Bullet Sizing?

[Chainsaw.]

Sooo..hows it work? Obviously cant be that much to it, put the bullet on the ram, shove it though the sizer, out comes the bullet sized to your needs. But bullet can only be made smaller eh? I ask because my 44 mold throws 427-429 out of round bullets. You can't size...up...right?

[nemesiss45]

You can't size up, but you can hone your mold out. I have not done it myself, but I've heard you can pour a bullet, then stick a screw in it. Chuck the screw into a drill, put some polishing compound on the bullet, then spin it in the mould.

If you search the casting forum there is a thread about it that may give more info

[Chainsaw.]

Ok that confirms what I thought. I got a tad confused rading some other conversations, some made it sound like you could size up but I couldn't see that working.

[mehavey]

Actually, the sizer die will "round-out" out-of-round bullets by moving the lead into/fill the gap.
`Ain't gonna get bigger than the biggest starting dimension though.

What are you shooting the 44 in? (and how hard do you envision pushing it?)

[Chainsaw.]

Smith model 69.

I envision three loads. All with 255 grain bullets from a lyman mold.

One as kind of a 44 special plinker.

Two, a regular ol magnum load.

Three, the anti Griz/Blackie hold on to your hat load.

Still looking at what powders to run in the two later loads, lyman and lee both seem to like 2400.

[mehavey]

I assume the 429244(GC) mold?

If you run soft (30-1) on the plinker loads, it will upset into the grooves no problem.

The "normal" mag loads will require no harder than strong WW (BN10-11)/up to Lyman #2 (BN-15) and also upset to groove diameter under the higher mag pressures.

MagMag: Lyman #2.

Stay away from "super hard" no matter what. It will lead you up big time.
Biggest mistake today's casters make is falling in love w/ hardening.

[sghart3578]

You can "bump up" a cast bullet to gain some diameter.

Try a google search or go to the CastBoolits forum.

[stubbicatt]

If you are talking cast bullets, for a comparatively small outlay of $$$ get you a NOE or Accurate mould, and don't look back. You can specify the diameter you desire from specific alloy. The initial outlay is not really all that bad, considering.

[Chainsaw.]

Mehavey, thank you very much for the input, I certainly would have edged towards going harder but Ill keep it in check. Got a hardness tester in the mail as we speak.

Just looked, yup, the 429244bt mold.

The only time I intend to have super hard on hand is to alloy all the pure lead I have.

Now what is 30-1? 30 parts lead 1 part antimony? No tin?

[Chainsaw.]

Stubbycat. Ive checked them out and was overwhelmed by their website. Once I get more familiar with casting Ill give em a look again.

I got this mold in a little estate sale.

[Dufus]

30-1 is 30 parts lead to 1 part tin.

If you want to put a little extra in it, add about 1/4 cup of #9 hardened shot. It makes some very neat bullets with the little amount of antimony and arsenic added.

I never shoot anything harder than a BHN 12 myself and do PDG with it.

[Mike / Tx]

Chainsaw,

If you can find a 7/8 x 14 thread bolt, you can screw one of your die lock rings on it, then screw it into the top of your press. Then you set it so that you are just bumping the bullets just a touch.

You can sometimes squash the just too small ones down just enough that they will size out properly. Granted this will only go so far,

I am thinking that your pouring you alloy a bit hot and/or running your mold a bit fast if your getting undersized bullets. If your alloy has a bit of tin in it try slowing down on your pours and see if that helps out any with getting better consistency with your sizes. If you don't have any added tin in it, try adding a little to the pot, maybe a half ounce to see if that helps out too.

[Chainsaw.]

Thanks Mike! Ill give that a try!

[F. Guffey]

You can't size...up...right?

Yes you can(I should say it can be done), I suggested a different method and or technique for slugging barrels, (you are not going to believe this) when members read the suggestion the strong got weak and the weak past out.

Reloaders have a bushing for everything, to increase the diameter of a bullet the reloader needs a bushing with the correct diameter, it helps to have a bullet sizing shell hoder and a top punch that matches the desired nose configuration.

In the absence of all the equipment a tool that resembles a wrist pin can be used with a nose punch and hammer. When bumping bullets with a press it helps if the press is a bump press.

F. Guffey

[Chainsaw.]

Hey guys, just wanted to say I tried some of the things suggested here and Im now getting nice 429.5-430 bullets. Thanks so much!

Also whats the BHN on 30-1? Ive got some lead that throws an 86 on my lee hardness tester which means its below 8.0 BHN but doesn't appear to be pure lead.

[mehavey]

30-1 is pretty soft, and absolutely superb for almost all less-than-el-stompo-grande-magnum loads.

(Actual data):

[Chainsaw.]

Ooh! Nice chart! Thanks!

[Mike / Tx]

As a side note to that chart, I'm running between a 10-12 BHN alloy for my cast HP's. In the .357 I am loading some 160gr HP's to just over 1300fps from the 6" barrels on my GP-100's, and around 1450'ish out of the 8" Contender with no ill effects.

These are all plain based, sized to .358" and either lubed with either Carnuba Red or powder coated. Either way works well, just depends on how lazy I am feeling when I get ready to load some.

So for your loads, I would simply work up slowly in small load increments and only load 5-6 rounds at a time with each increase. Shoot them one at a time and inspect the barrel as you go. I use a white piece of paper to light up the bore. I open cylinder and slide it in between the frame and use the sun or a flashlight to light it up. Soon as you reach the max load or you start to see the streaks going all the way down the barrel that it your top end.

This is what you hope for, good for the amount of rounds and the loads being shot.


This one had over a hundred rounds through it at the time of the pic.

This is what you don't want, not good under any circumstances.


This was after only 4 rounds. So you now have something to compare to. I knew when I loaded them that I was probably going to get this, but I had to try it anyway. This was the same alloy I used in the upper revolver only the velocity was increased by about 250 or so FPS. After changing the alloy a touch however I was easily able to get the same results as the first pic using the higher loads.

Thing is your only going to find the sweet spot for each alloy by testing it to see what it will handle. Your barrel, the size, the lube, and the load your pushing it with, is all combined to reach the end result. If one of them is faulty or not up to the task, the results will be like the second pic in most cases. Maybe not as bad, but if you start to see a goodly amount of it heading down the barrel you might as well stop and inspect what might be the issue. A little isn't anything to worry about as in the thin streaks in the upper pic. That is fairly normal or at least what I consider normal after a hundred rounds or so. It doesn't build up any more than that, and in some other barrels it doesn't even get to that.

I would go into the details of cause and effect, but it is already put in a MUCH better layout than I could muster up on the link right here,
Chapter 7 - Leading -- The Cast Bullet Nemesis, By Glen Fryxell

I highly recommend that you read through that and even pull down the entire PDF copy of that booklet. Glen is a VERY knowledgeable fellow on the subject of cast bullets and getting them downrange like they should be.

Oh and all this, and I didn't even ask, which way did you end up using to up the size on your bullets?

[Chainsaw.]

Wowsa. This hole casting thing is like one rabbit hole leading to another rabit hole! Ha!

Mike, I took you advice, turned my pot down (dont have a thermometer yet, its on the list) and turned my flow down as well as ran my molds through several cycles before I even looked at the bullets (per lymans cast bullet book).

Im also trying my hamd at powder coating, made up a fist full of 44 mag slug that were BHN of 18, pwdercoated them. They ended up looking pretty cool but I think I got to much coat on as I had a little puddling on the pan below each bullet and it came out pretty thick. Trying to decide if I coat before or after sizing.

[nemesiss45]

if you feel like you got too much powder coat, you're probably doing it right. I have a hard time getting enough in one coat. though, I did pick up an actual powder coat gun a while ago that I am itching to try out when I start casting again in the summer.


also, about the molds. I don't really do the cast a few and dump them to warm the mold. I just set my molds in a pan an warm them on the stove while I let my pot get up to temp... my dad always set them on the rim of the pot to do this, but I don't like the idea of bumping one in by accident. but heating them on the stove is just a bit less work then casting throwaways.

[Chainsaw.]

Yeah I preheat mine buy just setting them on top of the pot but I've found they start to throw better bullets after a few castings.

[454PB]

As to powder coating: you can do both if you wish....size before and after the coating. Since you're trying to increase diameter, I'd say coat and then size. Powder coating allows sizing of up to .005" without affecting the coating.

I use parchment paper as a non-stick base when powder coating, but a lot of people use non-stick aluminum foil. Either way, that "puddle" under the baked bullets is problematic as it promotes chipping the coating on the base of the bullet. If you tap each bullet to remove excess powder before placing it on the tray, you can eliminate the "puddle".

[A pause for the COZ]

As to powder coating: you can do both if you wish....size before and after the coating. Since you're trying to increase diameter, I'd say coat and then size. Powder coating allows sizing of up to .005" without affecting the coating.

I use parchment paper as a non-stick base when powder coating, but a lot of people use non-stick aluminum foil. Either way, that "puddle" under the baked bullets is problematic as it promotes chipping the coating on the base of the bullet. If you tap each bullet to remove excess powder before placing it on the tray, you can eliminate the "puddle".

Yup!! I have a LEE 32 cal mold that drops at .312 and I wanted .313.
I powder coat and shoot as cast.
My Ruger loves em!!!