I Think I'm Ready To Bite The Bullet

[Char-Gar]

I bought a Lyman 45 in 1958 and it is still a good functional machine today. I also own three Lyman 450s and they all give good service. I have had a couple of glitches over the years with these machine, but every time it was my fault. Either I wasn't paying attention or I was asking the machine to do something for which it was not designed.

I keep one 450 filled with my own home brew, one with Felix and one with beesway/moly grease combition. I avoid store bought lubes like the plague. Don't get me wrong, I am certain there are some fine lubes out there, it is just kinda unseemly to buy lube. Makes it sorta hard to look fellow hard core boolit casters in the eye.

[tracker]

Maybe I should have posted this one myself but why is a lubisizer better then the Lee die set up. I am new to this and am thinking about getting the Lee sizer die.


Tracker

[Scrounger]

Maybe I should have posted this one myself but why is a lubisizer better then the Lee die set up. I am new to this and am thinking about getting the Lee sizer die.


Tracker

There is a difference of opinions on whether it is or not. You won't know which side of that equation you're going to fall on till you try one or both of them. I use the Lee system. It is faster, less labor, and much cheaper. You can buy a Lee sizer for what, $15? Even a used Lyman 450 and one sizing die and one top punch is going to cost you a $100. Check your catalogs for prices. If I were in your shoes, I'd spend the $15 and give it a try. Then, if I didn't find that satisfactory, I look for a used Lyman or RCBS.

[StarMetal]

Scrounger is right. See, me on the other hand, disagrees as to the lee being easier to use. Simpler, yes. Here's a senario for the Lyman type luber sizer. You take a bullet (put a gascheck on it if it is of that type) put it in the sizer, pull the lever up down, it's done. Lubed and sized. Aha, no so with the Lee. You see the problem I find (well one of a few) is lubing. You either have to pan lube, which to me is a pain in the butt, or rub the lube in with your finger...messy job there for sure. They you size it and it's done. For the difference, which I don't believe exists (with having a good Lyman or good RCBS luber/sizer) accuracy is suppose to be the thing with folks using the Lee. They claim it doesn't bend the bullets like the Lyman type. Can't prove that by me. So I'll stick with and am very happy with my Lyman. I only have one Lee sizer and that is for my 8x56R M95 Steyr, which takes an oddball size sizer that, so far, nobody makes, except Lee. Someday I'll get around to honing out a .325 Lyman sizer die to fit my need for that particular gun.

Joe

[tracker]

I really like The Frugal Outdoorsman web site on the way he Casts 30-30 boolits. He uses the Lee outfit and has great results. Hi put the Lee lube in a baggie and then coats the boolits. Looks like it is easy to do.

http://www.castbullet.com/reload/reload.htm

Tracker

[Scrounger]

I really like The Frugal Outdoorsman web site on the way he Casts 30-30 boolits. He uses the Lee outfit and has great results. Hi put the Lee lube in a baggie and then coats the boolits. Looks like it is easy to do.

http://www.castbullet.com/reload/reload.htm

Tracker

I've done it that way, but it evolved into using a plastic cup that margerine or cottage cheese comes in.

[BruceB]

My learning curve was steep but short.

I started casting when my bride and I were seized by a passion for shooting Bullseye Pistol competition back in the late '60s, using .45 Gold Cups as the match centerfire guns. Living a LOOOOONG way from any sources of supply in the Northwest Territories, I began by using what was available for the first little while, and this happened to be a borrowed Lyman 310 hand tool in .45 ACP, and linotype alloy.

EVERY SINGLE BULLET had to be driven by hand throught the 310's sizing chamber, after having its lube grooves squoooshed full of some horrible unknown lube by my fingers, and those were HARD damned bullets!. They came from a single-cavity 452374 RN mould, cast from a pan on the kitchen range. Wife and I needed 180 such bullets EACH to shoot a match, and that of course doesn't include a much higher need for practice ammo. A single-stage Spartan assembled the loads.

It didn't take long before a #45 lube-sizer came by mail, and the Spartan bolted to the kitchen counter was replaced by my (still-active and wonderful) All-American turret press, and the frying pan on the stove morphed into a SAECO bottom-pour furnace. Then came a 4-cavity 452389 mould...nasty design for feeding. It all took less than a year, IIRC.

I think perhaps my still-obvious fixation on production is rooted in those painful early days. Getting through that purgatory is either a testimony to my determination.... or ample evidence of my outright bullheadedness.

Anyway, the lube-sizer allows me excellent production rates along with the ability to select bullet diameter quite accurately. My ol' #45 was sold off long ago, and I now have a pair of #450s, which are better machines in my experience. One is filled with FWFL and the other with SPG at this time. If I hadn't had such an investment in Lyman/RCBS die sets, I'd probably have tried a SAECO before now, but it's just not practical considering the number of dies I have that won't fit the SAECO.

Efficiency matters to me! When casting, the ONLY thing I inspect is the easily-visible bullet bases. Actual inspection of the complete boolits is done while lube-sizing. I run an inspected bullet down into the sizer and tweak the pressure wrench while picking up the next bullet for inspection. This allows a few seconds for the bullet in the die to get its lube, and then it is lifted out and the freshly-inspected bullet is sized in its turn. BOTH hands are used...one takes out the lubed bullet, the other puts in the new one, and then one hand works the luber handle while another bullet is picked up by the empty hand. In this way, I suspect my lube-sizing/inspection processes at least ten bullets per minute....I haven't actually timed the routine, though. That would probably include the hand-seating of the gaschecks, if such are being used.

I find that a Wal-Mart magnifying-lens flexible lamp really helps with inspection. This light only cost about ten bucks, and is rapidly making itself invaluable on my bench for many different functions. Imperfections are painfully obvious under the lens!

A lube-sizer is simply the ONLY practical way for me to turn out the numbers I need. Push-through sizing, which I do on rare occasions, is far too slow for ME, because it involves handling every bullet a number of times, and that impedes my rate to a large degree. I'm thinking about adding another #450 to the collection, too.