I picked up .430 and .375 swaging dies, one teensy weensy problem

[DsGrouse]

40 sw brass drawn into .375 jackets. Seated with 186 grain cores and swaged into 250ish grain .375 bullets.

The issue is due to the variance in jacket weight, as it is mixed 40SW brass.

I've got other steps to incorporate. IE. Trimming all the drawn brass. Then, facing the finished bullets/ trim to length.

[GFK]

Looks like you are enjoying yourself! Happy shooting!!

[DsGrouse]

Soon, have to get the rifle back, and pick up new powder.

I started filling my powder hopper yesterday with benchmark. Picked up the hopper to move it and flung a pound of powder across my reloading room.

So, yeah. Thats why no updates on subsonic 3030 loads....

[DsGrouse]

I dropped the core weight down to 170 grains. With the drawn-down 40sw jacket, it brings them to about 240 grains. I've got a new collet and 4 blade cutter on the way. I'll use it to square up the tips. I tried a case trimmer cutter, but with the center hole it didn't leave a clean cut.

[Vaquero]

HaHa! I've done that before also.
I bought a Marlin 45 Colt Cowboy from a friend on a different gun forum years ago.
Had it shipped to my FFL friend, we've known each other since we were kids.
While I'm there filling out the paperwork, her ole man walks in and sees the Cowboy and says,
"you like lever actions you should look at that over on the wall".
It was a Win. 92 in 25-20 with an octagon barrel 24" long.
Yep, how much? Alright, add it in.

I cast and reload that's it, I'll pass on the swaggin.
Yes, Jes's rebore is more of a 375, what dia. bullet?
I shoot mostly .380, according to the previous owner who used it long range said his best LR bullet was a 260gr. .381 over 4198.
He shot it regularly out to 660 yds. at a friend of his, and did on one occasion ring the 900 yd dinger twice.

RP

[DsGrouse]

The rebore 375 win, are suppossedly .375. We'll see how it goes.

[Vaquero]

Depends on what your shooting, cast will need to be a bit larger, maybe .377.

RP

[DsGrouse]

Depends on what your shooting, cast will need to be a bit larger, maybe .377.

RP

Because I'll be shooting suppressed, most will be jacketed. I do have 3 different molds for cast. .375, .378, and .380 IIRC

Don't quote me on the. 380, It's wrapped up in VCI paper, but next time I am in the cabinet I'll look.

For the most part I plan on Swaging 255, 275, and 300 grain bullets using .40/10mm and 556 brass.

[DsGrouse]

I couldn't wait... I walked a target through the tick-infested field and set it up. I wanted to sight in the scoped rifle with the suppressor on it.

So, how did the 375 Win Rebore do with my swaged bullets?

(You'll have to take my word, I'm not walking through that field of ticks again to take a pic of the paper)

Velocities were a bit all over the place, as in these loads, I played with both the seating depth and crimp. The average was 1553 fps, with a STD of 18.4

After sight in, I had a 9 shot 3" group at 70 yds with my test batch of 240-grain swaged bullets. If I take out the two fliers that were me, the group falls to 1.75"

It's not earth-shattering good. But... there must always be a but...
1. These were the test sample 240-grain bullets that were rough at best.

1A. A bit of quality control on a few steps will greatly improve their consistency. IE sort by head stamp.
1B. Square up the drawn-down jacket.
1C. Make use of the core swage die (I did not have the proper lead wire thickness before).
1D. Use lead shot to even out the bullet and jacket weight to 240 grains. (Variance on these bullets was 236 to 244 grains.
1E. Make use of my new trim setup to square up all the bullet tips to the same meplat size.

2. I shot factory 38-55 255 grain LRNFP bullets. (20 of them) Factory group size on a 9-shot group? 9" when counted by squares on the paper. There was no discernable grouping point.

2A. Why? Well, 38-55 is often loaded with .380 or .382 bullets, The rifle is barreled for .375.
2B. The rifle has a fast twist 1:12 for these medium-weight lead bullets. Depending on the hardness, that may have caused some issues.
2C. The rifle was hot as get out, I'd just shot 50 rounds of my 240 grain bullets.
2D. Average FPS of these rounds was between 1490 and 1515.


All in all, a very successful sight-in with the rifle. I hit steel, got decent, predictable groups out of my swaged reloads. I can't really ask for more. I'm sure the groups will shrink as I improve at swaging, have more practice loading 38-55 and 375 Win, let alone more shoulder time with the rifle.

I'm looking forward to stretching the rifle's legs with sessions out to 150 and 175yds.

[Vaquero]

I know absolutely Nothing about the swagging process, so...
How long does it take to make one projectile?
I know that in an hours time I can cast quite a few.

RP

[DsGrouse]

Think of it like reloading, you do the steps in batches.

My kind of shooting, with a can, big heavy subs, hard cast, gas checked and powder coated all foul up the suppressor. So, jacketed is my rout to go.

At a factory price of .90 to 1.50 per bullet versus 16 to 23 cents for swaged

[DsGrouse]

Five shots with my 375 Win lever action using my 250-grain swaged bullets.

The fifth shot is lower left. I pulled it. The first is upper left, the second upper right top hole, the third lower right bottom hole, the fourth upper right bottom hole.

Not a bad group from my sample bullets.



I did learn that 2.620 is single feed only. So, I've a few bullets I need to shoot up. Other than that, most of the 50 I fired shot well. Fairly consistent across the OAL and Powder variations. It's now down to swaging, case/jacket prep, and producing uniform swaged bullets.

[DsGrouse]

40sw brass drawn down to .375 jackets.

I cleaned the dirt off in the ultrasonic. Next up is the tumbler. Then a rinse in the ultrasonic again.

At that point, they are ready for swaging
I'm planning on a passel of 240 soft points followed by some 255 grain flat points.

[DsGrouse]

I lost all the update posts. Here is a repost.

Here's the process for making .375 bullets using drawn-down 40SW brass as jackets. First, you need your annealed 40SW brass that you've drawn down to a .375 jacket.



The brass generally varied from 66 grains to 74 grains. I used number 9 shot to even out all the brass to at least 70 grains.


Next, you need your swaged cored. These are 170.2 grains. I swaged them from .250 99% lead wire using lanolin lube. I washed the lube off with hot soapy water.


Here is the core swaged into a sample jacket. It takes a bit of fiddling with the die to get the seat just right.



Next up is point form die. This set utilizes a P4S point form die. I've plans to trim up the end of the bullet to make it a flat P4FP.

All trimmed up.




I also used a BT sniper btx star crimp die on 50 of them just to see how they would turn out. After using the star crimp die you insert the bullet into the point form die to form the point.



Here's the BTX crimp die bullets after trimming up the sprue.

[DsGrouse]

As I mentioned a while back, I want to be able to test my swaged bullets. That process has taken some time. The first bullets I wanted to test are .375 win / 38-55 swaged 240 grn flat points. I had two options: an unskived 240grn P4FP and a 240grn P4FP with Skives at the tip of the bullet.



So, I ordered a couple of blocks of clear ballistics 10% gel and made a sled for holding the blocks. I made a box to keep the blocks in. I did so because I'm trying to keep the blocks as clean as possible. Hence, leaving them in the cardboard and closing the lid on the box. Now, does that affect how the bullets perform? I'm unsure about that. I'm not a big proponent of the ballistic gel wound channel. I've yet to see any deer with any kind of spiral wound channel. What I am looking for is consistent bullet expansion. If I get that, I am satisfied, especially since I am the one who swaged these bullets.



Rifle in question, Ruger made Marlin 336 30-30 rebored into 375 Win by JES rebore with a Griffin Bushwacker 36.


The first bullets up were the 240-grain non-skived P4FP. I did my best to stagger the height of the bullet impact.


The view of the spiral wound channels. IMHO, these spiral channels in ballistics gel are pretty much a useless indicator of bullet performance.


Found one of the jackets. All of the unskived bullet jackets were separated from the cores.


The second jacket.

[DsGrouse]

Bits of jacket and cores in the first and second block.



The second set of swaged bullets is 240-grain skived P4FP bullets. This time, it moved the box that held the clear ballistics gel.


All three rounds ended up 1/3rd the way in the first block I shot. All three also kept their cores. I also think the bullets, jackets, and cores penetrated further than the previously unskived bullets that lost their jackets. All six bullets were loaded with 31 grains of benchmark seated to the same depth.

[DsGrouse]

To even out the weight differenced between jackets, I added a few pellets of number 9 shot when needed. You can see a few of the pellets here.


Bits of jacket.


Here are the six bullets. The three skived bullets retained their cores.




The only unskived bullet to retain its core in some form.

[DsGrouse]

Here are some closer shots.

[DsGrouse]

Here is my substack article write up...
https://open.substack.com/pub/evandesha ... d&r=1k0ilr