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Posted: 10/20/2009 7:41:04 AM EDT
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A little history...
I bought a quantity of .50 components several years ago and have been sitting on them. I bought mostly M2 black tips. Some tracers and some others. I have since be relieved of the invoice, whether by my own great skill at losing things, or through other people trying to "help" clean, and cannot remember whether I bought the resized bullets or not. So here is my question: How important is resizing pulled M2 Black tips, tracers and others? I am not going for extreme accuracy, minute of vehicle is okay by me. This is just plinking ammo. I have CNC turned solids for nice groups and long shots. I have the Lee Press, and want to load ammo, but do not have their sizing die. Thanks in advance guys... |
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Also,
Will this resizing kit work for .50 BMG rounds? Resizing Sorry for all the noob questions. I am finally to a point where I have the time to start reloading ammo to play with. |
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Quoted:
Also, Will this resizing kit work for .50 BMG rounds? Resizing Sorry for all the noob questions. I am finally to a point where I have the time to start reloading ammo to play with. Yep, that's all you need. -David |
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Ok, well, I cannot get that sizing die here in time to load for Friday... (Stupid hazmat shipping ground only... J/K)
If I didn't buy the already resized bullets(still not sure that I didn't - thinking worst case), if I go through and hand pick the ones that are closest to .510 and load them up; What kind of issues might I run into? Is this horribly unsafe? Is this just going to make accuracy not as great? Is this really not an issue? I honestly don't know. Thanks in advance. |
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Quoted:
Ok, well, I cannot get that sizing die here in time to load for Friday... (Stupid hazmat shipping ground only... J/K) If I didn't buy the already resized bullets(still not sure that I didn't - thinking worst case), if I go through and hand pick the ones that are closest to .510 and load them up; What kind of issues might I run into? Is this horribly unsafe? Is this just going to make accuracy not as great? Is this really not an issue? I honestly don't know. Thanks in advance. It's not an accuracy issue, it's a gun damage/overpressure issue. I wouldn't shoot unsized bullets through my gun, period. If you do, and the bullets are out of round anywhere, they have to swage through the bore unevenly, depositing copper on one two sides of the bore and not the other. With the sole exception of NEW South African bullets, a milsurp bullet has never gone down the bore of one of my 50's without being resized personally by me. -David Edgewood, NM |
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Agreed, it's not worth it. Don't do it.
ARNEWB, You can wait the week for the sizer die to get to you and save your barrel and your face. David, Do you prefer the CH4D sizing die (or any die) at .5095 for the elasticity issue? I thought the .5095 was supposed to be better especially for the AP hard core bullets. Regards, SOG |
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This is the one I reference above and is cheaper from Wideners than from the OEM CH4D. I am sure your comment about not >$100 this is too close to that amount but wanted to let you know about it. The problem is Wideners has been pretty slow to ship the past year. In fact, I don't know if you can even call them anymore to expedite overnight.
http://www.wideners.com/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=6704&dir=210|215|218 Regards, SOG |
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Lee will custom make you a 0.5095 for less than $50. I've always done fine with a LEE 0.510 sizer. I understand the springback issue....the point is that any bullet is going to have to swage through the barrel...so long as it's round, uniform, and within a few ten-thousandths of an inch you aren't going to have any pressure problems or excessive barrel wear.
So like I said, i've just gone with the LEE 0.510" But if you are cost concious and want a 0.5095" sizer, call LEE and have them make you one on the cheap. Afterall, it's just a short smooth tube of hardened steel and a ram to push the bullet through it. -David Edgewood, NM |
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Thanks for the tips guys.
Once my new lathe gets here and is wired in and all, I will just turn my own .5095 sizer. Sold my first lathe to make room for the better, bigger, and more accurate one. This one is just temporary to get me off the ground for taking the engineering department at my company shooting this Friday. |
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Your plan to measure some of your pulled bullets to make sure they are round and measure .510 all the way around the bullet is a sound idea. The slightly raised pull marks will cause no high pressure if loaded to safe non-maximum non-military equivalent loads. Even after sizing with your .510 or .509.5" size die the pull marks will not always come out to exactly .510 and make the bullet perfect again. After saying the above it is still best and highly recommended to not shoot surplus pulled bullets without resizing. I've resized many many surplus pulled bullets and you will run into one bullet now and then that is out of round and you'll find a few that are much harder to push through your size die.
For just loading a few and after careful measurement you'll not have nor will notice any pressure signs and your barrel will iron out the slightly raised pull marks. For the future I wouldn't shoot more until they are sized. Also, pulled bullets that I've bought that are "sized", I still run them thru my sizing die. Pulled sized bullets that you buy already sized, do not measure exactly .510 when miked over the pull marks. You can tell if your bullets are "sized" from your supplier by looking at the burrs or pull marks and if they appear to be ironed down slightly they have been sized by your supplier. The pull marks as I said won't be ironed down to be unnoticeable and probably will not measure exactly .510 when miked across the pull marks. |
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David,
Lee doesn't make any custom dies past the third decimal. I had some surplus bullets that after running through the .510" sizing die would "spring" back to .5105 or .511 I had some .311" bullets that were doing the same when sized to .308" I figured I would get me a set of custom dies at .5095" and .3075" .... since you only have to pay the tooling fee once I figured it would save me $4 to have them both made at the same time. When I called they said that they could make .509" and .307" but that was it. I ordered them about 3 months ago ... I called about 2 weeks ago and was told another 3-4 months on delivery. Just thought I would let you know. |
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I have the CH4D resizing die set and love it.
LUBE: I use 75% 20W50 synthetic car oil 25% STP oil treatment soaked into a rag in a small pan. Roll the projectile across the rag and size it. From there I throw them (300-500 at a time) into the electric cement mixer full of walnut shells and polishing compound. Two to three hours later they come out of there looking like new! |
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Quoted:
David, Lee doesn't make any custom dies past the third decimal. I had some surplus bullets that after running through the .510" sizing die would "spring" back to .5105 or .511 I had some .311" bullets that were doing the same when sized to .308" I figured I would get me a set of custom dies at .5095" and .3075" .... since you only have to pay the tooling fee once I figured it would save me $4 to have them both made at the same time. When I called they said that they could make .509" and .307" but that was it. I ordered them about 3 months ago ... I called about 2 weeks ago and was told another 3-4 months on delivery. Just thought I would let you know. Thanks for the note. I had never ordered a .5095 since I've never had trouble with a 0.510...but a couple FCSA guys said Lee would make you a custom sizer and they said you could order a .5095...correction noted. I wouldn't worry about the spring back. I've shot a few hundred milsurp pulldown bullets after running them through a Lee .510 sizer die. Any that were hard to get through, I ran a second time. -David |
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