Bumping up jacketed .452 pistol bullets to .454

[curiousgeorge]

I'm looking for a way to bump up 250 grain .452 pistol bullets to .454 diameter. They're going to be used in a muzzleloader without a sabot. A .452 bullet is just loose enough that it won't stay firmly seated on the powder. Other than an old CH Swagomatic that I made a few .38 caliber half jackets on, I have no swaging experience.

I have an older Rockchucker press. Is there some sort of die that I can use with it to make this happen?

Any and all replies with info, suggestions, and questions will be appreciated.

[curiousgeorge]

Been thinking about that old CH Swagomatic sitting on the shelf since my earlier post. Would it be strong enough for the bump up of a jacketed bullet? Anyone on this site make dies for them?

[ReloaderFred]

While not scientific, and probably not the most accurate, I've done this for expediency when making a friend some bullets for his .38 S&W revolver. He needed some .361" bullets, so I bumped up some .358" diameter bullets and then ran them through a push through sizer of the right diameter.

These were SWC bullets, so it was easy to take a lubed bullet and bump it between two flat pieces of metal bar on the Rockchucker. It didn't take much, and through trial and error I was able to get them up to .362" fairly uniformly. We polished out a Lee push through bullet sizing die to .361" and simply pushed the .362" bullets through it. The lube stayed in place and they actually shot pretty well in his old revolver.

You could do this with your .452" bullets. Just bump them a little bit and measure the diameter. They'll most likely be larger at the base, since that's where the pressure is, but you can go slightly over the .454" you're looking for, and them size them back down slightly. Like I said, they probably won't be pretty, but they'll work in a pinch and give you an idea whether or not this is something you need to do, without a great expenditure of money.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[GhostHawk]

I was flat pointing some Lee .312 185 gr cast to load for a Win 94 lever gun.

Drilled a hole in a piece of solid plastic about an inch thick. Then reversed the drill in the chuck.
Put a thin piece of steel over the hole in the desktop drill press. Added a chunk of 3/4" pvc pipe to the handle for leverage.

Flattened the points like a charm. And bumped them from .312 to .322 or more.

Sized down in 2 steps, .314 and .311 and loaded. They work fine.

Just have to put the old thinking cap on.

[Outpost75]

I bump up 230-grain .45 ACP FMJ hardball bullets for use in my 1914 Colt New Service .455 Eley. I simply crush the bullets against lengthwise between the expander plug of the RCBS .455 MkII die set, and the push-rod from a Lee sizing die kit.

You need to adjust by trial and error to determine the right compression to squeeze the bullets and measure until you get the right diameter. I bump to the bullets produce about a 1/4" flat on the nose which results in the base of the bullet expanding to about .456" and the nose to about .454". I then lubricate the jacketed bullets with WD40 and drive them nose-first through a Lee .454" push-through sizer die, from which they emerge about .4545-.4550" which I then load in the Starline .455 MkII cases with 4 grains of Bullseye. They shoot much better after bumping and no special dies or press are necessary. I load these same bumped bullets with good results in my M1917 S&W .45 Auto Rim with 5 grains of Bullseye and in my M1905 New Service .45 Colt with 7.5 grains of Bullseye, which are both full-charge loads.

[Chemoman]

ive done what you want to do with the knarler from corbin. then when knarled it will hold lube on the bullet better.

[Hardcast]

This reminds me, I have a few hundred undersize Nosler JHP .44 mag bullets. Several years ago I emailed the bullet swaging die company (Corbin?) and inquired about a die to bump them up .002" in diameter. Never received a response.

[rockrat]

Get two new clean files, fairly fine and put a bullet on one file and the other on top and just rock them back and forth. It will knurl the bullet jacket some and should work

[Sitzme]

You might also look up "beagling" bullets. The long and short is that you make a tube or plate with the correct dia hole, and a punch. Put the boolit in the hole, punch in the hole, whack as needed. I do this for one air rifle and it works good. In my case a 7/16 transfer punch was just right so it saved making a punch.

Shimming the mold .002 might also be worth a try.