 12. I don't want to use all my Linotype on the 32.
I also performed a little BHN test to see how hard the boolit had to be so as not to change diameter. I had some lino so I cast a few just as a trial, BHN was a 22 again according to the Lee tester. I sized a case, flared the mouth, & seated a bullet. I pulled the bullet and the diameter didn't change. It stayed at .315. So my question is which die do I need to set the neck tension so as not to change the diameter of the boolit with a BHN of 12. I don't want to use all my Linotype on the 32.