Just curious, anyone doing this ?

Boddington mentioned something about doing it in two steps.

Equipment?, worth the hassle?

Thought that resized hornadys would make an ok range bullet, naturally woodleighs for hunting.

All the best

//Jens

My brother resized some 9mm pistol bullets to 338 for something to play with he did it in one step I belive. He post here time to time when I talk with him next I'll see if he well post his findings.

Jens,

I use ring sizer dies by Fred Zeglin (Z-Hat Custom) to resize .416 to .411 for a 450/400 NE double (two steps a .413 ring, and a .411 ring). Works great. You can do it in one step, but it requires much more force on the handle of the press, and overstresses the press. This would be easier with a swaging press than a reloading press due to the increased mechanical advantage of the shorter ram travel, and different geometry of the linkage. Bullets with lighter jackets also take less force.

I also size .323 to .318 for J bore Mausers. I have two rings for this as well, .321 and .318. With these lighter jacketed bullets I find that the two steps are not really necessary, and usually just use the .318.

The .338 bullets can be fairly heavily constructed (and the .008 difference is greater than either of the above examples), so the two step method would probably be better. You also need a heavily constructed press like the Rockchucker Supreme or similar. One trick to make sizing easier is to screw the die out until only about three threads are engaged to start and keep turning the die down a few turns at a time until the bullet clears the sizing ring to take maximum mechanical advantage on the tougher bullets. Always use a good lube that is designed for bullet sizing and swaging!!!

The other option is to use a point forming die to "bump up" a smaller diameter bullet in one step (I do this with .375 to .3785 for a double, and .458 to .461 for another double)). This might work with .323 bullets bumped up to .330, but this is a lot of increase in diameter. For this you really need a swaging press. I use a Walnut Hill by RCE, and really like it ($220 for the press and $140 for a point forming die). Each diameter or different point shape requires a different point forming die, but different weight bullets can be done with the same die if the point shape is the same.

I don't recall the price of the ring szing die, but it was considerably cheaper than the point forming die, and different diameter rings and posts can be added as needed. Overall this is by far the cheaper way to go. Accuracy is good either way.

Hope this helps,
Jim

[ 12-03-2003, 02:15: Message edited by: mbogo375 ]

For my 30/338 Lapua IMP 40deg, I chamfer the mouth and run the 338 Lapua brass up in my FL sizer and I'm done. Forms the shoulder back, neck and all in one step. I'm using a .334" bushing in it if that helps any.

My chamber is .335" dia, so this is just to fit them in so I can fire form them with Cream of Wheat. Then I neck turn so I can get 'em chambered with the bullets.

You might only need to go with a .338" to .340" bushing if you don't plan on turning the necks.

Are you talking about resizing the bullet and not the case??

If so it is real ez to do. I do it for my 8x56r military surplus rifle. I take 200 grain hornady .338 cal and run them through a lee .329 bullet sizer. After "spring back" they usually measure .330. It takes a little leverage effort on my rock chucker press and I recomend imperial sizing wax as a "lube". The lee bullet sizer is cheap--sells for under $15.

Thanks for all the help!

Over here its not a very common practice to resize bullets and if it can be done without spending half a fortune, maybe that 318 WR isnt so far away.
All i can use right now is a Rock Chucker

All the best

//Jens