Fellas, i recieved some .380 bullets for my .38-55 but they are way to tight for my chamber. I have since recieved Bill Powell's .378 boer bullets which chamber and shoot awsome. is their any way the .380's can be resized?? How would a person do this??

Not knowing at what size these bullets were cast I will give a conditional thumbs up.

A very basic description of what you do is force the bullets through a die that squeezes them down to .378" (in your case). The most common way to do this is with a lubricator/sizer (but you would not have to lubricate of which there are several makes. I have an RCBS that has served me well. In addition to the actual press (lubricator/sizer) you will need the appropriate die and top punch.

If these bullets are gas checked, you might and might not have a problem in resizing, most likely NOT! Yeah! Sometimes though, there are problems.

Whether or not this is cost effective (maybe you can buy just the die and top punch and borrow a friends tool) is a call you have to make.

I've been following your problems and topics. Feel free to contact me directly.

Can i do this with the Lee die set I have for .38-55??

You can't size bullets with your reloading die set, if that is what you are talking about. Lee does make an excellent sizing die that screws into a reloading press that will do you nicely. They run about $15 in stock sizes and $25 for custom. Without looking, I would guess that .378 would be a custom order and would take a few weeks to get.

Another route to take would be to neck turn your cases if you already have a neck turner. Me, I's slug the bore and measure the bullets before I did anything else. I would not take for granted that those bullets are .380 until I had measured a couple myself.

Hi, Mark. Another alternative you might consider is the push through sizer made by Bill Woods at WTA Manufacturing, PO Box 164, Kit Carson, CO 80825-0164, 719.962.3570. Bill's die uses replaceable bushings that he provide's in .001" steps. Each bushing comes with it's own pusher. I paid $20.00 for the die with one bushing and $8.00 each for additional bushings. He charges $5.00 for shipping for any size order. The tapered lead in for these is not suitable for seating gas checks, but I have had great success using these with plain base bullets. An interesting feature of this design is that bushing are held in the die with bits of plastic bread wrap, which works very well.
Ernie

Mark,

I didn't think that you meant to use your loading dies! My brother from the other side of the Blue Ridge, Leftoverdj is correct as far as I know. Sorry to say that I don't keep up with the latest in Lee equipment.

However, my continuing concern vis-a-vis your situation is that you've yet to slug your barrel. Since another poster noted that is barrel slugs just over .379" (.3792" if I remember correctly), and Marlin generally holds their barrel tolerances pretty close, it is likely that you will need .380" bullets for the best accuracy.

Since that is incompatible with your chamber, and Marlin knows this, I'd return the gun for the free repair. Then, you won't have to resize those bullets.

Hobie, i can't send it back to Marlin. Its a Winchester 94 commemorative made in 1980.

A bud of mine made a sizer, from what I don't remember, to size up 220Horns from .375 to .379. The process is a little crude but all our old 38-55-56 Wins now have something to shoot. They are surprisingly accurate to, with some guns shooting 1 1/2" @ 50 yds. Or as good as my old eyes will shoot.