sizing down . 451 to.433-4

[RU shooter]

Sitting here thinking which isnt always productive. But I am going to need a mould that drops a fairly soft alloy to .433 for my new 44 spl. I have tried lapping moulds and have never had stellar results for all the work it took me. How would sizing a boolit from a 45 cal. mould (say 200 gr) down to the actual size I need .433 or slightly bigger? I know I would need to do this in two steps using Lee push throughs ,I plan on using LLA anyways and wouldnt worry too much if the lube groove got wiped out .In my thinking this would be less hassle than trying to get a 44 mould to drop anywhere near the size I need with soft alloy. Would this work ok?, or am I wasting my grey matter even thinking about this

Tim

[Cherokee]

I haven't done it but I would guess the bullet is too large and by the time you got to 433 it would be a lead lump, no crimp or grease groves left.

[yondering]

It certainly can be done, not sure about the lube grooves though, like you said. I've sized .411 boolits down to .360" just to see if it could be done, in a single step with a polished Lee die. It helps to polish out the inside of the die a bit, they are pretty rough from Lee.

You could also consider paper patching a .44 boolit and sizing back down to .433

[Dale53]

The easiest path (and best chance for success in my view) is to have a custom mould made.

FWIW

Dale53

[462]

RU shooter,

Recently, I had to lap a Lyman 429421 from approximately .430" to .434", to fit the oversized cylinder throats of my S&W 624, as well as enlarge a .431" Lyman sizer from .431" to .433".

I am far from being a machinist or a gunsmith, so I know there is a professional way to do it, and the machinists and gunsmiths will surely laugh, but here's how I went about it:

For the mould, I installed a screw in a boolit, removed the head, chucked it all in a cordless drill, and using "fine" grit valve lapping compound went at it. After slowly lapping for a bit, I cleaned the mould and cast up a set of the new larger boolits, letting them sit overnight to completely cool. I continued to do this till the mould dropped a .434" boolit.

For the sizer die, I cut a slot in the end of a nylon drift, long enough to accept a piece of oiled wet/dry sandpaper, chucked it in the drill press, wrapped the sandpaper round the dowel, and ran it through the die, turning the die all the while. After a bit, I cleaned the die, ran one of the newly cast, fatter boolits through it, and measured its diameter. This went on till the die was .433".

The process sounds more complicated that what it actually is. Yes, it was time consumming -- a couple hours -- however, the end products are spot on. As the saying goes: if I can do it, so can you.

Regardless of how you go about it, good luck.

[anachronism]

It's physically possible of course. One thing to remember, that extra lead has to go somewhere, and it your grease grooves don't collapse (fill the grooves with lube first), it will make your bullet longer. It's not possible to predict if it will do so uniformly, but I'd bet against it. My concern would be that the bullet could become unbalanced as a result.

[Pepe Ray]

anacronism's response is on the mark.
I've sized a Gould type 45-70 boolet to fit a .44mag. for a friend. I have samples of the results in there stages in my shop. Should have photo'd them ages ago. They look great.
Of course the lead will move and the lube grooves will attempt to change but if you thoroughly lube them before the first sizing (stage 1 of 3 ) the lube will prevent them from disappearing.
there are no guarantees, it's all an experiment and my buddy decided with another bullet so never got to load my product. Oh well!!
Good luck, Pepe Ray

[GLL]

I agree with Dale53 ! Have Mountain Molds custom cut the mould to match your needs !.

Jerry

[fecmech]

Just "Beagle" the .44 mold. i.e. put aluminum tape between the mold halves and you will end up with a larger cast bullet. Then run it through a .433 die and you have it. I do it for my .44 mag which has .434 throats and it works just fine. Using that method the gun will stay inside the 10 ring(3 1/4") on a 50 yd bullseye target off the bench. I have done the size down from .45 also but it's more work (you really need to fill the lube grooves first) because it requires 2 passes through the sizer. I think there is a sticky on "Beagling"

[pdawg_shooter]

I reduce all my cast rifle bullets because I paper patch. One of my best 30 cal bullets drops .313 and I size it to .301 in one pass in a lapped out Lee die. Works fine.