So I am having keyholeing issues with the noe 356 HTC rg mold. They stop at .356 do 2 coats of powder coating and before sizing they are .360 Lee sizer .358 puts them down to .3565-.3575 and they are still keyholeing. Now the noe 358 tc mold sized at .3565 shoot just fine. Please any help.
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Sizing problems
- Thread starter kxkid
- Start date
Just shoot the NOE 358 TC mold sized to .3565 and be done with it...
If that's not an option, I'd try to either use a harder or softer bullet and see if that makes any differences. Or try and sort your brass by headstamp and see if any of the common brands (WIN, RP, FC, etc) preform any better than the rest. Sometimes with lead bullets the brass will swag down lead bullets. That could be more likely with a larger than normal bullet like a 135 grain.
What load are you using? I've had better luck with lead 9mm when sticking closer to the starting loads.
What guns are these being shot out of?
What distance are they keyholeing. I've shot half a dozen different lead bullet types out of a half a dozen different guns and never had a noticeable amount of keyholeing at 10 to 15 yards.
Unfortunately there are many variables at play trying to troubleshoot can be problematic and frustrating. If you have a mold and load that are working then the easiest answer is to go with what works.
If that's not an option, I'd try to either use a harder or softer bullet and see if that makes any differences. Or try and sort your brass by headstamp and see if any of the common brands (WIN, RP, FC, etc) preform any better than the rest. Sometimes with lead bullets the brass will swag down lead bullets. That could be more likely with a larger than normal bullet like a 135 grain.
What load are you using? I've had better luck with lead 9mm when sticking closer to the starting loads.
What guns are these being shot out of?
What distance are they keyholeing. I've shot half a dozen different lead bullet types out of a half a dozen different guns and never had a noticeable amount of keyholeing at 10 to 15 yards.
Unfortunately there are many variables at play trying to troubleshoot can be problematic and frustrating. If you have a mold and load that are working then the easiest answer is to go with what works.
Well I had to go look up the bullet you were referring to to see what it actually was. Like you mention it is machined to drop at .356" so that allows you to put on the coating then size if needed.
I use .357-.358 in my two Sig's, (P320,P226TO) with half a dozen different bullets and they shoot them into boring ragged hole groups over several different loads each.
If you use some 400-600 grit wet dry wrapped around a 5/16 or so dowel rod and apply a drop of oil it will polish the sizer out real quickly. Just slide the wrapped dowel through the die and roll it back and forth on the top of your thigh. It goes pretty quick so have half a dozen or so test slugs sitting there to check the sizes as you go. It's easier to take just a touch more out than to put it back.
I would cast your bullets and give them about two weeks to settle into their hardness. Then coat and size. Sometimes they just need a little time to come into the hardness and if you rush things they are all over the place. With my 454, I run an alloy just a touch harder tan straight wheel weights. I have to give them a two to three week span from cast to size before they will act properly. However give them that and they shoot awesome, with no issues what so ever using either the 45-45-10 tumble lube or Carnuba Red from White Label Lubes. I know a lot of folks recommend quenching in water, well I tried shooting both quenched and air cooled and there was no comparison. Air cooled and cured two weeks is the ticket hands down.
All that said, almost any of my cast get at least the two week period now. Not that I decided to go that rout with everything, it just seems to work out that way. When I pour up a batch it is usually around a 15-20# one of each that I am needing. That works out to a LOT of sorting and such not to mention the sizing. If I'm coating that adds another couple of days as once I set up I do everything thats getting coated at once. I only have a small oven that only holds a hundred or so depending on the caliber. Takes time to do several hundred in several calibers much less 10 or more pounds of a particular one.
Give the mold a chance with a bit larger sized coated bullet, and give the alloy a week or so at the minimum to "set" and see if that helps. Also I don't remember what your load was or if you were using the stock barrel or had changed it to an after market one. I use powders like BE-86, AA-5,7, Bullseye, and a couple of more that just ain't popping into my head. These have all given plenty of accuracy and velocity under the powder coated bullets with no leading or tumbling that i have found out to 25yds.
Hope this helps
I use .357-.358 in my two Sig's, (P320,P226TO) with half a dozen different bullets and they shoot them into boring ragged hole groups over several different loads each.
If you use some 400-600 grit wet dry wrapped around a 5/16 or so dowel rod and apply a drop of oil it will polish the sizer out real quickly. Just slide the wrapped dowel through the die and roll it back and forth on the top of your thigh. It goes pretty quick so have half a dozen or so test slugs sitting there to check the sizes as you go. It's easier to take just a touch more out than to put it back.
I would cast your bullets and give them about two weeks to settle into their hardness. Then coat and size. Sometimes they just need a little time to come into the hardness and if you rush things they are all over the place. With my 454, I run an alloy just a touch harder tan straight wheel weights. I have to give them a two to three week span from cast to size before they will act properly. However give them that and they shoot awesome, with no issues what so ever using either the 45-45-10 tumble lube or Carnuba Red from White Label Lubes. I know a lot of folks recommend quenching in water, well I tried shooting both quenched and air cooled and there was no comparison. Air cooled and cured two weeks is the ticket hands down.
All that said, almost any of my cast get at least the two week period now. Not that I decided to go that rout with everything, it just seems to work out that way. When I pour up a batch it is usually around a 15-20# one of each that I am needing. That works out to a LOT of sorting and such not to mention the sizing. If I'm coating that adds another couple of days as once I set up I do everything thats getting coated at once. I only have a small oven that only holds a hundred or so depending on the caliber. Takes time to do several hundred in several calibers much less 10 or more pounds of a particular one.
Give the mold a chance with a bit larger sized coated bullet, and give the alloy a week or so at the minimum to "set" and see if that helps. Also I don't remember what your load was or if you were using the stock barrel or had changed it to an after market one. I use powders like BE-86, AA-5,7, Bullseye, and a couple of more that just ain't popping into my head. These have all given plenty of accuracy and velocity under the powder coated bullets with no leading or tumbling that i have found out to 25yds.
Hope this helps
Well I had to go look up the bullet you were referring to to see what it actually was. Like you mention it is machined to drop at .356" so that allows you to put on the coating then size if needed.
I use .357-.358 in my two Sig's, (P320,P226TO) with half a dozen different bullets and they shoot them into boring ragged hole groups over several different loads each.
If you use some 400-600 grit wet dry wrapped around a 5/16 or so dowel rod and apply a drop of oil it will polish the sizer out real quickly. Just slide the wrapped dowel through the die and roll it back and forth on the top of your thigh. It goes pretty quick so have half a dozen or so test slugs sitting there to check the sizes as you go. It's easier to take just a touch more out than to put it back.
I would cast your bullets and give them about two weeks to settle into their hardness. Then coat and size. Sometimes they just need a little time to come into the hardness and if you rush things they are all over the place. With my 454, I run an alloy just a touch harder tan straight wheel weights. I have to give them a two to three week span from cast to size before they will act properly. However give them that and they shoot awesome, with no issues what so ever using either the 45-45-10 tumble lube or Carnuba Red from White Label Lubes. I know a lot of folks recommend quenching in water, well I tried shooting both quenched and air cooled and there was no comparison. Air cooled and cured two weeks is the ticket hands down.
All that said, almost any of my cast get at least the two week period now. Not that I decided to go that rout with everything, it just seems to work out that way. When I pour up a batch it is usually around a 15-20# one of each that I am needing. That works out to a LOT of sorting and such not to mention the sizing. If I'm coating that adds another couple of days as once I set up I do everything thats getting coated at once. I only have a small oven that only holds a hundred or so depending on the caliber. Takes time to do several hundred in several calibers much less 10 or more pounds of a particular one.
Give the mold a chance with a bit larger sized coated bullet, and give the alloy a week or so at the minimum to "set" and see if that helps. Also I don't remember what your load was or if you were using the stock barrel or had changed it to an after market one. I use powders like BE-86, AA-5,7, Bullseye, and a couple of more that just ain't popping into my head. These have all given plenty of accuracy and velocity under the powder coated bullets with no leading or tumbling that i have found out to 25yds.
Hope this helps
You've been the most helpful yet. I will give that a try. I am using stock barrel which I've never had a issue with before. I am using wst with data found on several sites. I am casting more today and will let them sit a week, which is hard for me to do right now because I am used to it work right the first few times with my old Lee molds that broke. Which is why I went with noe because those cheap things pissed me off.
I am coating my bullets then size them to .358. Load process. Full length size casevwith a Dillon 9mm carbide die, Then bell the case with Dillon expander, then seat bullet with Dillon setter, then just enough crimp to chamber in the tightest chamber I own, springfield xd mod 2 with a Dillon crimp die. My dies are the older style dies but never had a issue until I got new molds from noe. The Lee ones I had issues with screws and alignment pins falling out when up to temp. The bullets from the Lee molds were cast with the same alloy, range scrape from a indoor range, coated with the same harbor freight powder coat tumbled in the number 5 container trick and sized to .3565 and not once did they keyhole like I am getting now.