Bumping bullets. Would this work...

[45&30-30]

I have a RCBS 30-180 FN that casts bullets at .307. I have read up on beagleing and spinning bullets in the cavity with cutting compound. While considering these approaches, I read a post where a fellow was concerned his luber sizer might bump his bullet nose up. So I started poping a few of the rounds on the nose with a hammer on a flat surface.(smooth concrete floor) They bumped to .310 and meplats went to a crisp .245. Very little pressure was required. I was wondering if anyone has designed or tried to bump bullets using something similar to the Paco Accurz'r (http://www.gunblast.com/Paco2.htm) Seems like if you gas checked and lubed an under size bullet, stuck it in a die and hit it with a flat punch, it would work better. Just wondering.

Edit: BTW the alloy was WW air cooled.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
When I am up there in the north I routinely "Bump up" softer mix boolits if I want to try a slightly fatter boolit in a firearm. I normally use my Lyman sizer. I keep a good suppl of old Cheap bought sizing dies handy and if I need a new diameter I do not have I open the sizer die to my needed New bumpind size.
Down here I bump up Boolits for my 44-40 1892 Winny using the cut off barrel end that was wallered out by poor cleaning methods. I insert boolit into old muzzle nose firrst. place on the flat anvil of my vise base down. Insert a roud plastic rod and give it a wack with a 1 pound hammer. It bumps the base up to .434 . The nose gets bumped also but has a nice flat on it. Really thumps hard ! This is a bolit from a old origonal Wimmy mold that drops about 207 grains and .427 which is way to small for my 1892 SRC throat of .432+. Bumped it shoots right well out to 70 yards.
You can easily make Bumping dies for "the hammer" using metal water pipe. Drill them then home out with emery cloth using your drill again.
Opening up a mold is another approach. Beaggling I like as it is not permanent. But some molds also get permanently opened.
God Bless you...

[Bret4207]

I've always bumped in a lubrisizer. You can set it so you get e pretty consistent bump by blocking the handle or ram in various ways. You can also break a sizer this way, so use caution.

[Lead melter]

I have used an arbor press with a flat steel or brass plate for this. Remember, it's way too easy to go way too far! Get that nose over about .304" and you're likely to have chambering problems.

[MT Gianni]

The fear I have of bumping outside a lubesizer and maybe even with one, is the lack of uniformity.

[JW6108]

It would not be precise enough for use in cartridges, but I used to bump up .577 Lee Minie bullets in a common shop vise. As cast, they were too small; loaded easy enough, but tumbled in flight. I found if they were slightly squeezed on end in the vise and then tried for fit into the muzzle with the Enfield repro at hand that I could achieve the fit needed to load reasonably well and also obturate well enough to engage the rifling.

[45&30-30]

Well I just contacted a friend with a home machine shop and we are going to put together a die and punch to give this a try. It will be honed to .311 and he came up with putting a step in the punch for a stop, to see if we can get consistent results. Thank you for the replies so far.

[MT Gianni]

You can cheaply case harden the die by heating to a dull orange and then quickly dumping into a pop can of old motor oil. If it is more than 2/3 full you may have a messy boilover.

[jhalcott]

I had a "top punch" made for this purose many years ago. It was a bit complicated and would size the nose for a 30-30 rifle bore. and the base was sized in the normal H&I die at the same time. A nice flat on the nose and a straight bullet. I used it on several molds,but it required removal of the punch to remove the bullet.