Making A Bullet Sizer

[dml1296]

I am not highly trained machinist. I spent 2 years as a tool and die apprentice 45 years ago, but most of my time was spent on milling machines. Very little on lathes. Anyway, I tried to make a .575" sizer. I have some old rusty .30-06 dies and thought that might work. I annealed them and cut the tops off. Then I ran a 1/2" drill through the body. Using a boring bar, I opened the hole to .570". Then, taking very light cuts went to .574". I took one more light cut and the bore now measured .580" !!! :cry: :x

I tried again and stopped at .574". This time I used some abrasive cloth on a rod to polish the inside of the bore and enlarge the opening a bit. I pushed a .580" Minie ball through it and it mikes .5755" I don't have the tools to hone the bore. That would probably work better

The moral of the story is.....buy the dang thing from someone else. It's not worth the time and frustration trying to make one unless you have the skill and proper tools.

[John Holland]

Sometimes....even if you have the skill....it isn't worth the effort for the price of just buying one!

JDH

[efritz]

Like Dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limitations. Did I fire 5 or did I fire 6?"

[hp gregory, 9128]

one way to make a sizer is to buy a stick of threaded rod that will fit your reloading press. various machine supply houses have it. cut it in 2.5 inch sections. put it in the lathe and face the ends. center drill it then pilot drill it then drill it to half inch. you can use a small boring bar to take it out to just under the size you want. then bore the front of the die out about just larger than the size of your cast minie. make this cut about the length of the minie. this will make sure the minie has to start straight before going into the sizing section. take the sizer and place it your press using a pusher that fits the hollow base size a minie and try it in the barrel. if its to small take the sizer and place it in the lathe. using a wood dowel and sand paper polish the sizer out some. keep doing this until you get that perfect fit. i normaly turn the top of the die down a little on the outside so i can have a smooth spot to hold on to so i can screw it in and out. i also mark the size of the die with an electric pencil on this area. most folks that shoot have a reloading press so i have found that this is a good way to make a sizer. just one way to skin a cat.

hp gregory

[DAVE FRANCE]

dml,

I used to do stuff like that when I started skirmishing. Usually it turned out okay, but took a lot of time.

The incident that stands out best is worth repeating it is one that had a funny ending.

I made a slide for to use for a peep sight to use on a Smith carbine. I made it from aluminum and filed it out, including the undercut part that the ladder would fit in. At a skirmish I showed it to some other skirmishers, and it got handed aroung a few guys while it was on the gun. When it got back to me, the slide was gone. It probably fell of the slide while people were handing it around. I never did anything that took that much time again. I found out there were a lot of good machinists who could do it easier.

I used to make aluminum spacers to use on a Sharps or Smith Carbine sight. they were easy to make, but it probably took 1/2 hour or more to make one. One of the skirmishers looked at them, and had several hundred of different thicknesses made by a laser cutting machine. He gave them away for nothing.

David