7.62x54 push-through sizer/other die options

[Boolseye]

Hi folks,
I have an M/N 91/30 on the way, and I cast the Lee 312-160 (TL, CG) boolit.
I will slug the bore when I get the gun–my question is whether to get the .311 or the .314 sizing die, and whether the .314 will apply the gas checks to my boolits.

Thanks, community!
-jp

[geargnasher]

Have you slugged the barrel yet with a dead-soft lead slug to get an accurate groove measurement?

Gear

[MikeS]

The answer is to wait till you have the gun in hand, then slug the bore, and let it tell you what size boolits you need. I don't have an answer about putting on GC's, as I have a mould that drops boolits at .3105 and I couldn't get gas checks to stay on when using a .311 Lee sizer. I also have an older Lee pound thru sizer (the one that came with the pan lube kit they made prior to the new TL lube & size kits), and using that sizer, and tapping the boolits thru with a brass hammer put the GC's on nice and tight.

I'm in on a group buy of the NOE 314129 boolit that I will be sizing down to .311, so when I get that mould I will find out if I can put GC's on them using the current Lee sizers.

[geargnasher]

Oh yeah, he did say "on the way", didn't he!

Gear

[Boolseye]

Have you slugged the barrel yet with a dead-soft lead slug to get an accurate groove measurement?

I'll do that when I have the gun in hand. Will the .350 lead balls I've got kicking around work, or does the slug need to be closer in size to the bore?

[Boolseye]

Got the gun, ended up getting a .314 push-through to apply GCs, works great.
CBs are shooting accurate w/ Varget and 2400.

[Char-Gar]

Good report Boolseye...Keep up the good work.

[1Shirt]

Yep, good report! I know that it is almost a golden rule to slug to the bbl for cast shooters. However, I have never done it, and probably never will. In general, and with new rifles or handguns, I size a bullet to be oversized for what is recommended by the handbooks. Most of the times I will have a bullet that does not lead with a recommended load. If it does, I will find a bigger sizing die and try that. I am better at loading than I am at measuring a swaged blt., and my trial and error method has worked for well over 50 years for me. Therefor, for me it works, and I don't fix it. No problem with those who want to slug the bbl, have at it, and good luck to ya!
1Shirt!

[Boolseye]

I have slugged my pistol barrels, but I know that my caliper reads 1.5–2 thou. short, so it's not ideal. With this gun, I just reasoned that the as-dropped AK boolits would shoot fine. They do.

[turbo1889]

I still slug the bore of every gun when I get it and put that info in my master note book along with slugging the throats if it is a revolver mainly out of habit.

Usually though, my game plan for loading is to measure the inside neck diameter of a fired case from a full power jacketed load and use a boolit that is 0.001" smaller diameter then that measurement if it is a gun that I am using an existing boolit design to load for.

In the cases where I design a custom boolit mold to fit a particular group of rifles that can all use the same or a very similar boolit I do a hammer rod swaged throat impression which gives me all the throat dimensions and shape along with the barrel dimensions from slugging and along with the maximum boolit diameter determined from the inside neck diameter of a fired case from a full power load as previously described.

I have found that a boolit that is as big as it can be in the case mouth and throat and fits like a hand inside a glove in the throat and has a nose that slightly engraves in the rifling seems to shoot the very best of all so for the cases where I design a custom boolit to fit a gun or group of guns that is how I set it up.

[Boolseye]

turbo,
can you briefly explain a hammer rod swaged throat impression?
-jp

[turbo1889]

Sure, its basically an alternative to making a chamber cast.

What you do is take a fired cartridge brass from that gun and fill it up on the inside to the base of the neck with lead and let it harden. Then you either use the biggest longest boolit mold you have in that caliber and cast a pure lead boolit or use a length of appropriate diameter pure lead wire (such as 1/4" or 5/16") and set that pure lead boolit or length of pure lead wire in the case neck and insert it into the guns action and lock down the bolt. Then you place the guns butt on the floor and insert a length of solid brass rod of appropriate diameter to be a slip fit in your bore (don't use steel or a cleaning rod or anything like that). And then take a hammer and pound on the end of the rod sticking out the end of the barrel. Use smooth on center strikes. The brass rod is softer then steel so it won't harm your barrel and it is much harder then soft pure lead so that soft pure lead boolit or length of lead wire down in the throat area of the gun has no-where to go since the case beneath it in the locked breach is full of lead and the brass rod end is pushing down from above. That soft lead gets squeezed like play-dough into matching the exact shape of the inside of the guns through. You then open the action and give the brass rod one more tap and you will have a cartridge case with a perfectly formed impression of the throat of that gun sticking out the end where the boolit normally is. All you need to do is take your measurements off of it and you can have a custom boolit made that fits your guns throat like a hand in a glove.

I find the process much better then doing a chamber cast and the resulting impression of the throat of the gun although still soft lead is a lot harder and more dimensionally stable then that chamber casting alloy to take measurements off of with a micro-meter and caliper.

[Boolseye]

Brilliant! Thank you very much. custom tailored boolits....that sounds like a future project somewhere down the road.