My Next Question

[Jammer Six]

If I'm swaging merrily along, and then I slug my barrel and discover, that, for instance, my vaunted .45 likes .452 or even .453, what can be done about this desperate state of affairs in the swaging- FMJ world?

In the casting world, I believe I could lap my moulds.

But in the swaging world, can such an adjustment be made?

[DukeInFlorida]

Fast answer, yes. You can certainly hone the dies out. You can go bigger, but then you could never go back smaller.

What do you do for jacketed bullets (sizing)???

Usually, hand guns (actually most guns) like cast bullets bigger than normal jacketed bullets. But then again, the usual size for a 45 swage die is .452.... And, the usual size for jacketed 45 bullets is .452.

So, I'm not really understanding why it's even a question.

[Reload3006]

the reason for over sized bullets is so they seal the bore of your gun and keep the hot gasses from the burning powder from gas cutting and depositing the residue in your bore. Copper has a much higher melting temp and though you do have copper fouling a larger bullet will not stop this. as long as your jacketed bullet is large enough to be gripped by the rifling in your gun it will shoot and not overly foul your bore. so if you buy a 30 caliber .308 swage die you will be fine for any American made 30 caliber rifle. For a 44 .4295 to .430 your good to go and will not need a larger boolit. I even swage .4295 lead and have no lead fouling it depends on a lot of things even more so than size. Anathema to a cast boolit site but true none the less.

[MightyThor]

Another caution, if you decide to custom make larger bullets you do not want to "Loan" ammo to anyone. A big bullet built for your gun may result in dangerous pressure and breakage in someone else's firearm. Lead bullets are one thing, but a jacketed oversize bullet can create some real pressure spikes.

[MIBULLETS]

+1 on that!

[Wolftracker]

I am using Corbin dies. It seems that core seating pressure can be used to determine final diameter, to a point. On a .308, for instance, if I seat the core so the diameter is .3078, my final diameter after the point former might be .3085 at the pressure ring, which is ok in my rifles. I never, ever, ever ,ever start with anything more than a moderate level load though and can't remember the last time I used a maximum load on anything. This is probably the best practice with any home swaged bullet because, I think the factory made bullets are put through ring dies to eliminate this pressure ring.