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Joined: Jul 2004
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my bullets and I have a question. When I run a bullet into the sizing die the lube never fills the groove completely when the lube is not fairly warm. Is it necessary the groove be completely filled with lube or just 3/4 full?

When the lube is cool I have to put quite a bit of pressure to get the lube to flow and usually have to crank the handle at least 1/4 turn with every bullet. Is this normal?
Many thanks, Mickey

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Mickey, whether the lube groove needs to be full or not depends on a lot of things, bullet hardness, lube quality, bullet size, and barrel length. usually, when I fire my cast loads, there is a little lube left on the muzzle. If you're not getting that, you need more. Whether a 1/4 turn is normal, that depends on the number and size of lube grooves in the bullet. I had a .45-70 bullet that needed a half turn per. But my normal .30 cal only needs a 1/4 turn every third bullet or so. I'd use the heater if you have one with that lube, if you put too much pressure on the lube, you can blow an O ring. I hope this helps.
Gordon.

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Originally Posted by old70
Mickey, whether the lube groove needs to be full or not depends on a lot of things, bullet hardness, lube quality, bullet size, and barrel length. usually, when I fire my cast loads, there is a little lube left on the muzzle. If you're not getting that, you need more. Whether a 1/4 turn is normal, that depends on the number and size of lube grooves in the bullet. I had a .45-70 bullet that needed a half turn per. But my normal .30 cal only needs a 1/4 turn every third bullet or so. I'd use the heater if you have one with that lube, if you put too much pressure on the lube, you can blow an O ring. I hope this helps.
Gordon.

Gordon,
It has indeed helped. Thanks. I have a small ceramic heater that sits beside the lubasizer but it heats me about as well as it does anything. I may break down and buy a heater to go under the sizer. I just was not sure about how many turns/partial turns it normally took others and I see that mine is about the norm.
Mickey

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I use a Lyman 4500 and turning a small amount is normal on it with each bullet. I do put enough pressure to completely fill the groove on the bullet. To check if you are applying too much pressure, run a 2nd bullet thru without turning the crank; it should come out about half filled. If it is totally filled, you are applying too much pressure.

Having said all this, consider that my lube is 50/50 alox and beeswax which is a pretty soft lube and doesn't require any heat at room temp. Not knowing what lube you are using, it may be that your lube requires heat in order to make it flow better.

Last edited by lastround; 12/29/12.

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Originally Posted by lastround
I use a Lyman 4500 and turning a small amount is normal on it with each bullet. I do put enough pressure to completely fill the groove on the bullet. To check if you are applying too much pressure, run a 2nd bullet thru without turning the crank; it should come out about half filled. If it is totally filled, you are applying too much pressure.

Having said all this, consider that my lube is 50/50 alox and beeswax which is a pretty soft lube and doesn't require any heat at room temp. Not knowing what lube you are using, it may be that your lube requires heat in order to make it flow better.

I'm using RCBS lube and it doesn't flow easily. Thanks for the input.

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Mickey, I think you'll find the heater under the lubrisizer will make things a lot easier. Depending on the bullet and the amount and size of lube grooves I have to turn the handle 1/4 turn every 2nd or sometimes only every 5th bullet to get a good fill. I'm using LBT Blue in my RCBS lubrisizer and it definitely needs a little softening to flow well.

Another thing which may or may not apply is the spacing and amount of the lube holes in the sizing die. I used to have some that had two columns of holes set 180 degrees apart around the die, so the lube had to travel 1/2 of the way around each bullet. I think those were all older RCBS dies.

I've replaced all of those with dies that have 4 columns of holes set 90 degrees around the die, so the lube only has to travel 1/4 of the way around the bullet. These are Lyman dies and are about the only Lyman product I can really recommend these days. I see the current RCBS sizer dies have 4 holes at 90 degrees but only one hole at each position, not 2, 3 or 4 set in a vertical line. That probably works as well if you only have to fill one lube groove on each bullet.

Anyway, something else to think about and spend money on... wink


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