Hi all, looks like shooters is haveing a hickup. I'm casting some bullets from 50-50 lino-WW. .512 500gn. It seems that I don't need to run the pot as hot with the lino mix. I'm water quenching. I ran some through the Lyman 450 today and I thought I would break it before I could get the first bullet through. I'm sizing from .515 down to .512. shouldn't be too far. Am I making the lino mix bullets too hard by water dropping them? I had to spray some oneshot lube on a bullet and work it in and out several times to get it to size. Now that it has some lube in the die, it's working alright, but still takes quite abit of effort. Any thoughts here?
lar.

theres no need to heat treat lino it will work well at any velosity that youll shoot that 500 grain bullet at.

Lino has no aresenic and the only hardening taking place is in the WW portion of the alloy. Probably you are gaining nothing over H2O dropped WW. Gianni.

I find that I do not have a problem sizing my bullets down .001" or .002" from the size they drop from the mold in my Lyman 450. This is with a Lyman #2 alloy which is softer than your water quenched bullets. It may be that you are finding the sizing difficult because your cast bullets are rather hard and with the .003" sizing it may be a bit much to ask of the 450.

are you sizing them right after casting them or are you waiting 12-24hours,if you wait 12-24hrs they are probably extremely hard,if you size them before they have time to finish hardening(ie;right after casting)you might have more success even though .003 is a lot to down size,just wondering what others think of this,i'm still very new to casting.

I don't have acces to a tester, but I'm thinking about making one when I get some other projects wrapped up. I waited atleast a day for them to dry before sizing. I think most of my problem was getting lube flowing in the die, but it still takes abit of effort. Any links to a detailed analysis of lead hardness testing?
lar.

Lar45 ,
I see that you are in Idaho. Are you sizing bullets out in an unheated garage? It may be that your lube is too cold if it is not flowing easily. Are you using a hard lube without a heater under your 450? I am in the notheast and do my sizing in an unheated attic. I use Lyman Super Moly and SPG, both soft lubes, and in the winter I have to apply some heat to the sizer for the lube to flow easily.
If you interested in a lead hardness tester take a look at: Casting Stuff

i have the cabintree hardness tester it works great,lar the longer you wait the harder they get ,try sizer immedietly after casting,thats what i do to my .475-310 lfnpb& .475-425 lfngc water dropped ww/bullets. they get 23-24bhn after 12hrs time .too hard to size them then without breaking something.imo

Thanks. I really like your primer tester. I've printed a copy for my loading book.
I'm lubeing and sizing in the basement gun room. The lube seems to flow alright.