Today is almost a milestone day . I sized my very first bullet in a lube/sizer . It's kind of a big deal, I've only been casting about 15 years and I learned paper patch to avoid using gas checks ....... Which was kind of dumb as I ended up buying push through sizers for the cores anyway .......
I think I'm going to like this tool it does save a step or 2 over the push through dies and once set up and ports blocked for select groove lubing and avoiding lube spooge it is a little faster than thumbing .

I sized and checked 25 RCBS 27-130FN to fire form a box of new correct brass and 5 formed from 243 . I had enough WWII surplus repacked H4831 left for about 30 rounds so that worked out for me .

In the 6.5×50 both IMR and H4350 and H4831 are max case capacity powders based on my books with data circa 1959-1978 if it'll keep the bullet in the case it's okay to have that much in there . 35.0 it is , works out it's a little over a start load and what the measure was set at for the Ken Waters pet loads 500 gr 45-70 load I did last . These should be around 42-45 kpsi .

They are gas checked with aluminum checks from Sages outdoors, not to be confused with Sages reloading . The aluminum checks are about 2/3s the cost of copper and as near as I can tell don't have any real handicap vs copper .

I'll shoot these for groups of course and if I'm on my toes over the chronograph . Being honest I don't expect much at this point there's still some dark spots in the barrel and my eyes aren't what they once were . The sights are are a triangle in a V with a 100 meter basic 200 meter flip up in 200 meter steps to 2000 meters. There's no face contact with the stock past about 1000 meters .
The BC of most of the 140 gr cast bullets will likely require "full post" sighting or possibly even using the 200 meter flip up for 100-150 yd zeroes . As a result I'll shoot these 25 at 50 yd on big targets .

Previous trials with naked cast and some gifted PC bullets gave me groups from 86" (no I didn't skip a decimal point that says 7 feet) and bullet profile holes to that shows some promise .......now what was my hold and was it consistent or is that last 2" me ......at 50 yd . Also I had make do sizers that were really only useful for the paper patch core and installing gas checks on grossly over sized bullets for the task . Hopefully with more correct and accurate sizing it will be better .

At some point I will need to come up with a 7-08 seating die as the neck and crimp step are "fixing" the swollen noses on the bullets I sized base first in the Lee dies the set the gas checks . It won't hurt anything except that the die also hits the front band on the neck to shoulder step .

I'm working with a bullet that to fill the bore and throat is as large as the OD of the neck expanded to hold a .266 dia bullet .

The current barrel dimensions would allow a .264 jacketed or even copper bullet to strip the lands a situation compounded by the Metford type rifling that resembles a torx head that in this case is .271×.264 . Mostly .