So Lee has stopped making custom sizers over .515" in diameter. This means they have abandoned the muzzle loading market for anything bigger than 50 cal.
A while ago when I was doing load workups with my new Smith, I bought a .515 sizer from Lodgewood - it's a North East Trading Company sizer that threads into a single stage press. Bullets were .522 to start with - sizing down .007". The NETCO sizer totally mangled the bullets. IT does not have a gentle transition like the Lee sizers but rather a simple chamfer.
Now I'm wanting to size Sharps bullets from .550 to .542 (.008" down). Can't get a custom Lee one anymore, so I ordered a NETCO directly from NETCO. Same thing. Requires a tremendous amount of force to push them through, and it smears them terribly.
I contacted NETCO via email, and he called me today saying that's just the way his sizers are and he can't afford to make them as nice as the Lee ones and that with pure lead they won't size down as far as I'm trying to size them.
So, I've given up on NETCO sizing dies.
Lee is out of the picture, now, too, so who else makes a bottom-push sizing die?
I could always get a top-punch die from S&S for my Lyman Lubrisizer, and I guess that's what I'll do if I have no other choice, but I really like the press-mounted style that pushes them through nose-first.
If you want, send a kindly-worded email to Lee asking them to please support muzzle loaders larger than 50 cal: support@leeprecision.com
Steve
Bookmarks