Casting without resizing?

I guess the bottom line is your gun will decide if a particular bullet from a particular mold will shoot well uncast. If so crackon.
I use pure (or next to) lead and the gun will digest anything...but no high pressure, high velocity stuff in my casting stable. That helps
 
Seems to me, that breech seating would probably disprove the idea of sizing before seating being necessary, unless the bullet is vastly oversize. In which case either the blend is wrong or the mould is wrongShot many thousands of plain based breech seated bullets that were not sized, that would consistently shoot under an inch at 100, and under 2" at 200.
If you are getting a lot of variation in the diameter, I'd be looking at the pot temp, mould temp and the casting pace. I can run a 20lb pot and come out +/- 1.0gr top to bottom, on 170gr up to 400gr, and 80-90% will be +/- 0.3 gr. Diameter shouldn't really be a consideration if the mould is closed properly, and it was the right blend, to cast to the proper dia to start with.
I've had moulds that would not cast to the proper size with varying blends, some were small, some were too big. Got one downstairs right now that will not cast to the stated dia with any blend, can't use it the way it is, everything comes out too small. It is supposed to go .412, won't crack .410.
 
most sizing dies+expander dies are designed to have a slight bulge with seated bullet, which gives good neck tension and prevents bullet movement in SA handguns. Some cast bullets are oval(o/size), neck of case can be too thick(some ni plated), or chambers are dirty or undersize, all of which are very dangerous/overpressure=the genie can't get out of the bottle.
 
Some highly experienced people think unsized bullets are more accurate because they remain more concentric. Some long range BP rifle shooters have used unsized bullets with good results.

The theory is that sized bullets don't always center perfectly in the sizing die and therefore the pointy part isn't always exactly in the center, which can make shot-to-shot variations on the target. Generally the less you have to size a bullet the less problem this will cause. Sizing down .001-.002" is perfect IMO.

Using as-cast bullets can work well too, if the mold throws good bullets and the casting conditions are kept uniform throughout the sesssion. As Ted pointed out, if the pot temperature varies by much then the diameter of the bullets will vary dependant on the alloy mix you are casting with.
 
I agree with what jethunter wrote above.

I recently found out that my Israeli 308 and Swiss model 1911 shoot way better with unsized Lee 155 Harris boolit.
Both of those rifles slug out just shy of .310 and Swiss has very short throat (I cant use any longer boolit than Lee).

Usualy folks size boolits for those calibers .309 to .311 and so did I,Just for fun I loaded 20 rds each with the same recipe as usual except boolit was lubed in .314 sizer.
Groups shrunk,recoil inreased(but still very mild).

I will be duplicating this in other calibers too if throat size allows me to do it.
 
Back
Top Bottom