Hypothetically speaking...

[Griz44Mag]

I you want something heavier just use a short conical.
Otherwise you are going to wind up with a wobbly, inaccurate mess.
I can supply you with 50 cal Lee REAL (250 grain) bullets that will get you a heavier mass and will fly straight.
They perform quite well in the 1:48 twist barrels.

 

[rocullen]

I prefer gold.....

I can barely afford to shoot lead, gold would be completely out of the question!

 

[user 34300]

I have made several swage dies for use in a Rockchucker press. These were for straight sided paper patch bullets. Lead wire is easy to swage up in diameter. Squishing down to a smaller size can obviously work. I think it would be messy and you would not get he egg shape you envision with one pass. I think you'd get fins on the base. Those fins would jam the base plug. So, you'd want to do it in a couple of steps and use a contoured base punch. It would be much more practical to make a parallel side swage with top and bottom punches whatever shape you want. Then swage lead wire that starts out smaller. That method produces beautiful bullets.

 

[ohio ramrod]

Years ago a friend gave me 500 .454 balls for my forty five rifle. I made a set of dies to "cut them down to .440 so I could use them . The 440 diameter had a band that gripped the patches well. I liked them so much I modified my die to cut .490 balls down to .440. I use them a lot for deer hunting in my deep grooved rifle that doesn't shoot mini's well. So I don't think you wouyld have a problem taking 454's down for a fifty. But that much lead removal or displacement would make a cutting die a better choice than swaging .

 

[GBG]

Hypothetically speaking...can a pure lead .54 caliber ball (.530" dia.) be swaged down to .50 caliber (.490" dia.)

Yes.
Crazy Hidraulic Press - YouTube

 

[Loyalist Dave]

...can a pure lead .54 caliber ball (.530" dia.) be swaged down to .50 caliber (.490" dia.) and be safely shot in a .50 cal. flint/cap lock muzzleloader?
The question relates to problems that might come up by the additional weight (@ 47 gr) of the new projectile - considering the re-sized ball would be patched and lubed in the same manner as a regular round ball and seated on a charge that would be equal to a regular load for the round ball..

OK so you CAN swage down a .530 to .490 but you're going to make an elongated bullet.
IF you don't lose any lead then it will be 224 grains
You're looking also at a needing a fiber wad and and an oiled linen wrap for patching since it would no longer be a sphere.
The question then is..., how accurate would they be?

The simpler solution, as already suggested, is you just try a conical. A Lee REAL bullet swages onto your rifling during loading and is only 25 grains heavier than a .530 round ball.

This should solve your quandary.

LD

 

[TrapperDude]

I have always heard that type of high pressure will turn lead into gold? Not stronger than steel.

You have to put blood and urine into the mix in the right proportions to make gold from lead. The procedure also has to be carried out within a properly drawn alchemic grid to properly align the ethereal forces used to bring about the transmutation.

I wouldn't recommend trying it, though. The last time I did, I blew up my workshop, and a pound of concrete from the building's foundation disappeared. That law of equivalent exchange is brutal.