I'm hoping that this thread will turn into a Sticky at some point. I have looked and failed at finding lots of details on this subject.
I had two recent casting jobs which I had hoped would run smoothly through my Star lubricizer. Both designs are gas checked. I spent hours and hours setting up.
The first one I was able to do, 311-150 spire point. Single lube groove with bore rider. It's the mold NOE made for AR15 300 Blackout boolits. It took a while, but I was able to block the correct holes, and get that bullet to run manually, but just barely. I saw a lot of pointy nose damage, dented gas checks, etc.
The second job was 311-198 spire points, also a NOE gas checked mold. Nose profile was similar to the 150 grain version. The 198 has no bore rider, and has three lube grooves, vs the one lube groove for the 150. This one I could not get to run at all. Even after a brief call to Magma, I gave up after a lot of time trying.
I will run all pointy rifle bullets in the future in my Lyman 450. I never have any trouble running pointy rifle bullets in the Lyman. No damaged noses. No dented gas checks (which causes the gas checks to come loose). In both instances, I was using a Lathesmith gas check style punch. The gas checks were installed correctly, only to get disrupted by the second boolit denting and loosening the gas checks. Major frustration.
So, I am hoping that some of you have had success with running pointy rifle boolits in a Star, and can shed some light on how to achieve success. I'd sure like to have the star run batches faster than I can achieve with the Lyman. But for now, it's looking like I have to keep and use both machines. The Star for blunt nosed pistol boolits, and the Lyman for pointy rifle boolits.
Please help me use my Star for both.