Do bullets for fire-lapping scratch seater dies?

[flabbydan]

I've never fire-lapped a gun, and I'm not sure I'm convinced of its effectiveness.  It is an interesting concept, though.  Maybe some day I'll give it a try.  One question I have is whether the lapping compound on the bullets scratches the inside of the bullet seating die.  Thanks for your input.
Dan

[ND Sharpshooter]

flabbydan,

If there is any wear on the seating die, I'm sure it's negligible.  After all, you load very few and the seating die isn't nearly as tight around the bullet as even the brass is.  I can assure you it's worth doing with most any factory barrel through which you shoot cast bullets.  It eliminates the rough spots in your barrels thus giving fewer places for brass and/or lead to "catch".  It's helped every barrel I've done it to.  Just my experience.  I'm sure others will take exception.

[Dusty Miller]

When I tried it I couldn't get a consistent velocity with those light loads and ended up with bullets stuck in the barrel on a regular basis.

[ND Sharpshooter]

Dusty,

I used loads that the reloading manuals said would get 1200 to 1500 fps and never had any problems.

[Lloyd Smale]

the idea of the low speed load is the bullets when shot at high speeds will bump up and most of the lapping will occur in the first part of the gun and it will also cause wear on your forcing cone  and becuase you are using soft lead for lapping it will lead your barrel and once your barrel has even a little lead in it it will not lap. the reason you are getting stuck bullets is your gun has rough spots or high spots and that is why you are lapping. What you need to do is push those bullets out and continue patiently until you have removed enough metal that the bullets dont stick in the barrel.  When done right in a gun that needs lapping you are about guranteed to stick a few bullets and as the barrel gets lapped more the frequency of stuck bullets will decrease.  Dont try to second guess the guys that give you instuctions for lapping. All your going to do is damage your barrel It can be a time consuming process but its not one you want to take short cuts at.

When I tried it I couldn't get a consistent velocity with those light loads and ended up with bullets stuck in the barrel on a regular basis.