Can anyone save me some time/steps?

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threehundred
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Re: Can anyone save me some time/steps?

Post by threehundred »

bangbangping wrote:
threehundred wrote:I remember the term "beagling", been around a long time! 8)
How much of an increase do you think it can be bumped by just polishing?
If I can bump up the diameter by polishing, why not just get a Lee .311 sizer?
OK, never know what someone knows or doesn't. :mrgreen:

IMO, the LEE sizers benefit from polishing regardless, so I like to start small. You can easily go to .311 from .309. Start with 400 or 600 grit and go up as high as you want.


I am going to slug the throat, as recommended. But, more than likely I am going to need
a .310 to .311 diameter with pure lead, so, I'll probably just get Lee's .311 sizer die.

Which creates the next problem of getting the mold opened up to .311.

Any suggestions/recommendations?
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yondering
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Re: Can anyone save me some time/steps?

Post by yondering »

threehundred wrote: Which creates the next problem of getting the mold opened up to .311.

Any suggestions/recommendations?
Well, you could beagle the mold as suggested, but this design really benefits from having the boat tail removed. Reaming the base with a .311 reamer (5/16" is .3125" and can work fine) carefully is a good way to go. If you're interested in doing that, I can offer some advice on getting the best results.

Personally, since I powder coat my bullets, I prefer to just bore the entire body out straight, but if you're intending to tumble lube you'll want to do just the base.
Boolit_Head
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Re: Can anyone save me some time/steps?

Post by Boolit_Head »

I am loosing my fondness for Lee molds because they all seem to drop small. In one instance I am using a 312-155 that drops more like .308 and 150 grain. I run it through a .309 sizer mainly to put gas checks on after powder coating and the sides barely touch the die. They tend to measure .308 to .3085 after all this. I've slugged my bore at .308 so to get a .309 bullet I'd have to beagle about .002 evenly into the 6 chambers of the mold. Instead I am moving to a NOE mold and have high hopes of it dropping properly.
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yondering
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Re: Can anyone save me some time/steps?

Post by yondering »

I hear your frustration there, but beagling that mold would easily get you the .002+" increase you're looking for, and will do it evenly across all cavities.

To clarify for anyone not familiar with it, "beagling" involves spacing the blocks apart with aluminum tape; I generally use 5-6 small pieces of tape for this, two on each end and one or two in the middle. It does not mean lapping the cavities, which is much more time consuming and can end up with uneven cavity sizes.

I guess I've gotten lucky with Lee molds though, out of maybe 30 different molds, one of the 230gr 300 Blk molds is the only one that drops small, the rest are on size or slightly over, especially the newer molds from the last few years. Some of the older molds definitely took more work to get them working right. Anybody who doesn't like their Lee molds - let me know what you've got and how much you want for them, maybe we can make a deal.
Boolit_Head
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Re: Can anyone save me some time/steps?

Post by Boolit_Head »

Lementing would probably be better but I am not to keen on continuing with this bullet. It's only redeeming quality is it is a 6 cavity mold. I'd rather move on to one suited for subsonic.
threehundred
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Re: Can anyone save me some time/steps?

Post by threehundred »

yondering wrote:
threehundred wrote: Which creates the next problem of getting the mold opened up to .311.

Any suggestions/recommendations?
Well, you could beagle the mold as suggested, but this design really benefits from having the boat tail removed. Reaming the base with a .311 reamer (5/16" is .3125" and can work fine) carefully is a good way to go. If you're interested in doing that, I can offer some advice on getting the best results.

Personally, since I powder coat my bullets, I prefer to just bore the entire body out straight, but if you're intending to tumble lube you'll want to do just the base.


Thanks for the tip, but, even if I had a drill press, this would be above my pay grade! 8)
If I can find the right thickness heat tape, beagling would be best for me.
As for lubing, I still have about 20 pounds of raw bees wax, just have to find my old lithium recipe and I'll be good to go on that. I like alot of lube rings and just lubing from the top lube ring down, which is why I went with this bullet profile and I like the long but very slight angled boat tail profile on this bullet, so that belling would not need to be too severe.
Last edited by threehundred on Wed Mar 01, 2017 9:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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yondering
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Re: Can anyone save me some time/steps?

Post by yondering »

Boolit_Head wrote:Lementing would probably be better but I am not to keen on continuing with this bullet. It's only redeeming quality is it is a 6 cavity mold. I'd rather move on to one suited for subsonic.
I'm not sure you're understanding the different terms for mold treatments like "beagling" and "leementing", or how they affect the mold. If you want to mold to cast larger, beagling as I described above is the fastest and most uniform way to increase the size of all cavities evenly.

And yeah, that 155gr bullet is intended as a supersonic bullet for 7.62x39 that also works in the Blackout. It was never designed to be a subsonic bullet.
Dragonfd3s
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Re: Can anyone save me some time/steps?

Post by Dragonfd3s »

threehundred wrote:
bangbangping wrote:
threehundred wrote:I remember the term "beagling", been around a long time! 8)
How much of an increase do you think it can be bumped by just polishing?
If I can bump up the diameter by polishing, why not just get a Lee .311 sizer?
OK, never know what someone knows or doesn't. :mrgreen:

IMO, the LEE sizers benefit from polishing regardless, so I like to start small. You can easily go to .311 from .309. Start with 400 or 600 grit and go up as high as you want.


I am going to slug the throat, as recommended. But, more than likely I am going to need
a .310 to .311 diameter with pure lead, so, I'll probably just get Lee's .311 sizer die.

Which creates the next problem of getting the mold opened up to .311.

Any suggestions/recommendations?
Cast some first, mine come out of the mold at .311-312
threehundred
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Re: Can anyone save me some time/steps?

Post by threehundred »

Sounds reasonable Dragonfd3s.

Also, I slugged my barrel diameter today, just after the free bore and into the rifling and it is tighter than I expected. On second thought, I should have and will slugg the muzzle tomorrow, for comparison.

Shouldn't have any leading problems with what I found, so far.
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80hp
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Re: Can anyone save me some time/steps?

Post by 80hp »

Threehundred- Save your valuable time and components! Buy a Noe 230 or 245g PB mold (plain base) and scrap or sell the Lee mold! I wasted two years and a lot of primers, powder, and lead trying to get that bullet to shoot. I had two different molds and used 2 different rifles. The Lee mold tends to be undersized and the bullet has too little area in contact with the bore to properly grab the bullet.
I think somewhere on this board I have previously posted my problems with it.
P.S. My lee .311 sizer actually sizes .3105, but my guns like the Noe bullet sized through it.
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