Yesterday I adjusted the calibration of my dial caliper (it was off by about .001) and measured the diameters of some commercial cast bullets. The results are interesting:
1. No Excuses "Sizer Pack." Previously I measured just the .500 bullet and just assumed that since this was sold as a "sizer pack," the others would get larger in steps of .001. Wrong! I see what you meant about No Excuses quality control, Ron. This sizer pack may be indexed to specific No Excuses molds and NOT to actual bullet diameters? If so, the sizer pack may still have some value. The numbers on the bottoms of the bullets appear to be molded in...
Labelled Diameter /Measured Diameter
.500 / .497
.501 /.497-.498 (ie out of round)
.502 /.498
.503 /.499
.504 / .501
2. Hornady Great Plains - Diameters of driving bands, starting from the bottom. All bands were very round.
Band / Measured Diameter
1 / .494
2 / .500
3 /.504
4 / .506
5 / .509
3. Hornady PA Conical - Appears to be a continuous taper from bottom to top. Excellent roundness.
Band / Measured Diameter
Bottom / .495
Top / .509
Quality control on the Hornady bullets seems quite good, so sizing them down to maybe .503 so that they load without need for a short starter would be worthwhile. As discussed above, softness of the lead is an issue for using them on elk, though. I have 40 HGPs coming in the mail, and have about 80 PA conicals on hand. On Monday the HGPs seemed to shoot better without an overpowder wad... maybe because they have hollow bases which are designed to expand and engage the rifling and the wads are interfering with that? That could have been why the PA conicals I shot were keyholing, too. I haven't shot enough of them to reach any conclusions, but plan to shoot more in the near future.
4. TC MaxiHunter 275 Grain, Bullet #1
Band / Measured Diameter
Base /.501-.504
Mid / .500
Top / .504-.505
5. TC MaxiHunter 275 Grain, Bullet #2
Band / Measured Diameter
Base /.499 - .505
Mid / .499 - .503
Top / .504 - .505
In all respects, casting quality of the TC Maxi-Hunters appears to be very poor. In addition, the Maxi's are obviously much harder lead than the Hornadys. Out-of-roundness, poor dimensional consistency, and hard lead explains why I have such difficulty getting them to start - and doesn't bode well for accuracy. I wonder if sizing the Maxi's could compensate for some of the poor casting quality?