Is sizing cylindrical bullets for a Whitworth redundant?

[Widows Son]

Hello, hope everyone is doing well.

I currently fire hexagonal bullets in my Whitworth but I’ve bought a cylindrical mold and want to experiment with them. These cylindrical bullets are intended to be paper patched and have no grease grooves.

My intention is push the cylindrical slugs through a sizing die for more uniformity in them. However, considering the well-known phenomenon of cylindrical bullets being fire-formed into hexagons in the barrel, is it unnecessary to size them?
I tend to think any benefits from sizing become moot considering a smooth sided cylinder is forced into a 6-sided hexagon.

Thanks for your consideration

 

[Badgerfarm]

I'm going the paper patched route for my Whitworth and Volunteer. I would say shoot a group or two unsized and see how they perform for you. I read a post recently about a fellow that was running his paper patched bullets through a sizer for consistency but maybe it won't make that much difference. My observation might be that it could depend on how much blow by there was in the bore before the bullet obturated to the hexagonal shape. Please post your results as I am heading down that same path. 20 plus years ago when I bought the Whitworth and Volunteer the seller provided me with a box of hexagonal swaged bullets which were very accurate. I then switched to a Lyman mold and the results were roughly the same from the Whitworth and the Volunteer.

 

[johnfrommd]

When I owned one, dies were as scarce as hens teeth so I shot round bullets and got great accuracy. The bullets I used at the time were from a RCBS mold and weighed .405 grains as I recall.

 

[52Bore]

If you can cast good bullets that patch up to fit the bore - no need to size. It will obturate to form the hex.

 

[Widows Son]

If you can cast good bullets that patch up to fit the bore - no need to size. It will obturate to form the hex.
View attachment 122034

Thank you. That’s what I was thinking would happen. Unnecessary effort.

 

[dave951]

It will probably not be necessary to size a paper patch bullet if it's well cast. Even so, I'd experiment to find out for sure.

 

[TFoley]

This is a round Lyman-mould bullet shot from my first WW over 80gr of 2Fg.

 

[Stantheman86]

As long as they load smoothly into the bore and aren't oversized, you will be fine.

 

[TFoley]

Dr Nemeth also shoot undersized paper-patched cylindrical bullets - as shown in one of the shortie movies he puts out from time to time.....funny though, he doesn't mention them in any of his longer movies.............................................