Fast forward a few years, and I bought your mold, the Dremel tooled top punch and the bullet sizer. Your 449 wasn't the best fit so I used another punch that fit fairly decently, good enough to size a few bullets.
Seeing as that the 449 I bought from you was already worked on I grabbed a cylindrical pink stone and did a bit more metal removal. You had the concept nailed, just were hesitant to take it to the edge. A lathe sure would be handy, but I persevered with a drill press and portable drill. It seems to work decently enough, about the same as the other one I used, and it will have to do until I can find a RCBS 585.
Reworking top punches without a lathe is a krap shoot, pretty easy to screw up. I think a flat one from NOE would be a better alternative. Best of course, would be the real one.
Nitro
Addendum: As so often happens, someone searching comes across a thread and the information is a bit weak. i felt compelled to do a bit more digging and I did find a bit more information pertinent to the topic.
For RCBS bullet 44-370-FN, which my mold seems to want to throw 385 grain bullets, asks for a top punch number of 585. However, full product line RCBS dealers are scarce in Canada and a 585 may be hard to find.
Previously Glycerin suggested a 251, which fits the nose of Lyman bullet 446110 and the 439186, it may work but the bullet nose shape tells me that it will not be a proper fit In addition it is an uncommon punch and may have availability issues.
I mentioned that I used one of my top punches that I had in my collection. That top punch was 421, to fit the popular Keith 429421. I have two 421 top punches, one will not fit on either a 429421 or the 44-370-FN. It's been my experience that oft times the top punches are not built correctly or have been bubba'd as the 449 I got with the 44-370-FN mold was. BTW, the 449 top punch is for 375 and 381 Lyman bullets, an unlikely candidate for the 43 Mauser bullet.
The other commonly available top punch, # 649, which is for a couple of 45 cal bullets, is also a decent candidate, it fits flat on the meplat and is a bit loose on the ogive, but is very usable.
Another little tidbit is that the model 71, the early single shot rifle, may have a groove size larger than 446, The 71/84s usually have the common 446 groove diameter. That is what I've read, no hands on expertise here, sorry. I suppose it would pay to slug the barrel and if it is oversize one could always jump into the art of paper patching, or powder coating a 446 bullet to gain a bit of diameter.
My adventure into 43 Mauser is for a friend, whose grandfather brought it back from the Boer war. It is in nice shape and is still very shootable.
