.270 to .268 Die

[Pressman]

Thinking this frozen morning (-17 outside), with the flood of old Carcano's coming into the country and a lack of suitable .268" bullets for them would it be advisable to swage .270 to .268"?

I have two that have been laying around the house for 20 years, a few loaded rounds from back then but not enough to enjoy on the off chance they shoot well.

Ken

[JRLesan]

First off, you would 'draw' down to .268. Easy enough to do in a single step. Depending on your machining skills, a simple draw die can be made in the proper diameter and a punch to go along with it. Or, another option would be the Lee 'breech lock' bullet sizing kit. It is actually available in the .268 diameter you require. Only caveat is use of it requires a press with a 1-1/2" or 1-1/4" threaded hole (for the die). I have used the 'kit' in my WH press with an adapter bushing and find it perfectly acceptable for resizing several sizes although I had to make my own (draw) dies of the proper diameter. Hope this helps...

[Pressman]

My machining skills are NOT. So that leaves a draw die. I don't use Lee tools and have no understanding of them, though I have plenty of presses with 1-1/4" 12 tpi threads.

[JRLesan]

If you have a press with 1-1/4 threads, research Lee breechlock sizing die. In addition, you will need their 1-1/4 X breechlock adapter. The breechlock system utuiizes an interrupted thread so that only a 1/4 turn is necessary to lock and unlock their sizing bushings. I never liked nor used Lee equipment in the past but they do come up with some innovative ideas. Had I wanted to spend a lot of time at the lathe making a sizing die and punch for the 365 to 362 draw I'd have not considered the Lee stuff. However, it took 4 tries in half a thou increments for me to achieve the 'right' fit and making bushings was much quicker than making a threaded die and punchwould have been.

[Bent Ramrod]

Ken,

You mentioned in another thread that you do have a small lathe. A proper drilled hole in a piece of 7/8”x14tpi threaded rod just short of the final 0.268” diameter and a little work with a boring tool set at a 1 degree angle on your compound, and run out to a 0.280” start (and a good polishing from 320 down to crocus) should give you your die, and a smaller piece of rod can be turned to fit your shell holder slot and a turned down portion to push the bullet through the die.

I made up such an arrangement on my little Atlas lathe to reduce 0.263” Herter’s 6.5mm bullets to 0.260” for an oversized .25 caliber rifle I had. And my “machining skills” are pretty much limited to working slowly enough to correct my mistakes before they turn into disasters. If I can do it, you can.

The jackets are supposed to loosen with this treatment, with allegedly terrible results on target, but I never noticed this. Unless you have one of those Star-Gauge National Match Carcanos, I doubt you will notice anything amiss either.

[Pressman]

Dave, the South Bend is not set up, it has a 1/4 horse motor that needs to be upgraded to 1/2 horse to do much more that look pretty. There is a tiny Unimat that I have not tried to get running, yet. That might work.

And I really need to be focused on the March 15th deadline for the Journal.

Too much fun.