What diameter should my swaged components be at?

[Darth-Vaj]

What diameter should the seated jackets and point formed diameters be at? Let’s say .357 caliber. I’m using RCE dies. I got a micrometer to measure. Unsure what’s the proper diameter for a seated core and point formed bullets. Also using 9mm luger cases as jackets if that helps.

[JRLesan]

Seated core a couple of tenths smaller than final diameter that comes out of point form. Hard to measure with a mike... If the seated core goes into the point form (lubed) you should be ok especially with untampered with RCE dies.

[jimrk]

What are you doing to prep the luger cases? Is the core seat external punch from Richard? Designed for luger or copper jackets?

[garandsrus]

The diameter is set by the die. Make sure you don’t use too much pressure when seating the core. You will bend a punch or break the die.

The core seating punch needs to pretty closely match whatever you are using for jackets at the length the core is at. Since many jackets are tapered, seating a core to different depths will require different diameter punches.

[Darth-Vaj]

What are you doing to prep the luger cases? Is the core seat external punch from Richard? Designed for luger or copper jackets?
I just anneal it, run it through the jacket maker die, seat and form it. I also clean the case prior to seating it. It gets dirty from the conversion to jacket process. The external punch is a single punch from Richard. There is no other punch for the brass casing jackets for the core seat dies.

[tiger762]

The RCE 357 set will produce 0.3565" after core seating. Of all the RCE sets I have, this is pretty consistent. Half a thousandth of an inch smaller diameter.