Top Punch for Spitzer .30 Cal and .224? plus additional lube size question

I've got a Lyman Lube sizer with a variety of top punches. However, there are a couple of top punch shapes that I don't have for some cast boolits in my inventory. I'm looking to find a top punch for my .309 Diameter 230gn mold for .300BO, and in the future, the Lee 55gn .224 mold for 223/5.56.

Unfortunately, the PDF on Lyman's website is not much help for determining which top punches would work best for these molds. I've tried looking at RCBS top punches, but they seem to have even less information on what these punches are designed for.

Which top punches do you use for these calibers in particular? If you happen to use these certain molds with top punches, even better.

Also, another question, despite getting the best compatible top punches for a 9mm luger 124gn roundnose and .45 ACP 230gn roundnose, I'm still getting a great deal of marring on my noses when I powder coat them. some manage to leave unscathed, and others get a cut through them despite using about the same pressure during the lube sizing process. All of these marring issues are correlated with an imperfect alignment of the projectile in the base, but with the additional diameter caused by the powder coat, slight differences are a near guarantee. Any tips for reducing marring?

When you powder coat the RN bullets, you increase the diameter of the nose of the bullet at that length of the nose. Remember, the thickness at the nose is doubled on the sides of the nose. You could try cleaning the top punch, and use a mold release on the nose of the PC bullet and add epoxy to get a better fit. Any PC thickness variation can still result in a damaged coating. BUT, that part of the bullet never touches the barrel surface so why the concern?

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Originally Posted by Dusty Bannister

When you powder coat the RN bullets, you increase the diameter of the nose of the bullet at that length of the nose. Remember, the thickness at the nose is doubled on the sides of the nose. You could try cleaning the top punch, and use a mold release on the nose of the PC bullet and add epoxy to get a better fit. Any PC thickness variation can still result in a damaged coating. BUT, that part of the bullet never touches the barrel surface so why the concern?

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I think it looks ugly, and may affect stability. I'll certainly try lubricating the top punch.

I do not understand your intent to lubricate the top punch. You want a clean surface so the epoxy will stick to the inside of the top punch and not stick to the nose of the bullet when you form that "perfect" fit.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dusty Bannister

I do not understand your intent to lubricate the top punch. You want a clean surface so the epoxy will stick to the inside of the top punch and not stick to the nose of the bullet when you form that "perfect" fit.

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I suppose that the critical part of the process is the lip of the top punch biting into the lead, causing the damage to the nose. No amount of lubrication is probably going to stop that.

1.) The actual mold number is an important part in finding the correct nose punch.
2.) Temporarily, use hot glue in the nose punch to effect a "cushion".
3.) Not certain how the Lyman Lube-sizer works, but if sized base first, like the RCBS Lube-O-Matic, use an 8-penny nail head, which you can file down, instead of a nose punch against flat nosed boolits.
4.) Try sizing 1st and PC 2nd.

I have a 223 Bator nose punch that left a "ring" around the boolit nose, which didn't affected accuracy, before I went to hot glue in the punch. Good luck...

Before you try that might want to check the NOE website. They have a lot of different nose shapes in their catalog with top punches to match.

The round nose and PC thing is different. Two other possible solutions. First, get a round steel ball and press into the punch to flare it out slightly. Or, put the punch in a drill and use a file or sandpaper to open it up. Nose punches are cheap, so if you mess one up you can buy another.

The punch that I use in the lyman lubesizer is a NOE for the .223. I can give you more specifics later but it came with the NOE 55 gr mold. Works perfectly. I’m not PC ing these boolets.
Joe


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jal5

The punch that I use in the lyman lubesizer is a NOE for the .223. I can give you more specifics later but it came with the NOE 55 gr mold. Works perfectly. I’m not PC ing these boolets.
Joe


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Thanks for the tips! I'll check out NOE's website and see what can work for it.

I've recently tested my lube-sizer with my Lee 230gn .309 projectiles. As it turns out, a flat faced top punch still managed to work fine so long as I was super careful to keeping the projectiles as straight as I could make them before making their descent. The nose on the Lee projectiles are relatively blunt, but with the modification from the top punch, the result is a flat faced nose that does not affect feeding at all in an AR mag. Looks like I'll stick with the flat nosed top punch until I decide aligning projectiles is too annoying for a good sizing job.

https://www.artfulbullet.com/index.p...for-sale.3328/

is this guy still in business??