Is this possible? I need some cheap practice bullets for my 318 Westley Richards and Woodleigh is all I can find. I would like to downsize some .338 bullets.

Shawn

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Is this possible? I need some cheap practice bullets for my 318 Westley Richards and Woodleigh is all I can find. I would like to downsize some .338 bullets

I've taken 416 bullets down to 410 in one step through a Lee cast bullet sizer. Lube it well and use a good press. Some reference .04" per step. Lee makes a .329 sizer for $14 you don't have much to lose. Some of the other "jacketed" bullet sizers on the market are around $175.

I've sized down 200 grain 338 hornadies to .329 with the lee kit for my 8x56r...it works fine. BUT you might want to call graffs...they had hornady make up a batch of special bullets for the 8x56r that I think are all set to go for that dimension....not sure if they are .329 or .330. If you could pick up a couple boxes to try it might be alot better deal than all the monkeying around with the sizer. BTW....my downsized bullets didn't seem very accurate but I think it's the gun and not the bullt.

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Is this possible? I need some cheap practice bullets for my 318 Westley Richards and Woodleigh is all I can find. I would like to downsize some .338 bullets.

I've never done any of that but I have an old Remington engineer friend (Mike Walker) who did. He once told me that jacketed bullets must have the core seated in a die that is slightly oversize for the jacket. Then the final form of the bullet is swaged UP and the core is firmly held in the jacket afterwards.

Seems sizing a jacketed bullet DOWN would allow the jacket to spring away from the non-elastic core after it is released from the die. ??

Maybe you could size it down a little too far and then back up, IF you have dies to do it that way?

I've also used Lee bullet sizer dies & ImperialSizingWax to size down .429/300gr to .423. They shoot quite well out to 100yds, & it's cheap enough to try.

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Seems sizing a jacketed bullet DOWN would allow the jacket to spring away from the non-elastic core after it is released from the die. ??

My thought too, but, if that were true then how would a bullet perform in a two groove barrel in which the bullet is swaged from .312 to .304? I am referring to the two groove 303 barrel which has a bore of .304 and two narrow grooves of about .312. Then to make matters worse, I plan on trying .323 bullets in this barrel and in a 'normal' five groove barrel with the same bore and groove dimensions. (That is, if they will fit the throat in the first place, otherwise I will be sizing them down until they do. I know the throat will take .318).

I sized .430 bullets down to 416 in one pass 338 to 330 should work well. I use a heavy press and lube well. I use a lee cast bullet sizer as well.

J Calhoon swages down tons of jacketed bullets.

I think he makes carbide dies.