I will be experimenting with this combination soon. Any suggestions to cut down on the experiments would be appreciated.

I have been using IMR4064 powder for jacketed bullets and it does great. I have read a number of times about IMR4831 powder and cast bullets and it seems to be highly regarded. Should I get some IMR4831?

I will be spending some time getting hardness, sizing diameter, and lube right before pushing it. The bullet is quite a bit oversized at 0.379" as cast from one pound of monotype to two pounds of pure lead. I am thinking of dropping future ones into a cold water bucket. They should harden. I will probably have to size them pretty quickly before they harden.

I have a 0.376" diameter sizer that is about the same size as the bore, which was slugged. I may have to buy to 0.377". I was planning to use Tamarack lube. When sized to 0.376" there is not a whole lot of lube groove left. The Lyman 375167 has three lube grooves, but I will have to put the front one outside of the case to get the gun to feed smoothly. Any suggestions here?

BTW, I bought a new Lyman 4500 lubrisizer recently so I would not have to keep going from soft lube to hard lube. The first time I started tightening down the ring that goes around the sizing die, it snapped right off. I have seen posted elsewhere that someone else had exactly the same problem. I called Lyman and they said they would send out a replacement. I wonder if this is a design flaw?

.......Harry O, As far as sizing goes, check out Maven's post about half way down the page. It's titled "The Conventional Wisdom, and sizing CB's". By filling the lube grooves first as close to 'as cast' as possible, and THEN doing your major reduction will mean the difference between success and ruining the slug.

Re: 4831. It's main attraction is it's a predictable powder, and it's slow. This allows for reduced velocities to fit cast lead in most non magnum cases, and yet can get the charge volumn up to fill the case.

In answer to your question would be yes. By all means it would be a worthwhile powder to try out. I almost bet a full caseload would work well. Especially with a heavy bullet.

"They should harden. I will probably have to size them pretty quickly before they harden."

Scrounge some chilled lead shot and add a couple teaspoons worth to your melt. The arsenic will be needed to harden. If you size them after water dropping you'll ruin any hardness. Instead, if they require sizing you need to do that first. Then put them in the oven (sans lube) @ ~450 degrees for about an hour. Then quickly dump them into room temp, or cool water.

Before doing all that work, I'd sure begin my experimenting first with the bullets merely sized and shot. Remember the KISS principle :-).

"The Lyman 375167 has three lube grooves, but I will have to put the front one outside of the case to get the gun to feed smoothly. Any suggestions here?"

Does the question pertain to exposed lube? If so, then remove the lube after seating the bullet. Your thumbnail with a rag over it, and a quick twist of the case will have it out. If it were me I wouldn't worry about it. Just keep the loaded rounds in a sliptop plastic ammobox until ready to load the magazine.

..........Buckshot