resizing bullets

[Wagon Box Willy]

Howdy Pards,

I bought a bunch of Big Lube bullets from a guy and they are .454 and I'd prefer them at .452.  Can I just buy the $16 .452 Lee sizer and size them.  They are already lubed.

Thanks
  Willy

[Grapeshot]

Howdy Pards,

I bought a bunch of Big Lube bullets from a guy and they are .454 and I'd prefer them at .452.  Can I just buy the $16 .452 Lee sizer and size them.  They are already lubed.

Thanks
  Willy

Short answer.....YES.    However, depending on the revolver you have, it might be better to keep them at .454 because some of the throats in the various cylinders are a bit over sized and yo do want a boolit that will seal the gasses behind it when it goes through the cylinder chamber's throat.  Most of the Italian copies shoot the ,454 better than the .452 bullets.

If you are using them in your Rifle, go ahead and size them down to .452 and see how they shoot then.

[Fairshake]

Even if your rifle barrel slugs at .452 it will shoot the .454 bullets better with BP rounds.
The 45 Colt has a straight case and suffers from blow back when shooting any powder but more so with the black.
There are two ways to help with this problem, one is to anneal your cases so that the mouth seals the bore or use larger bullets than the bore size.
If both are used it will give great results.
I shot the 45 Colt in SASS matches until switching to the 44WCF for a few reasons.
The first reason was so that I would be historically correct in my choice of the 1873 Winchester rifle by Uberti as the 44WCF is the original round and it was introduced in 1873 with the rifle. The second was because of the case design and soft mouth that sealed the chamber.
Grapeshot is dead on with his posting about the revolver chamber mouths and even more so if your guns are Rugers.

[rbertalotto]

But of course this is all good advise IF your guns can chamber a .454 bullet. Some revolvers and rifles will not chamber such a large diameter.

[Wagon Box Willy]

My revolvers chamber the bullet.  I think they are kind of tight through the throat through as to get a .454 to go through I cant just push it but have to tap them pretty good with a dowel and hammer.  the .452 on the other hand could probably be a bit tighter as it goes right through with the slightest of resistance (feels like a suction fit).

They chamber fine in my '66.

The real  reason I wanted to resize them is so I wouldn't have to readjust my dies for them

Willy

[rbertalotto]

I shoot the Big Lube 170g 45SLIM bullets in my open top 1860 conversions and my 1858 conversions. I resize to .452 from about .4535. The accuracy is simply amazing out of all four (I have a pair of each) of these Pietta clones.

Much easier to load into the brass also.

My Piettas have .451 grooves, so these are rather tight barrels.

The throats in the cylinders are .453

The laws of "Throat and bore" dimensions should not allow such accuracy, but Bumblebees are not supposed to fly either!

[Dick Dastardly]

Sounds like you pards are doing good.  Altogether too few shooters ever slug their bores and KNOW the sizes.  Here in the land of the black powder shooter, bullets of the right size are everything.  Don't go by what you heard or read about your guns.  Slug the bore(s) and write down the size(s) in your loading note book along with the serial number(s).

Black powder bullets should be fairly soft but it's not as critical as loading the right size bullets.  Lyman has always said that bullets for black powder shooting should be at, or a thousandth of an inch over bore size for best accuracy.

DD-MDA

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Wagonboxwilly;  Sounds like your revolver cylinder mouths are .452 if the 452 bullets push through with just a bit of a push.

P.S.; I think you have to get some calipers.  Make sure they read down to three figures (a "Thou')

[Driftwood Johnson]

Howdy Willy

Have you read my theory about the right size bullet for any particular chamber throat? I did not make this up myself, I first read it in one of Mike Venturino's books. If you drop a bullet into a chamber, and it hangs up slightly in the throat, but light pressure pushes it through, it is perfect. If heavy pressure is needed to push it through, it is too big, if it falls right through, it is too small. Best done without any lube on the bullets, as they may make them a bit sticky and resistant to falling through. But if you have soft lead bullets that are a bit too big, like .454 in a .452 chamber throat, no a problem as long as the bullets are soft and the pressure is kept low, as with Black Powder.

I used to use a RCBS sizer to lube size my bullets. These days I use a Star. If all you want to do is squeeze them down a couple of thou I'm sure the Lee tool will work. Or you might think about buying a separate seater/crimp die for the different bullets. I keep several different seater/crimp dies set up for a couple of the cartridges that I load so that I don't have to change settings when I change bullets.

[john boy]

Can I just buy the $16 .452 Lee sizer and size them.  They are already lubed.

Willy - Yes.  And the positative advantage using the Lee Lube/Sizer is it re-sizes a bullet by pushing it from the base up, not like the Lyman H&I dies that push from the nose down.  Bottom up does not distort the axis of the bullet.  Plus the Lee is a much faster re-zing operation

[Wagon Box Willy]

Thanks all,

So it looks like using Venturino's method the .452's are small and the .454 require me to use a hammer to get them through.

What's the disadvantage of using the .452's in a pistol which are slightly larger than the bore diameter?

And, as long as I use say Slim's bullets which are soft, would I be better off using the .454's, especially in my '66?

Or does it really not matter a hoot for CAS shooting.

Thanks
  Willy

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Wagonboxwilly;  Sounds like your revolver cylinder mouths are .452 if the 452 bullets push through with just a bit of a push.

P.S.; I think you have to get some calipers.  Make sure they read down to three figures (a "Thou')

I think what you describe, Willy, is about right for .452 and fits right in to the Venturino test as described by Driftwood.  Sometimes it doesn't help to overthink things that may not present a problem. 

Get some calipers and;
1. measure those .454s that you forced through the cylinder mouths, &
2. slug your '66 bore.