Just a bit of an update about this project.
In Part 2 of this project I posted about problems lube-sizing the little #225438’s, such as wiping the lube grooves off one side, “bumping” up the boolit during check seating, general “squishing” of the little devils.
Several of you guys replied with your experiences, giving me some ideas to try, thanks to all.
Larry Gibson suggested nose-first into the H&I die (without lubing) to seat/crimp checks and get concentric boolits, than base first to lube. Well, thank you Larry, that worked like a charm once I got the details and procedures worked out.
The first thing I did was just set a boolit in the lube-sizer nose-first using the same nose punch; but because it didn’t have an outside diameter of full boolit size it kind’a dented up the base of the check. I didn’t like that so I took a nose punch (.264 RN) and reduced the outside diameter to just fit inside the H die. This left it with a knife edge, so I shortened it until I had a punch with a nice flat ring that would push on the outer rim of the check, but not on the center area where the sprue was cut. The checks seated and crimped beautifully, and the boolit was sized concentrically.
The next problem was that the I die was putting a bit of a “flat” on their little noses when it popped them out of the H die. It probably wouldn’t have been a big issue, but I didn’t like that happening to my pretty, hand-crafted, little boolits; I needed an I die with the contour of a nose punch, hmmmm... After a bit of trial-and-error (epoxy didn’t work), I loosely coiled up a narrow strip of aluminum foil and shoved it down in the H die on top of the I part of the die. It took about 5 or 6 boolits before it formed into a perfect shape of the nose; boolits popped out with perfectly seated and crimped checks, very concentrically sized, and no discernable deformation to the nose.
The last step, pushing them into the H&I die base first to lube, went off without a hitch. I left the nose punch loose, held in place with a bit of boolit lube, free to “float”. My previous attempts (base first only) had left the front edge of the front driving band all “wavy” from displaced lead and shallow, narrow or completely missing lube grooves at times. This new batch has a front driving band with a front edge that’s sharp and flat all the way around the boolit, almost perfect looking lube grooves, nice round noses and perfectly checked bases. The final result was great looking boolits!
It may seem like a lot of extra work, but... Well, I guess the proof will be on the target, won’t it? In Part 3 I reported that the few boolits I managed to get through the lube-sizing/checking operation, and still resembled boolits, shot pretty good. I’m hoping these will shoot even better, a whole lot better. I’m busy with work this week, and will be off on a road trip this weekend, but should get some trigger time with the Hornet next week; I’ll report target and chronograph results in Part 5 (if you’re interested?).
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