How much can a bullet be resized?

[Rfeustel]

Hi,

Sorry for the noob question. I don’t actually cast (yet). But I’ve loved reading this forum for years. My question is how many thousandths can a cast bullet be resized before there’s issues? Does it depend on hardness? Also, what about polymer coated?

I’ve got some old pieces in .32 Auto and .32 Longue and I’d like to buy already cast/coated bullets and resize them to groove (or most accurate size). So I’m wondering if I can e.g., resize a .313 to .310 or even .309. It would give me a great reason to get a Star lube sizer :-)

[Conditor22]

.002-.003 usually isn't a problem unless the boolits a really hard.

sometimes you need to do it in stages.

sizing down too far can disfigure the lube grooves.

IF your sizing coated boolits, case lube can help

[muskeg13]

Hi,

Sorry for the noob question. I don’t actually cast (yet). But I’ve loved reading this forum for years. My question is how many thousandths can a cast bullet be resized before there’s issues? Does it depend on hardness? Also, what about polymer coated?

I’ve got some old pieces in .32 Auto and .32 Longue and I’d like to buy already cast/coated bullets and resize them to groove (or most accurate size). So I’m wondering if I can e.g., resize a .313 to .310 or even .309. It would give me a great reason to get a Star lube sizer :-)

Not familiar with Star lube sizers, but you can easily do this with grease groove bullets in a Lyman/RCBS Lubrisizer as long as you have run them through a larger diameter die first and solidly filled the grease grooves. You then install the smaller die and run them through the smaller sizer a second time. Grease in the grooves helps to prevent the grooves from collapsing. Just take it slow and in stages.

I just ran a batch of 6.5 Lee Cruise Missiles (.271 as cast) through a .269 sizer for a Carcano, and then ran a few through of these through a .266 sizer for loading in 6.5 Swedes. I've sized .338s down to .330 in the past for a 8x56R Steyr. Doing this with cast bullets was no problem, but doing so with jacketed bullets could be a chore. It was easier to size down jacketed bullets in the Lee push through die. I had to use Imperial sizing lube for the jacketed bullets, and naturally, conventional lead core bullets with thin jackets sized down easier than ones with thicker jackets. I found this out the hard way trying to size .416 bullets down to .413 to use in a .405 WIN. I did it once without any problems, but on trying it a second time with a different brand was a no go. I had to stop or risk ruining my Lubrisizer.