drawing down a completed bullet

[milsurpcollector1970]

Is this doable?

I am looking a buying some 7mm bullets and then possibly drawing them down to 6.5 mm

Is this too much ? will the jackets spring back.

Im not planning on hunting with them, I do want them to be accurate

[Reload3006]

its doable but you could end up with loose jackets there is a down side to everything.
when you draw down a finished bullet because of spring back they will not be as accurate.

[Smokin7mm]

I think that is a little too much to draw down without seperating the jacket and core. Normally you can get away with .003-.004 in one step and maybe up to about .007 in two steps with minimal to no seperation. Each step work hardens the jacket and will make it spring back even more. I looked into this once to go from .284 down to .277 and after talking it over with Richard Corbin of RCE I decided to just get the die set to make the 277 bullets.

Bret

[Jim]

I have no business being in here as I have absolutely ZERO experience in this subject. However, all that being said, I will make one comment.

Several years ago, I built a hydraulic press to 'swage' down surplus 8MM bullets to .311 caliber for my .303 Enfield. It's slow and time consuming, but it works.

I did not experience any spring back in the jackets and I managed to work up a load that shot relatively well.

That's all I can add to this conversation.

[I'll Make Mine]

If you can size the jackets before seating the cores, everything should be fine (though you may find accuracy suffers because the reduced jackets may be less consistent than the original ones). The usual caveat with reducing bullets after core seating is that the jacket metal will spring back more than the lead will; if you're bumping bullets up in diameter, as is usually the case when swaging, this works in your favor, but if you're reducing or "drawing" the bullet, the jacket may spring back enough more than the lead to loosen the core in the jacket -- or it may not.

Generally, I'd expect less of this trouble with bonded cores and harder core alloy, but there's a limit to how hard the core can be without risking damage to your dies or press, or finding you just can't apply enough force to finish the job. If you can get jackets long enough to make bullets of the weight you need, you'd probably be ahead to buy 6 mm jackets and bump them up (which is really what swaging dies are designed to do), rather than reduce 7 mm jackets to 6.5 mm.

[firefly1957]

I size jacketed .357 bullets to .351 they shoot great and they do not "spring back" . It is possible you will need two steps and a good lube is a must.

[danielk]

from the sounds of it you can do it......... the but in it is what is your definition of being "accurate"? Are we talking 1 moa at 100 yards or are we talking benchrest competition accurate?

[milsurpcollector1970]

from the sounds of it you can do it......... the but in it is what is your definition of being "accurate"? Are we talking 1 moa at 100 yards or are we talking benchrest competition accurate?


No I wouldnt expect bench rest accuracy I just wanted a cheap source for some 6.5 mm bullets for my swede mausers