I have seen many people ask for bullets for some calibers that are not easily available.

I tried an experiment today by sizing Sierra 135 grain .277 bullets in a Lee cast bullet sizer, down to .264.

Worked great.

I think Lee would make you a sizing die in any caliber you wish, if you have a caliber no bullets are available for, but some are available in a larger caliber.

Lee sizers work well for turning .510 bullets into bullets for a 505 Gibbs, too. Smear a little Imperial die sizing wax on them and run them thru, very little effort. Die cost less than $40.00 from Lee.

Just use your standard press?

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quote:

Originally posted by JTEX:
Just use your standard press?

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Yes.

The Lee dies fit in a normal press.

Sierra does not currently make a bullet in .366 for use in my 9.3x62 and their Gamekings have been really accurate in several of my rifles. So, if I'm understanding you correctly, using a Lee bullet resizing die, I could resize a Sierra .375 300 grain Gameking bullet down to a .366. I wonder what the resizing will do to the accuracy and performance of the bullet?

Lee sizing dies are cheap enough, small investment to try it out and see!

For the 404 Jeffery I have found I can make reasonable loads by taking Oregon Trail bullets designed for the .44/40 that are .427" 200 grain and running them through a .423" sizing die. the alloy is such that there is only a little spring-back so they stay pretty close to the sized dimensions. the only downside is that the bullets are quite short at 200 grains and would be a better practice alternative if they were 350-400 grains. But in all, they work well for familiarization/practice with the rifle.

quote:

Originally posted by Ray B:
For the 404 Jeffery I have found I can make reasonable loads by taking Oregon Trail bullets designed for the .44/40 that are .427" 200 grain and running them through a .423" sizing die. the alloy is such that there is only a little spring-back so they stay pretty close to the sized dimensions. the only downside is that the bullets are quite short at 200 grains and would be a better practice alternative if they were 350-400 grains. But in all, they work well for familiarization/practice with the rifle.

For plinking you may want to try the 44 Mag/444 Marlin 300 grain bullets (.429" diameter)

You can make sizing dies yourself in your lathe and the correct reamer, I have made them with drills and polish them. No need for hardening. I use STP for lube. Thread 1x14 and make a punch to fit the ram. Tapered inside.
There is some spring back so the die will be smaller than you want the bullet to be.
As for 9.3s, back in the 70s and 80s, there were no 9.3 bullets here (RWS hard to get) so I sized many .375s down to .366. For double rifles. Worked fine.
Of course, the right way is to swage them UP; no danger of loosening the lead cores that way, but that equipment is 100 times more expensive.

If you only squeeze the bullets down 0.003" at a pass. By doing that, with lots of lube, the end product will be as accurate as the original bullet.

Cup and core bullets size most easily. Partitions and Swift A-Frames are much more difficult. Monometals are not very amenable to the concept.

0.358" to 0.355" is a snap, for the six people who own the 9mm x 57mm Mauser. I have had good luck dropping cup and core bullets from 0.375" to 0.366" in two passes, again, with cup and core bullets.

Thanks to Saeed for bringing up this topic.

Well, I fired 5 shots of the 277 caliber Sierra 135 HP bullets I sized down to 264 caliber in a Tikka T3x rifle chambered firthe 6.5 Creedmoor.

I just picked a load with H4895 and fired them.

5 shots at 100 yards were 0.642.

These bullets were sized in one pass, straight from 277 down to 264.

I have on order intermediate dies, and will size more bullets gradually and try them.

I am glad that they went in one pass Saeed.
I was able to size down a pile of jacketed bullets once, but had to proceed slowly. Swifts are hard to size. Hornady interlocks went easily for me.

I tried to size 375's down to .358
and jammed one in the die hard enough it had to be beat out with a hammer and punch.

Maybe doing it with several smaller steps would work. Not sure what it was, but, I ordered a die somewhere in between and it still didn't work.

Maybe because I didn't use STP! Ha!
Imperial didn't do it.

George

I think what I have mentioned above applies only to jacket and lead core bullets.

I can see any bullet that has a large solid copper section is going to be difficult.

I sent an e-mail to Missouri Bullets re their .430" 300 grain 18BIN bullets suitability to being sized down to .423" in an RCBS die. I have not received a response.

Your plan makes much sense Saeed. It will be fun to see the difference in concentricity between bullets sized in one pass versus those sized with intermediate steps.

I had some metal jacketed round nose .268." Got them down to .264" for use in my M1903 Mannlicher Schoenar rifle. Those bullets flew straight and true. They went through 24" of an oak log.

Thank you for bringing this topic up Saeed. I can't wait to hear of your results.