For those who cast bullets

[360hunt]

I'm looking for some opinions on bullet lube sizers.
Before I spend $ I thought I'd ask forum members on advice to which ones are worth looking into. Any pro's or con's ? I have been tumble and pan lubing but I'd like to invest in a proper lube sizer.
I'm casting for.....

45-70
45acp
9mm
30 cal
38/357 mag
44/44 mag

Thanks 360hunt

[Boogerfart]

Are you powder coating at all? If so you can save a ton using the Lee push through dies in your standard press. This works with tumble lube too obviously. If you want a traditional wax lubrisizer I'd recommend watching gun shows and the buy and sell for used as new stuffs pricy. The Lyman dies work in a RCBS press and vise versa to my understanding, I have a RCBS LAM11 and have a mix of RCBS and Lyman dies for it. They're expensive to collect... I use the Lee dies and the Lubrisizer depending on what I'm doing. If you're ever near Thorsby stop by and you can see how they work.

[32-40win]

Bit of a tossup as to which way to go. Tumble and pan lubing have their pluses and minuses, so do lubesizers. I have a Lyman that is pushing 30 yrs old, 450 I think. Broke the linkage on it once, doing some serious sizing on some oversize bullets, easy to fix, but, it happens. Changing from one lube to another is a pain, then you need sizers and punches which you'll never get all in one place. Or you buy a punch and modify it to suit.
When I had a mould that threw the right diameter, I pan lubed, if it didn't, then acquire what is needed to run it thru the sizer.
I think PC is good for handgun bullets, not so great with bigger bullets or long bullets. Though, you have to have a mould that throws the right size for what you have to add on with PC, much like paper patch, or use a sizer on them. And that somewhat defeats the purpose of PC, to have to run it thru the sizer.
All said and done, I'd rather have a mould that throws the right size, and pan lube. Less tooling, change the type of lube as quick as you can fill another pan and use all 4 elements on the stove, to do big batches.

[Arctic]

I've been using both the RCBS and Lyman for 40 years, they both get the job done and parts are available. There are some more elaborate, ...pricier and hard to find components!

[Boogerfart]

I size powder coated bullets through the Lee dies all the time, if the coatings good it'll pop through no problem. I've even pushed .458 bullets through a .452 die to make heavy 45 Colt bullets and the coating held up beautifully.

[Boogerfart]

Why wouldn't powder coating work with big or long bullets? I do 500gr 45-70 bullets, no issues so far. If someone wants to post pictures I can text or email pictures of them.

[32-40win]

Nothing wrong with powder coating the proper diameter bullet, but, having to size it? may as well have the sizer full of lube and forget the powder coating, it's simpler.

It's not about hurting the PC on the bullet, if they were done right they can handle that, as long as it isn't too big a step in sizing. If it is a big step in sizing, you may have to lube them anyway, to get them thru the sizer, without a struggle. A bullet that casts 410-411 and gets sized to 409, to allow for springback and wind up at 410 again, will likely be 412-413+ with powder coat before sizing, pushing that thru a 410 Lee sizer un-lubed, ain't fun either, and you still have to get to 409 and then maybe put a gascheck on it. And PC doesn't necessarily coat evenly around the bullet, which creates different issues, in which case it should be sized anyway.

That's what I see with doing PC. Can't say as I've seen anyone winning accuracy matches with them either. Not to mention it's dangerous stuff to work with and the precautions you need to take with it, in using it and storing it. And with making the trays up so a long bullet will stand up and stay there or so you can do them nose down in order to not PC the nose, and handling them at a few more times, if sizing or gaschecking gets involved.

I can pan lube with way less effort.. I can run it thru a lube sizer with less effort, even with a gascheck. Now that I have the trays and the oven, I'll use it to harden bullets when I want to.

[yukon254]

I have both the Lyman Lube sizer and some Lee push through dies. I prefer the Lee set-up. Where do you guys get the Powder Coat paint from in Canada?

[Boogerfart]

I get powder from these guys, they've been awesome so far.
https://www.prismaticpowders.com/canada

The Lee dies work awesome for powder coated bullets, they can seat gas checks too if needed. Part of why I wanted to experiment with pc wasn't just that its much cleaner, reduces lead exposure, and reduces equipment costs by allowing you to get away from lubrisizers but many guys claim it reduces the need for gas checks. Shooting a gc bullet thats been pc'ed is still going to suffer accuracy issues but using plain base molds opens up a few options. I haven't been trying to hit max velocities, just shooting light loads for cheap fun. If you're shooting targets at known ranges high velocity is a waste of powder and shoulders.
Some guys don't like it, thats understandable, but personally it works. Theres a few YouTube videos of guys doing various lube comparisons, care in each of the steps seems to effect accuracy more than the method used.