Powder coated boolits and boolit feeder on progressive press

Today was stage two of an experiment. The goal is to drop powder coated 45ACP #68 wad cutters through a RCBS bullet feed die in a Lee Load Master. Stage one of the experiment was completed last evening, this involved seating and taper crimping such rounds in one step at stage 5 of the press WITHOUT pooching the PC or lead and still having the round pass the plunk test in my barrels and a Wilson gauge. Success made in that first stage. Today, I assembled the new die and installed in stage 4. I adjusted per the instructions and the boolits pass through it faithfully, no grabbing and no hang-ups. This is going to work.

Since many of us size our coated bullets in a Lee push through, we can simply use Lee bullet feed tubes on top of the sizer and we will be filling the tubes as we size, no wasted motion. I used a sharp point on a solder gun to make nice small clean holes in the tubes just above where the holes will sit above the RCBS die. When the tube is full at the size press, a small nail or round tooth pick through the holes will retain the boolits. Lee tubes are thinner walled than the RCBS, so I fashioned a bushing to make it a snug fit in the feeder die. Voila'!

Thing is, I only have a few coated boolits right now, but lots of sized bare ones to coat when the humidity drops. This will make loading a good bit faster for me. When I am up and running for sure, I will report.

prs

Quote:

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Originally Posted by prs

Since many of us size our coated bullets in a Lee push through, we can simply use Lee bullet feed tubes on top of the sizer and we will be filling the tubes as we size, no wasted motion.
prs

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Won't the tube get pretty heavy? Maybe not, I don't have a progressive. Clever idea.

I'm using the Hornady bullet feed die, I have one for 45 and one for 40. The 45 works great with PC'd boolits with no modification, haven't tried the 40 yet.

Anyone try a 9mm Hornady bullet feeder. Been wanting one of these but have read conflicting stories on the feeding of cast. I wouldn't be using lubed as I'm sure they would stick, but I was hoping that PC would slide right through.

I keep running into snags in getting the Lee or RCBS tubes to adapt to the Lee push through bullet size die. Using the Lee 45ACP case Bulge Buster upside-down and plastic tubing to attach was too unstable. Using tape and packing material not much better. I considered drilling the top of the size doe to 5/8" but the resulting wall would be pretty thin and the die metal is HARD. I could get a machine shop to do that drilling, but I have asked a fellow board member who makes dies and such if he could solve the problem.

The tubes full of boolits are heavy, but this seems to be no problem as the tubes are ridged. I have no PC's boolits to load right now as the humidity is not as low as I want to do the shake'n bake and its too cold and freezing rain outside to shoot them with the ES gun. But, when I do have them coated, I guess I will either hand pack the tubes, or cobble it together again until I get an adaptor or such made.

prs

I have tried everything possible to get my Hornady bullet feeder die to work with my PC bullets to no avail in 9 mm.
have tried sizes from . 355 to .358, nothing works along with different die adjustments, I gave up.
Smokeyloads

There is a youtube video on how to make it work.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Floydster

I have tried everything possible to get my Hornady bullet feeder die to work with my PC bullets to no avail in 9 mm.
have tried sizes from . 355 to .358, nothing works along with different die adjustments, I gave up.
Smokeyloads

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I am going to size my boolits to fit my barrels and if that does not work with the feeder, feeder be damned. But, did you work with the amount of "belling" of the case mouth. The collet in the dies seem to rely upon that belling to accomplish the release of the boolit. I am using the RCBS die and the Hornady die appears to be better made or at least all metal. Right?

prs

I got my .357 Hornady die to work pretty good for my 9mm PC Boolits, sized at .357.

It did take some work to get it going. Ie: bend the flanges in ever so slightly.

The 124gr TC and RN have a small bevel base and work good.
The 105gr SWC with plane base get some fins that get caught up from time to time.

Now I'm having trouble getting a .357, 158 RNFP to work and I don't want to mess with it and screw it up for 9mm.

So I would like to know if the RCBS die is any better?
I understand one die with the different inserts work for different calibers.
Pablo

SUCCESS! I got'r did! Just after posting above I decided to go down into the dungeon and work on Frankenstein again. Its alive! Its alive! Its alive!!!! I cut a 2" long section of 3/4" inside diameter schedule 40 PVC exterior water pipe, a common product at any hardware store. It is just a cat's whisker too small to fit over the Lee die, but with a BFH I tapped it down onto the die anyway leaving enough empty pipe above the die to insert another bushing that will fit the RCBS tubes. I tried "O" rings and found some that fit fairly snug, but a real bugger to assemble and this is something that will have the feeder tubes in and out a lot. Then I remembered my old Lee Shotshell LoadAll and its shot bushings. They were again just a cat's wisker too large to fit the inside of the pipe, but the sanding drum on my Dremel Moto Tool very quickly enlarged the inside of the pipe just a tiny bit and the Lee 1 1/8 Oz shot bushing snapped right in with good retention. The RCBS tubes fit that bushing PERFECTLY, the Lee tubes need just a little tape to build them up to fit. I ran a tube full with the Lee and the RCBS tubing and ran those through the feeder die in the press ticky-boo! Did not seat or crimp as they are not yet coated, but they soon will be. I will see if I can get a pic or two when my photographer comes home from college.

prs

I coated about 300 boolits last evening. Some plain based hollow pointed 68 SWCs and some bevel based Lee 452-200-SWC. The rig I put together to fill the tubes as the PC's boolits were sized works like a charm. Easy peasy. The flat based bullets fed well until the weight of the stack was reduced to about the last 10 bullets, and then the feeding die began to skip dropping the bullets. RATS! It seems the little ridge the sizer makes at the base of these plain based boolits gets caught on the walls of the collet in the feed die. It was getting late and I did not try the bevel based variety, but if it is no better, this experiment is a flub. Both plain based and bevel based seemed to work "naked", but my runs were limited and other folks in their on line store assessments reported unreliable function with lead boolits. I will report back, sure would be nice if this would function reliably.

prs

I might get a piece of drill rod metal to use as a follower on top of the boolits if they continue to be so stubborn, that may or may not help. Rats again!

OK, things seem to be looking up. The Lee Push through sizer easily fills the RCBS or Lee bullet tubes. I hate to admit such treachery, but by reading the instructions I noticed RCBS states to bell the case mouths to .030" greater than bullet diameter, for my .452" sized coated boolits that is .482" which is way over my typical bell and it will be more wear and tear on my brass, but it works some better.

I still had an occasional coated bullet hanging-up in the die and this appeared to happen due to that tiny little skirt of PC that the sizer creates around the bases. The hang-up seemed to be in the part RCBS calls the bullet guide and the fit is close tolerance and I bet RCBS assumed .451" copper clad bullets. Soooo, I made a tight roll out of a piece of 80 grade production sand paper and reamed the bottom or tighter end of that piece, then used 120 grade and then 220 grade to smooth it. 200 rounds later and no more hang-ups. I will use 440 one of these days to get a very smooth surface in there.

Recall I was having more trouble with flat based boolits and I will have to try them again with these changes. It is workable and when it works the re-loading is FAST!

prs

Well, it all went to H377 in a handbasket yesterday. I was going along ticky-boo. Had a dozen of the plastic tubes packed with coated boolits. The loaded rounds well filling those AcroMill boxes quicker than liquor. Then it happened, on about the third cycle the whole tube of boolits fell through the die and all over the bench and floor. Efforts to reset the die and try new tensioning band gave same sneaky bad surprise flaw several times. I will call RCBS soon and see what's up with that. I think the nylon collet wore out in about 700 rounds life. May have to try the Hornady die. When it was good, it was very good, but it did not last.

prs