My normal loads for the Uberti 38-55 rifles use cast bullets sized to ..379 or .380 inches. My Bullberry T/C barrel however is a .375" barrel since most barrel blanks inside of CONUS are .375", even for replacement barrels. Uberti however uses .380" barrels on their 38-55 rifles.
When sizing cast grooved bullets down to .376" for the T/C Contender, I was first sizing and lubing in a standard Lubrisizer for .379, then switching out the size die for a .376" die and running the bullets through it again. Lubing on the first pass-through filled the lube grooves and prevented their "crushing" without any lube in there.
This is frankly a lot of work and sizing bullets base first yields the standard lube groove crushing on the second pass at .376.
Time to try something else. I purchased a Lee .376 size die, pan lubed my .380" bullets and ran them up into the Lee size die nose first. BINGO! No deformity of the lube grooves and a clean resized bullet. A $22 solution to a rather annoying problem. Now I have both .379" bullets ready for the rifles and .376" bullets ready for the Bullberry barrel.
Now seating gas checks with the Lee tool did not go so well. I was using commercial cast bullets and I believe their base diameter is a tad bit too large. I'll just shoot them as PB bullets. The deer will never know will they?
With rifle in hand, I confidently go forth into the darkness.
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