Hi Guys,

Just about got all my casting equipment together and am now looking for a top punch. I bought a couple of Lee molds, C452-300RF and C430-310-RF, and am looking for top punches. I've checked with Lee, RCBS, Lyman and Midway, and only Midway is willing to go out on a limb to give me this information. They say RCBS 424 or Lyman 191 will work for the 45 cal bullet. Can anyone here confirm this information? I've seen a list on the castboolit website that lists RCBS #600 for the 44 cal bullet. Will that one work?

Thanks.

You usually can adapt an oversized top punch. You wax up a bullet with paste wax and fill the oversize punch with JB Weld or rifle bedding compound, then set the bullet into it and remove the excess. You lay the pair on a flat surface and roll them to see eccentricity, and adjust the bullet until there is none and it is pretty straight in the punch. Once the epoxy has begun to stiffen, put the pair in the lubrisizer and use it to just start the bullet into the die to get final fit of the expoxy. Let them sit that way with the lubrisizer keeping them in line until the epoxy sets firmly enough to rotate the bullet and remove it. Note that not all bullets are perfectly round, and you sometimes need to rotate the top punch over the bullet to be sure it fits all around. You do that in the press when the epoxy is stiffening but still a little bit plastic, by loosening the top punch set screw and just turning it around once and tightening the screw again.

Do you have a SWC Top Punch in either of those calibers? Another example, here's one that i made from a bolt that would work on those two styles.


http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh266/spilihp_2007/TopPunch2.jpg

I decided to go with the Lyman #191. I'll try taking Midway's word for it. I'll let you know how it works. Now just need to get a chance to do some casting. All this working for a living gets in the way of doing important things. :mad:

I've used J&G's epoxy putty to adapt bullet seaters for my Lee SWC. Would this work for 9mm & 40S&W top punches?

Lyman 191 is the wrong punch. It's even too small for the Lee C430-310-RF. I wrote Lee a letter letting them know that I was disappointed that they didn't maintain a list of top punch recommendations for customers buying their molds.

First batch of 44s and 45s came out pretty good though, besides the ring around the nose. Plan to load and shoot some tomorrow.

I just use the biggest diameter punch I can find for sizing flat nose bullets of any meplat diameter in my Saeco lubrisizer. If it's oversize, it doesn't seem to matter. Just be careful to set the bullet in place straight to start with, and go.

Only seems to matter which top punch is used when sizing pointed or round nose bullets.

:)