.32 ACP: Size Berry's down to .308?

[Ike Arumba]

I finally decided to go ahead and start reloading .32 ACP, with mixed brass that has been once fired by me, using Berry's 71 grain .312 bullets. It gave me fits until I realized that S&B and Aguila cases work just fine, Fiocchi won't chamber, and 1E (Prvi, I believe) is marginal. It turned out that Fiocchi cases are thicker (.015 vs. .011), and a bullet I pulled measured .308, so that explains it. The simple response is to just use the cases that match the bullets.

But, most of my brass and 4 out of 5 boxes of unexpended factory ammo that I do have are Fiocchi and Prvi, and it seems a shame to just discard those cases after firing. I'm wondering about using a bullet sizing die to swage some bullets down to .308 for use with those cases. Would that be reasonable? I'm wondering if it would buckle or tear the plating. One discussion I found in another forum about resizing lead bullets suggests doing it in stages, reducing only 0.002 at a time. Can this size bullet make it unscathed all the way from .312 to .308 in one pass?

So what think ye? Would it be reasonable to size Berry's .312 71 gr. bullets down to .308, or would the results just not be worthwhile?

[Beelzy]

I'd get new 32acp brass and not swage the bullets. The plating will buckle like you are assuming.

[randomBytes]

slug your barrel, .308 may be too small.
I just bought a bunch of starline brass - works fine with berry's 71gr in my PP

[justMike]

Just curious if the Berry's bullets are flat base or slightly concave base. I would think that a concave base would allow for the .004 displacement somewhere to flow.
Depends on how many bullets you plan to size. Trading off the Fiocchi and obtaining more suitable brass might be an easier solution when all is said and done.

[divingin]

SAAMI lists bore diameter for 32ACP at .311. They list nominal bullet diameter at .312.

I suspect you'll have greater problems with .308 bullets.

[Ike Arumba]

I will stick with standard bullets and the standard cases that go with them. I measured 3 bullets that I recovered from wet newspaper, undamaged aside from the rifling marks. With the caveat that turning the bullet between two fingers while trying to hold the caliper properly is a bit error prone, I got measurements of .304-.309, .303-.310, and .304-.309. I don't know what the original diameters of those bullets were. The gun (war capture PPK) has eaten the varying-diameter commercial loads of different manufacturers, and I only found that out by starting to reload, so I don't know that it would matter to the gun whether I give it .308 or .312, as long as the case matches and the rounds chamber. The Berry's bullets are rounded over flat base.