Resizing 358 RN cast powder coated to 8mm

[steelgray]

I've got a whole bunch of .358 round nose cast powder coated 158 gr boolits that I was thinking of shooting out of my 8mm K98. The problem is that they are too big. I was thinking of resizing these down to .324 or so.

Has anyone done something like this? Would you do it in one pass or two? I don't want to have any stinky conventional bullet lube on the finished product. I was thinking of using caster oil for the resizing and then wiping that off.

 

[4n2t0]

I don't do this sort of thing, but if that type of reduction is even possible, I would assume that it would have to be done in stages. I wonder what would happen to the hardness and accuracy of the bullet. It will be interesting to see what experienced members think.

 

[billdick]

Wouldn't the powder coating break off?

 

[kjohn]

I've never tried that, but I do know that you would lose any extra hardness found in the original bullet. My very first attempt at powder coating wasn't exactly a smashing success, so I just tossed them in the pot and melted them down.

 

[fingers284]

Just plain not gonna happen....358 down to .324 will deform any cast slug beyond usable accuracy. The only plausible way to make use of the lead down to .324 is with a swaged bullet set-up such as a Corbin outfit.

Pretty much any downsizing more than .004 will deform the slug nose & ogive. Even a base push will push the smaller sizing die rod into the lead baseinstead of pushing the bullet thru the sizing die.
I have sized down already powder coated slugs up to .004 but did it in two pushes. The powder coating seemed to survive .004 with very slight scuffing but any more than that sever scuffing happened.

 

[Andy]

I agree with the above, but why not try it and share the results?

 

[steelgray]

I agree with the above, but why not try it and share the results?

Okay

 

[yomomma]

If possible I would suggest to swage it in steps, small increments. After all, metal is swaged in incremental presses all the time

 

[fingers284]

If possible I would suggest to swage it in steps, small increments. After all, metal is swaged in incremental presses all the time

I have tried this and my experience is that lead gets denser the more you press it and unlike steel that has the strength integrity to withstand reforming better the lead mushrooms & deforms too easily. the other thing I didnt mention is that bullet sizer presses are not built for the pressures needed to shift that dense lead...you will need an arbour press at the very least to withstand what the OP wants to do.