I was just wondering if anyone here has sized 375 cast bullets to shoot in the 9.3 (.366). Would sizing them down that extra .010" or so remove too much of the lube ring? Or is there another reason you can't/shouldn't do it. Thanks. Paul.

If you measure the depth of your lube groove and see what you have. Most moulds ( well mine anyway) have a lube groove that is .04 less than shank dia so if you were taking .01 from the shank you would still have .03 of lube groove and if you were to stay in the plinking to soft cast hunting range, ie under about 1800fps I can see no reason the re-sized bullet wont work.

Von Gruff.

I found I got better looking finished bullet
If I first sized and lubed the boolit with a sizer close to as cast

Then a second pass through the sizer to reduce the dia.

I found the lube in the groves seems to help maintain the lube groves

Best results were with a harder lube , like White Label Carnauba Blend



John

I just bought a 9,3mm mould. It is much easier. Every thing you do to a cast bullet after you drop it gently onto a rolled up towel is bad for it.

Rich

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
I just bought a 9,3mm mould. It is much easier. Every thing you do to a cast bullet after you drop it gently onto a rolled up towel is bad for it.

Rich

Where'd you find the mold and where did you buy the sizer die? I was looking at making a custom sizer die and using .375 mold. Can't find 9.3 molds readily available without paying an arm and a leg. Thanks, Paul.

Jeez...

now I have to get up, put on my shoes, and walk about sixty feet out (in the snow) to my "Bullet Factory" and check the mould. The things I do for you people!

I made it back, mould in hand. It is an NEI four cavity, two cavities are (a nominal)260gr and two are 304gr. All four are GC and I bought this one from Walt before the 9,3 was so popular. It uses .35 caliber gas checks. From my WW alloy they come out right at .368" and I shoot them as cast. Walt honed out a .358" Lyman sizer die for me when he made the mould along with a new push rod and used my alloy to determine the necessary diameter. If you go to www.castboolits.com Waksupi offers this honing service and the mould cherry is still at NEI I would suppose. All four cavities are less than .001" out of round and the weight is about 1gr difference either weight. You will see that with cherry-cut moulds. I shoot them right at 2150 out of my X62 with less than 2moa groups at 100yds and no leading for about twenty rounds in between cleanings.

Rich

quote:

Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
Jeez...

now I have to get up, put on my shoes, and walk about sixty feet out (in the snow) to my "Bullet Factory" and check the mould. The things I do for you people!
Rich

Sorry to put you through so much HELL Rich but thanks alot for the reply. Paul.

When you're famous (infamous?) much is expected...

Rich

There is a group buy going on now over on Cast Bullets for a custom 280ish grain 9.3 that takes 375 gas checks. Looks like a nice bullet and I am sorely tempted, but I need to find some dies for my 9.3x57 first.

The 9.3X57 Husky owners should really make a groove/throat/ chamber neck impression before ordering a mold..
I found on several Husky's the following measurements:
groove .370-.371"
throat .370"
The chamber neck would only allow for bullets of .367-.368" to be chambered with brass that was .013 thick at the neck..
This with three different rifles..
To answer the OP question I have no problem with accuracy sizing down RCBS's .375" bullet to .369-.370" for my 9.3X62 CZ550FS..
Just do like johnch says and lubesize/check your bullet first in a .376" lubesize die..
Then run it thru a Lee Push Thru die the appropriate size to accommodate your rifle..
I have even sized down .380-.384" 38-55 bullets for my 9.3X62 and 9.3X74R..
Do you lose lube capacity sizing down this much?
I weighed the bullets before and after sizing down and they weigh the same.. They do become longer however as the bullet "body" lengthens and the nose gets shorter..

Thanks LW, good to know this. Did you custom ream your lee die or do they sell them in sizes between .358 and .375 that I'm unaware of? Paul.

quote:

Originally posted by vip:
Thanks LW, good to know this. Did you custom ream your lee die or do they sell them in sizes between .358 and .375 that I'm unaware of? Paul.

vip,
Yes LEE will make custom push thru sizers for you.. However go over to the castboolit website and PM Buckshot who is a member there and have him make your push thru sizer.. His sizers are less expensive than LEE's better made and his delivery time is much faster than LEE..
Right now at the castboolit site they are having a group buy for a 9.3 mold, but it may not fit the throat on your rifle.. That is why you need to make a impact impression like I suggested above..
Group buy link:
http://castboolits.gunloads.co...owthread.php?t=71892
Castboolit link:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/index.php
Link for making throat impressions:
http://www.lbtmoulds.com/measurebore.shtml

If you decide to make a throat impression and haven't done one in the past PM me and I will give you some info that I have found thru experience makes a more useful slug..

I just picked up one of the 9.3x57 Husky's and the bore groove slugged .3665 -.3670 after a single slug was pushed through muzzle to breach, but I need to check each end seperately. A .354 gage pin was a nice fit on the muzzle, so call it .3545 on the lands. Haven't had a chance to cast/slug the throat.

Low Wall, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on slugging the throat.

gzig5,
With your .3665-.3670 groove it should be easy to make cast shoot in your rifle if you can chamber a .368+ boolit..
Regarding making a throat slug this is what I do:

1. Decap fired case with a decapping only die such as a LEE or RCBS...

2. Completely drill out primer pocket with the appropriate sized bit... I just happen to use a 13/64th

3. Very slightly flare the case neck with a Lee, RCBS or Lyman expander die. You want the case to form a funnel in the chamber so when you pound your slug up it stays inside the case...

4. Cut a piece of wood doweling long enough to fill the case within around .150" from the case mouth... use 5/16" doweling for .358 and 9.3 cal. I wrap the end of the doweling with electrical tape to center it in the case...

5. Clean the bore and chamber and "very" lightly oil then dry patch once.. Lubricate the rear of your locking lugs so it is easier to open the bolt after forming the slug...

6. Cut a piece of 5/16" cold rolled steel rod long enough to stick out of your barrel about 3-4" with the case and slug in the bore...

7. I wrap the rod "barber pole" style with electrical tape for better fit in the bore and just for grins...

8. Chamber the case, drop the pure lead slug down the bore, then drop another water dropped wheel weight gas checked boolit (sized down to below bore dia.) gas check first into the bore...
Edit... regarding the gas checked WDWW boolit.. I just started using one this spring and I put the pointed end of the boolit into the barrel first so the gas check would be against the rod.. That works ok and you end up with a mortise type joint between the pure lead slug and the gas checked WDWW... The other night when I wrote the above (put the gas check end in into the barrel first) I was thinking that way might work better but after some more thinking I am going to continue to do it the way I have done it in the past(gas check against the rod) except I will cut or file the nose flat on the gas checked boolit... Clear as mud?

9. Insert the steel rod and place the butt of your rifle on your foot and pound the rod.. You can feel and hear when the slug is formed...Then give the rod at least 3 more good whacks to "be sure" the slug is fully formed... (trust me on this)

10. Open your bolt and pound the case and slug out..

What you end up with is the case with the slug embedded in the mouth and a nice flat end on the slug (because you used the hard gas checked boolit).. The flat end will make it easy to measure the end of the slug for land or bore dia. with your dial calipers... (measure from the end)... If you don't use a sized down hard cast gas checked boolit the smaller dia. rod will embed into the soft slug and make a mess of that end of the slug for getting your bore measurements... You need your bore measurement for paper patched boolits..

Now measure from the shoulder/neck junction to were the lands are on the slug... This will give you the measurement for the longest boolit that you can chamber with the base of the boolit in the neck and the boolit nose engraved in the lands... Measure the length and dia. of the throat...
Record all these measurements... I keep all my cases and throat slugs together in a zip lock bag for each rifle... You would be surprised how often you go back and look at or measure them...
Now take a small punch (I use a nail with a squared end) and knock the dowel and slug out of the case.. Measure the dia. that was in the case neck... Subtract .002" from that dia. and that would be the largest diameter boolit that you would ever want to chamber in your rifle and still have enough case expansion to release the boolit... Also compare that measurement to your throat measure to see the difference... If they are with in a few thou. then size your boolit to fit your throat..
Sometimes you might have to size the boolit to fit the case neck and either taper or size down the nose to fit the throat if you want to have any accuracy as the boolit should have support at both ends during lift off...
Case in point is my .35 Whelen were I use a 9.3 bore rider boolit sized down to .364+ to fit the over sized chamber neck... The bore rider nose is slightly under throat size but shoots well with what little range work I have done with it so far... I had spent over two months trying to get the rifle to shoot cast with no luck... Then one day at the reloading bench with out thinking I reached up and got a Speer .366 bullet off the shelf and inserted it into a fired unsized Whelen case by hand... ... Fark!!!!!!!!!!! no wonder the dammed thing won't shoot .360" sized cast...

I was going to post the above info with photos when I get around to getting a digital camera but that might not be for awhile...
Making a throat slug is not that hard at all and will give you the information that you need to make an informed decision on the size and type of boolit that will shoot best in your rifle...

There are more than one way to skin a cat so if others have a better way or some technique please share... I am still learning myself and that is what keeps my interest...

Low Wall,
Thanks for taking the time to write that up. Very clear and consise. I'm going to have to be a bit creative and maybe use a turned brass slug instead of the gas-checked bullet because I don't think I have a mold that size. I'll give it a go and see what it looks like.
Greg

quote:

Originally posted by gzig5:
Low Wall,
Thanks for taking the time to write that up. Very clear and consise. I'm going to have to be a bit creative and maybe use a turned brass slug instead of the gas-checked bullet because I don't think I have a mold that size. I'll give it a go and see what it looks like.
Greg

Hello Greg,
Using a tight fitting turned brass slug on top of your pure lead slug should work fine.. Since you already know the bore or land dia. using your pin gage you won't need to be so careful with that end of your pure lead slug..
Note I edited #8 in my above post but that won't effect what you are doing..

I have to agree with Lowall. I slugged my husky 98 fn mauser actioned 9.3x57 and got a throat diameter of .370-371, top of the lands were .359 groove diameter was .368 so that give me some .005 high lands. I used some soft 45 acp cast bullets dusted with motor mica. My rifle was made in 1927. I plan on starting my load data experiments with the privi 286 grain round nosed bullet.For more data about sizing down .375 rifle bullets to fit the various 9.3's you can go to gunboards think the info is located in the swedish sporting rifles section. Hope that this is of some help. Frank