[Bwana John]

Ive got a friend whose grandpa gave him a Win 71.

We got dies and ~120 rnds of new brass and I found ~250 bullets at a couple of gunshows on old dudes tables, but bullets are really hard to come by.

I haven't been able to find a bullet mold.

Can we just make a swageing die and run .38 and .357 bullets thru it?

It dosent seem like 0.010 is too much to reduce the bullets by.

Im guessing lead wouldn't be too much a problem but would it work with jacketed bullets?

[freakshow10mm]

You don't swage to decrease size, you swage to increase size.

[Bwana John]

You don't swage to decrease size, you swage to increase size
Thats gonna surprise a lot of companys that make swageing dies to reduce the diameter of a bullet.

Better check your definition again.

PS: the length of the projectile is increased as the diameter is decreased.

[JWF III]

Midway list a 200 gr., .348 mold made by RCBS. Granted its $120 and "Out of Stock, Backorder OK", but there is one being made.

Might try a more direct way for the RCBS. Or see if your local reloading store can get it from their distibutor.

Wyman

[sqlbullet]

Answers.com says the verb to swage (http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?gwp=13&s=swage) means: To shape metal by adapting or hammering it onto a die

Generally in bullet swaging, a core that is slightly under diameter, and usually from lead wire, is 'swaged up' to form a bullet. However, you can also swage down.

Freakshow10mm has made some interesting .400 slugs by swaging lead cores (cast from 9mm molds as I recall) into spent 9mm casings. Since 9mm is .394 and the desired diameter is .400, he is used to swaging up.

If you desire to swage down more than .005", it is recommended you do it in steps. This is not because you can't go more than .005" in a step, but because the equipment available is not designed for the amount of pressure needed.

However, there are people who are swaging .410 bullets (41 mag) down to .400 using a Lee sizing die. This is done to to create heavy hollowpoints for 10mm handloads.

I have run spend 40 S&W cases (.424 base) through my Lee die (.401) twice. It took considerable effort. I would not recommend it as a matter of regular course. In the end, I decided hard cast lead would do the job just as well as jacketed ammo, and require considerably less effort to create.

Try it and see. Go slow, and watch for signs of extreme stress. Make sure you lube that bullet with a good sizing lube.

[rcmodel]

Midway & Natchez both have Barnes & Hornady .348" bullets in stock.

http://www.natchezss.com/bullets.cfm?contentID=bulletCtgrys&bulletCtgry=1&bulletDmtr=23&mfg=&bulletType=0&bulletWeight=0

The biggest problem you might have swaging pistol bullets down will be the location of the crimp cannelure.

The Winchester 71 is pretty specific on cartridge OAL for proper feeding, and pistol bullets, when crimped, may be too short to feed.

rc

[Ol` Joe]

Bullets for the 348 aren`t that hard to come by. http://www.midwayusa.com/browse/BrowseProducts.aspx?pageNum=1&tabId=1&categoryId=7283&categoryString=9315***652***19785***9016***

[ants]

We sized bullets down .020 by going using successively smaller sizing dies in a lubrisizer, but many of them became out-of-round. It it extremely difficult to keep them perfectly centered in the sizing die when you take that many steps and squeeze them down that far.

[ranisbet]

Any reason why a larger bullet, say a .356 flat nose, could not be put in a lathe and cut down to .348.
I envision needing to make a holder with proper ogive to fit a head stock collet and a similar holder for a tail stock live center, both being needed for the accuracy to do this.
Disregarding time and effort, is this a workable task. If so, I envision that I could make bullets of varying weights not only for my self, but for some fiiends too. I don't like the old 150 grain that used to be available, but think one near 170 would be a great deer and wild pig bullet.
Bob Nisbet

[rcmodel]

Well, you certainly couldn't do it with jacketed bullets.

And lead bullets would also have to have the grease grooves recut after turning them down. Then sized & lubed anyway.

Seems like it would be a whole lot simpler to just get the correct size bullet mold to start with.

rc

[BWB]

Not clear to me whether you're talking about cast or jacketed bullets. Swaging down jacketed bullets is a bad idea, because the jacket will have some springback and the lead core will not. What you're doing in effect is separating the jacket and the core. How much, and what problems will that cause? Depends. But nothing good will come of it. That's why copper/gilding metal lead core jacketed bullets are made by bumping up, not down.