Has anyone tried swaging jacketed bullets to better fit their rifle's throat?

I have been experimenting with cast bullet design to suite my Lee Enfield throat and have found a somewhat tapered bullet fits best with the base larger than the bore diameter. I was wondering whether reshaping jacketed bullets would improve accuracy (and allow me to use more commonly available bullets).

I've not ever heard of this being discussed as a factor in accuracy, plenty of discussion re distance to lands & concentricty in bore but if those thing are optimised, I doubt if bullet profile to throat profile is going to be too significant. You must have Waaaaay too much time on your hands.
Steve

Never heard of this with jacketed bullets. It goes against the manfacturing process and then the case neck would be tring to hold a tapered shank.
this is done with cast bullets in the 38-55 and 32-40 though. Some molds are designed for this.

I have done it and it works fine for me.

I reshape C.I.L. 170 gr. jacketed bullets intended for the early .30-30s, which had .306" grooves and of which I had multiple thousands on hand. (That's why I chose to try it first with them.)

I both expand the basic bullet diameter to.3078", and bump the bases of the bullets to around .3082" and point up the bullet noses to a moderately sharp spitzer all at the same time. It takes one stroke with very little effort in an RCBS A-3 press.

Result is it transforms some very old commercial .30-30 RNSP bullets for which I paid thirty-five cents per hundred into very nicely accurate & flatter shooting cup & core bullets for targets, plinking, and deer.

I have had no problems whatsoever with the case brass gripping the bullets quite securely.

Hornady used to make a good many Two-Diameter Bullets. The part forward of the Cannelure was/is Bore Diameter and the portion aft of the Cannelure is slightly above Groove Diameter.

It is an excellent Design which causes the Bullet to Center in the Bore and Reduces Friction due to the smaller Contact Patch. This results in excellent Accuracy and lower Pressure. I'd encourage Hornady to make more of the old Interlock Designs like this.

Their 30cal 150gr RN is still a Two-Diameter Design, or it was the last time I got some a couple of years ago.

i find that if i hit the crat in the throat with a swift bullet it reshapes everything just fine

quote:

i find that if i hit the crat in the throat with a swift bullet it reshapes everything just fine

Thanks butchloc, I had to read that twice! Still early in the morning.

Thanks for the replies folks. It is nice to know I got something right for a change.

I started on this idea while trying to develop a cast bullet design (which is done and now I am preparing for some range tests). I ended up with a bullet that starts out at 8.1mm at the rim of the gas check then tapers down to 7.73mm just before the round nose. This bullet is 30mm long, depending on how far I push the gas check into the mould (I have two seating punches). It basically touches the throat and bore all its length and when fired, the rifling has a tapering depth. The rear of the bullet, which is oversize, swages to groove diameter over about 2mm. The base of the gas check is 30cal and forms a sort of chamfer that is intended to prevent bullet base deformation at the edges. My idea of the taper bullet is exactly to get 'perfect' alignment with the bore.

quote:

You must have Waaaaay too much time on your hands.

I sit at home in the evenings, sipping chilly ones and plotting these crazy ideas! Then after work I try some of them out. (You read my latest one? The silenced shotgun? I started on the silencer - it will be aluminium and large).

quote:

Originally posted by 303Guy:
... I ended up with a bullet that starts out at 8.1mm at the rim of the gas check then tapers down to 7.73mm just before the round nose. ...

Hey 303Guy, I hope it shoots well for you, but all that Taper leaves me doubtful. Looks like it would be prone to starting off skewed, even if stuck "Into-the-Lands".

Anyway, I hope you prove me wrong.

quote:

Originally posted by Hot Core:
Hey 303Guy, I hope it shoots well for you, but all that Taper leaves me doubtful. Looks like it would be prone to starting off skewed, even if stuck "Into-the-Lands".

Anyway, I hope you prove me wrong.

OK, I will give it a re-think. My theory was that the throat is tapered or at least, has tapered sections in it so I was aiming at getting the bullet to fit as closely to the throat at as much length as I could and still be able to chamber the loaded round. So far, the round chambers (with some 22mm of bullet protruding from the neck). Also, with my mould design, I need a taper of sorts to be able to get the bullet out easily. Well, I shall be doing a test this weekend. Next week maybe, I shall try a different shape. (Sometimes radical things actually do work!) I’ll keep you posted. I won't try the tapered jacketed bullets until I have some results from the tapered cast's.