Swage down .452 bullets for use in Pietta '58?

[Poodleshooter]

I've got a supply of .452" 230gr cast bullets that I accidentally cast in pure lead several years back. I'm wondering if anyone else has ever swaged regular .45 bullets down for use in their .44 BP revolvers? Since I already have the .452" molds, a cheap swaging die might make for a nice bullet in the BP revolver as well. The standard balls I'm shooting are.451",so I shouldn't have to swage it down very much from the .45ACP norm of .452".

 

[mec]

may not need to swage them down at all. I've run Lee conicals through a .452 sizer and they load very well. (pietta does tend to have tighter chambers than my Uberti's though.) What would be good is if you could swaged down the base only to a few thousanths less so that they would index the chamber mouths easier.

 

[Poodleshooter]

You know, come to think of it, I might not have swaged these bullets back when I cast them. I've already got the .452 swaging die, so I think I'll give that a shot first. I might need them to be "press fit" to some degree though, as they may be hard to fit under the loading lever and the existing frame clearance. If this works, I'll consider myself lucky since casting 6 at a time sure beats those 1-2 cavity muzzleloader molds,and saves me the cost of a new mold.
The Pietta is pretty tight in the cylinder dimensions.The cylinder shaves a good sized ring of lead from my standard .451" RB when it's seated. I might have to go with a .450 die to get proper fit.

 

[Poodleshooter]

I'm going to need a much narrower swaging die.
The chambers on my Pietta measure somewhere in the 446-.448 range (hard to get a good reading). The forcing cone will easily accept a hornady ball that is supposed to be .451",but measures as closer to .448-.450" due to flat spots on the ball. So the chamber mouths are quite a bit narrower than the forcing cone. I don't think that's quite right. It's bouncing a ball shaved down to .447" or so down a barrel that's probably .450".
'Tis a pity this is a cheap pistol and not worth smithing. Reamed out chambers might work very well with slightly larger bullets that fit the forcing cone better.
The 230gr TC bullet that I shoot for .45ACP won't quite clear the ramming area,BTW,so I suppose it's a moot point.
Back to the drawing board!

 

[mec]

That's the way I read them too. Gatofeo mentions that Hornady balls are but indifferent consistent either in roundness or trustable size.

 

[Beartracker]

A friend sent me some conicals that he cast and they are great! .452 at the base and tapered up to .456 at the top of the rings .They slide in my .44 Remington with ease and load perfectly straight . They have two good lube grooves and weigh 200g. With 30g of fffg Goex they sure do pack a whollop! Dont know where he got the mold but they are the best swaged bullets I have ever used.