A new experiment

Guy on a Sharps rifle group mentioned trying out some pistol bullets for general practice at shorter ranges, didn't want to mess with paper patching so he tried swaging the bullets a bit larger in diameter so could size them for .45-70. 

Well, now.

Take a 250-grain SWC intended for .45 Colt.  Put it in a vise and mash it a bit.  That takes it from the original on the left to the mashed* on the right.

These are from a Lee mold, and come out at .454 with the alloy I'm using, with a height of .693".  After this it went from .693" long to .646.  Diameter went to .461, ran it through a .459 sizer.


Need more than one to try it out, so I did four more, finding that by moving the vise lever to the same point they came out very consistently at .462-.462.  Gave them a fresh coat of the Liquid Alox mix, and they're ready to load.  The question is if they'll stabilize properly, being as short as they are.  We'll see.


*Yes, swaged sounds much better, but 'mashed' does cover it.