resizing commercial bullets

[BT Sniper]

Well it just goes to show you that anything is possible when it comes to making your own bullets. I have said it many times but I used to think it took a lot more to make bullets but now it is easiest to look at a bullet as nothing more then a bit of copper or brass and a some lead, all of which is easily manuplated with a bit of pressure.

So the 41 bump from 40 commercial jackets caught my eye and I knew it would work all I had to do was take some pics. Ofcourse commercial bullets is pretty scarce in my shop so off to wally world I went in search of some 40 cal to bump up to 41. Ofcourse they did not stock 40 cal bullets. I suppose I should be lucky they stock any reloading supplies at all.

So I figured a bump up from .400 to .410 would be nearly the same as a bump up from .430 to .451 (now that I see the math the 45 is .021 of a bump where the 41 is only .010). As you can see the 41 would be even easier as it is half of what the 44 to 45 took. But anyway it was extremly easy to simply reswage the 44 cal bullet in the 45 cal swage die to make a perfect 45 cal bullet.

So "why" I hear you guys say. Just buy the 45 cal instead of 44. Yes, but I suppose in the case of the 41 cal, good bullets may be hard to find or I know of one member here that has a abundance of plated 9mm bullets that could easlily become 40 cals instead. So again I say anything is possible when you make your own bullets.

Here is some pics. Left to right. A stock Hornady 44 cal .430 240 grain XTP, reswaged in the 45 swage die to .451, Berrys plated 44 cal 240 grain reswaged to .451, my custom 40 cal 230 grain core mold swaged to .451, and a 44 cal 340 grain core that I swaged to use for big .458 cores. As you can see the results look pretty good. You generally loose any cannalure groves that may have been in place. Now imagine a cast lead boolit that was allredy lubed, it would swage out any imperfections, turn it into a hollow point and still retain a perfect lubed bullet. One of my customers did this to some 40 cals shot from a HiPoint carbine and actually cut his groups in half so there is some potintial from the looks of it.

This could be done with any bullet you wish I imagine. I suppose it would be another "one step" sollution for many of you out there as it only required a swage die to do it with. Used my rockchucker to form these with by the way and it was very easy on the pressure required.

Good shooting and Swage On!

BT

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/BTSniper/P1030286.jpg

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/BTSniper/P1030288.jpg

[BT Sniper]

I bet if we knurled that lead 230 grain and tumbled in Lee alox it would make a good 45 cal bullet. Any thoughts? I have not loaded much lead yet but could be somthing.

[DukeInFlorida]

Brian, you are on the same brain wave pattern as me!

Yesterday, I started doing exactly what you suggest. I went around my shop, discovering all of the versions of bullets that might work, and running them through the die set. So far I have success with:

* Commercially cast 147 grain 9mm bullets from a firm in Pennsylvania, with dark blue lube band. Those easily swaged out to .40 S&W HP's. I was also able to run those same bullets into my .357 Swag-O-Matic dies, making semi wad cutters for my 357 mag revolver.

* .40 S&W Berry's 165 grain plated bullets, turned them into HP's. I was previously paying Rainier prices to get HP's in this weight.

* Not as practical, but I also swaged some 124 grain round nose 9mm bullets into swc's for my 38 special revolver. Those are a bit light, but should be fun plinkers.

I'm running low on your sample of the lube, Brian. I have an order in on the group buy for supplies to make my own, but still waiting for delivery...... That stuff goes a LONG way!

[ANeat]

I tried the cannelure thing on some of my lead swaged bullets and it mashed down the OD too much.

I have re-swaged already cast/lubed and its a good solution if you need a different shape

[Ballard]

Can this be done with alloyed metal, or only pure lead?

[ANeat]

Ive done some commercial cast (hard) on the big *** swage press I made and they take a good bit of pressure.

A lot will depend on the caliber and shape as well.

[Cannoneer]

Can this be done with alloyed metal, or only pure lead?

I used to make 9mm 124 gr LRN's into .357 WC's for use in my .38's. The same trick worked with 124 gr. FMJ's giving me FMJ wadcutters.

The 9mm LRN were hard cast commercial NBC Bullets that I did not need anymore. So to answer your question, yes, you can use alloyed metal in limited applications.

[DukeInFlorida]

Everything that I am swaging so far is alloy metal (wheel weight lead)

[BT Sniper]

I have no problem swaging wheel weight alloy that has been air cooled with my dies. I personaly would not swage to many of anything that is dilibertly cast "hard" but I don't shoot much lead yet so this is up to you and how hard you push your swage equipment.

I do think it makes a pretty good looking bullet and hoolow point too!

BT

[Bwana]

I do the opposite. I size down. 45 to 44 or on to 41 or on to 40. 44 to 41 or 40. 41 to 40. I have also sized 250gr .338 caliber rifle bullets down to .308. I dual-diameter the nose section and they shot 1 1/2" groups out of my NEF 30-06 at 100 yds. I found that the boattailed bullets worked best, though I did a box of 250 and 225 flatbased. For all of the concerns about jacket core seperation it didn't seem to matter. Same with sizing 8mm bullets to .308. There are many things you can do, that work, if you just think about it.