# Slugged my bores….now what?



## fusil (Sep 23, 2008)

Hi guys,
I’ve slugged the bore of my revolvers and my semi auto. My revolvers are .357” and my semi is .356”. I used digital callipers as I don’t have a micrometer, is this accurate enough? :smt017
I’ve read you should have cast boolits .001”/.002” larger than bore size. The mold I was looking at is the Lee 358 RF 125gr. 
Do I need to size at 358 if the cast boolit comes out the mold at 358?
I was going to buy a .356” Lee mold for my two 9mm’s, but they are .356” at the bore! 
The other idea I had was to size the .358” RF down to .357 for the 9mm and use as cast for the revolvers.
Some help please as I’m beginning to annoy my wife (as usual) with all this talk of lead, molds and Alox!!!!! :smt088
fusil


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

Well, first of all you need to measure a bullet or two cast in the mold in question. (Don't just go by the "name" of the mold. However, Lee molds probably are right on specification, because of the way they're made.)
If they're within a couple of thousandths of bore size, you're probably home free.
If you're using lead or lead-alloy bullets at low pressures and velocities, a thousandth or two isn't going to make much difference, assuming that the cartridges you make will chamber properly.
Without any experience at all in loading .38 and 9mm, I would guess that a 0.358" mold would probably be OK for both .38 (0.357") and 9mm (0.355"?), low-pressure revolver cartridges.
But semi-auto cartridges really aren't low-pressure, low-velocity rounds because they have to present enough power to actuate the gun's mechanism. Probably 9mm semi-auto bullets need to be closer to groove (not bore) size than 0.358" might be. Further, it is usual that semi-auto bullets are differently shaped from those meant for revolvers. You could use a semi-auto bullet in a revolver, but (for example) a flat-fronted, full-wadcutter, revolver bullet won't feed through a semi-auto.

Sizing cast bullets is not a big deal. You just press them through a tube of proper inner diameter. There are fancy tools that do this quickly, along with adding lubricant, and there are simple tubes that you use after lubricating the bullets in a separate operation. Both types are in your catalogs.


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