Sizing down Bullets Lee sizer. WAY DOWN!

[swampratt]

I was not sure how much you could size a bullet down in a Lee push through sizer die.

Well I wanted to find out just because I can and I wanted to see what would happen in the end.

Powder coated Lee 358-158gr bullet. Wheel weight lead.
Before sizing .
Diameter...weight.....length..
.359"........ 161.5 gr.....660".
After sizing. No lube
311"...........114.6 gr.....565".
After sizing with Lube.
.311"...........121.9 gr......601".
Softer lead with lube.
.311"...........123.0 gr.......610".

Yea I took a cast lead 357 mag bullet and sized it down to fit a .308 in 1 step.
Yea do not try this.
Maybe do it in steps.
It made a ring of lead around the push through sizer stem.

But it did work. I will size again to .309" after powder coating them.. got to remove some sizing die wax first. I get a straight wall no lube groves.
Picture of course

What good is this experiment.
Lets say you have a dead mold that tosses crappy bullets or the bullet is just not one you use because accuracy is bad.
You could drill it with a regular drill bit and make it a size you can use and then size it down.

Looks like you can in fact size it down nearly .050".

 

[okierider]

You board today or what!! Thanks for the share, pretty interesting. Thinking about this experiment and the force needed to remove the PC , pretty sure that stuff will stay put through a pistol caliber at any rate.

Which single stage Lee loader you using, pretty sure my single stage would not handle what you just done. I have the precision do you have the classic?

 

[swampratt]

I have the Lee Classic cast iron.
Yea not bored with the grand son here and the wife.. wife was doing something and the boy was sleeping.
I was looking for a 6 cavity bullet mold in small lead weight for 30 cal.

Takes forever to make a bunch of the 311-100 bullets in the 2 cavity.
I thought I wonder how hard it would be to size down some 357 bullets.
If not too hard i could make them in my 6 cavity and be set if they were accurate.

Size varies in them and too hard to do..I could spend less time with the 2 cavity and I know it shoots well.
The 6 cavity molds will spoil a person.

I did make my own mold years ago from aluminum blocks I had ..made a power belt 50 cal duplicate.
Or pretty darn close to it.. took a bit of drilling and tweaking.