Paper Patching my way

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I am not in great shape yet but I am doing much better. I am hoping that next year is better.
 
Ron, Sorry to hear of your health problems. Just goes to show if you plan to get old you better be tough. Prayers and thoughts to you. W
 
johnfg said:
Ron,

I haven't paper patched yet. I shoot a Winchester Apex, .50 Cal. 1:28 twist. I've looked at your video on youtube and read your posting here. My question is, what Lee die would I use for my rifle? I reload for all my center fire rifles and handguns, and most of my stuff is Hornady.

Thanks for your help!
john

Sorry I missed your post John. I am not sure on your rifle. I have never loaded any of my bullets in one. You would have to measure the barrel and see what your gun is at the top of the lands. I size to .501 but I am sure that if you sized to .499 it should work. I know some guns like the CVA's are a little tighter. I have a friend with one that uses my bullets and they work fine. They are very tight going down. On yours I am sorry I don't have better info on that.
 
Thanks Ron, i’m gathering the pieces now to build me a fast twist Hawken, and have read a lot of your stuff.
 
AWESOME work my friend!! To say LOTS n LOTS of time goes in to this stuff is being EXTREMELY Generous! The fellas that ‘pop’ on here, read this info, buy the components listed, and follow the steps, HAVE NO CLUE the corners they were able to cut, The amount of time, Powder, and Lead that went in to making this stuff work like it does. I can say i know this first hand, As i have been plugging away at it for about 2 years now myself in a slightly different direction, The amount of time i have put in to this stuff is HUGE, Just like yourself, so i VERY much respect all you have done to help me and MANY others!! I learned my start from you. There are things i changed to better fit my personal needs/wants, the biggest being bullet diameters from the mold, i chose to have custom molds made per Caliber that drop undersize and i wrap up to bore. But in the end we are achieving the same thing, just 2 different ways of doing it.

On the Paper, My advice is to use the New stuff from the Paper Mill store. In my testing i am confident the sticking papers are confined to the old 25% Cotton 9# onion skin stuff with a Cockle texture, At least mine, mine is Neenan brand and ads 7-8 thou to the overall diameter after 2 wraps (there are several different brands of the old stuff out there, it is considered vintage now days, you can find it on Ebay, But personally i would AVOID it with both the Lee S&W 500, and the RCBS 11MM bullets, I can use either or with my Custom bullets) I tested 12 Lee S&W 500 bullets 1 morning in a fairly controlled test, 6 with the Old paper and 6 with the New stuff, all 6 bullets with the old papers stuck and made it to my target, next up was the 6 with the new Wood fibre paper you get now days from the paper mill store, and all 6 ‘Shucked away’ Upon exiting, i even found all 6 twisted tails. There was no need to test this with the RCBS 11MM bullet as it sizes easier than the Lee S&W 500 bullet, since the Lee S&W 500 Shucked this New wood fibre Paper, there is no doubt in my mind the RCBS 11MM bullet will do so.
This new stuff you get now days from the Paper Mill store is SUPER slick stuff, Forum member Harleysboss sent me several sheets of it to test with, After running the patched Lee S&W 500 bullets through my .499, and .500 sizer i could grip the nose/ogive of the bullet with my thumb and index finger, hold the paper jacket with the other hand, and actually get them to turn inside the paper jacket, There is no way in hell i can do that with my old 25% Cotton paper, that stuff almost Welds on after being sized that hard!! If you use the New stuff from the Paper Mill store i am Confident it will ‘Shuck’ away upon exiting the muzzle as a true paper patched bullet should.


As far as sizing goes, In a controlled environment such as benchrest/Target shooting i prefer a bullet that slides down the bore easy (as long as it shoots well) Most of our top shooters say that they find best accuracy 1-2 thou under bore, which makes loading a true pleasure! But for hunting i simply would NEVER trust a bullet like that, I want my hunting bullet to have enough pressure that i can absolutely trust it 100% to stay put on the powder charge and not slip. As to what size you need? There is no easy answer here, This comes down to a ‘per bore’ deal, You need to know your bore, without having your rifle in front of me I can not tell you what will load best in your rifle? But I can tell you in my experience with SEVERAL different rifles that 8 is a pretty darn safe bet, examples- .45 Cal .448, .50 Cal .498, and .54 Cal .538, I have 8s, 9s, and 0s (0 being .450, .500, and .540) I personally use my 9s and 0s by FAR the most, but i have a few rifles that require an 8. With as many Rifles as i have it is a must to have all of the sizes I mention above, But If you only own and work with 1 Rifle i advise you get an 8 die, and if it ends up being looser than you feel comfortable with you can always open the die 1-2 Thou very easily! Look up Buckshot’s tutorial over on Castboolits for opening a Lee push through bullet sizer. Follow what he says to do, Go slow and check often, You can always take a little more away if need be, but impossible to ad any back, I know this first hand :D
 
Here are a couple of targets i shot way back with the Lee S&W 500 bullet, and the RCBS 11MM bullet, If you follow EXACTLY what Ron does it works, and works well!! But if you deviate even the slightest from his way you are asking for problems, here’s another ask me how i know :D The main problem I encountered was lead hardness with Ron’s method, back when i first started doing this I didn’t own a Cabin Tree lead hardness tester, it was an expense i was hoping to get around, BIG MISTAKE! I tried wrapping and running some Lee S&W 500s through my .499 sizer that had sat on my loading bench for about 1 year, the first bullet i tried got stuck in my die hard, i drilled a small hole through the center of the bullet to weaken it so I could push it back out the same way it came in, I couldn’t for the life of me understand what caused that bullet to stick, when they went through no problem last year? I cleaned my die really good thinking maybe i missed some oil from storage and maybe it was sticky? I wrapped another one and tried pushing it through, STUCK again! What had happened is My bullets had age hardened to around 9-9.5 BHN. Using Ron’s method it is CRUCIAL that you know your lead hardness!! If you choose to avoid spending the money on the lead hardness tester the next best thing is to buy certified pure lead, Don’t try and guess it!
If by chance you mess up and get a bullet stuck in a die, there is a MUCH easier way to get it free than my first go around of drilling a small hole through the bullet to weaken it, Use a hair dryer on high heat and heat the die HOT, the bullet will tap out easily.

Here is a Group i shot way back with the Lee S&W 500 bullet, these were the same bullets as the ones i got stuck in my sizing die, except these were done fresh from the bullet mold, which allowed me to get away with it. This target was shot at 80 yards the first 3 shots are true clover leaf, i made a sight adjustment and shot 2 more times, The Lee S&W 500 will flat out shoot!


And here is my very first group with the RCBS 11MM bullet, Same 80 yards.
 
WV Hunter said:
idahoron said:
I hope I got everything fixed

It looks great Ron! I bet it took a while, you have alot of pics in this thread.

Hope you guys had a nice Christmas and you are feeling better every day. :yeah:

I am doing much better. I was having a real hard time for a bit but I am getting better. Thanks.
 

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