Samples, and goofing around

[DsGrouse]

This is my second attempt at using the blank firing dies. These are two of the failures. I need a few more grains in my lead core—probably 5 grains or so. I also need to work on swaging the core to the jackets.

That said, these two failures are an improvement over yesterday's attempts.

The brass jacket is 290 grains the copper jacket is 245 grains.

[DsGrouse]

The better swaged examples versus the ones that didn't turn out so well. Swaging is a learning process.

More of last night's efforts. I have a few ideas to improve my efforts. Especially with the brass jackets. I'll get there; consistency is the goal.

The better gilded metal Jacketed bullets, again, I think 5 more grains of lead would have helped.



The ones that had more than a few issues.



The brass jacketed bullets. I've more than a few Ideas on how to improve these bullets. The grain of the core is pretty spot on, placement of the hollow point maker needs to be adjusted, as does the depth of the swaging die. To be fair, 1/3rd of these are from the night before, but they turned out okay.


These are the messed-up ones. For these, I need to seat the core partially with a smaller-diameter ram and then perform a second swage to ensure I've got the jacket appropriately aligned. From there, core weight, depth of the point form swage, and depth of the hollow point punch need to be adjusted.

[DsGrouse]

In my third attempt, I standardized the depth I used with the blank forming die. I added about 5-7 grains of lead to my core, and I lowered the point form die by a half turn. The second attempt was only performed on the annealed 40SW brass.






Now we are on our fourth attempt at skiving, this time with gilded copper jackets.

The 300-grainers in the red box are +- 3.0 grains. I don't have a core swage that allows me to bleed off excess properly with the gilded metal jackets under 310 grains.



The 280 grainers in the blue box are roughly 280 to 285 grains.



I lowered the swaging point form die, and the hollow point ram. Cleaned up a number of issues with the bullet face. There is some work to be done there and improvement to be seen. I am confident that improvement will come with repetition and acquiring the correct core swage bleed-off die.

The second set of photos is the same brass jacket bullets from my second attempt. For the lack of better terms, I tightened up the die and the hollow point punch. I ran the same bullets through the die again and improved their overall appearance.



Whether that improvement will equate to accuracy has yet to be seen. I'll not be able to load these for a few weeks.

I'm contemplating picking up a couple of clear ballistics gel blocks to test how these will perform as subsonic and supersonic bullets.⁩

[DsGrouse]

It's been an enjoyable hunt. I've three full swaging die sets in. This is the most complete set. It will allow me to make 6mm jackets out of 22 mag and 22wrf brass. Draw down 6mm jackets to .224 jackets. Use 22lr to make .224 jackets.
I've point form dies to make 4s,6s,8s open tip and lead tip bullets.

My second die set is for 30 caliber bullets. With it i have a 9 degree spire point die. I'm hoping to pick up qn 8s ogive point form die in the future.

My third set is a .358 die set with a 1 1/8 E die point form die. I am looking to pick up a truncated cone point form die in the future.

What do i have coming?

.430 lead bullet die set in swc, suitable for 1/2 and 3/4 jackets.

.355 lead bullet die set, suitable for 1/2 & 3/4 jackets

.454 leas bullet die set with a swc poit form die suitable for 1/2 & 3/4 jackets.

I've a number of other dies bits and bobs on the way also.

Jacket maker dies to draw down .380, .9mm, .38 super brass to .357/8 jackets.

Jacket maker dies to turn 40sw into .430 jackets

Jacket maker dies to turn .45 acp into .452/4 jackets.

Finally i've got a passel of sizing and drawn down dies for other calibers.
It's been an enjoyable hunt. .

[Hatchdog]

As technical as this process is and with my limited knowledge on swaging bullets I struggle a bit to follow along but it’s all very interesting. Thanks for taking us along on your journey.

[DsGrouse]

Hatchdog. I've never used dedicated dies. I'll do my best to doccument how it goes

[DsGrouse]

Pictures of the .358 and .308 dies

358 Core Swage



358 core seat die.




358 point form die, 1 1/8E



9mm cases drawn down into .358 jackets. These are examples.





.223 cases drawn down to .358 jackets.



.358 hollow point cavity punch.



9mm jacket core seat.




.308 core swage die



.308 core seat die



.308 9-degree spire point form die.



A pair of core seat dies for use with different jacket thicknesses




Sample 9-degree spire point bullet.


External Punch holder

[CT_Shooter]

I just smile as I follow along; me being totally ignorant of everything you're doing. I was not aware that this project and process for making jacketed bullets for reloading even existed, but clearly it does and you are doing it. I think it's fascinating; actually, amazing. Thanks for taking us along on a ride down a very unusual road. Great pictures, by the way.

[DsGrouse]

The folks that make the dies are in their 70's and seem to be retiring out of the work. I figured that if I wanted to do this, I'd better get off my duff and pick up the dies.

I started most of this because heavy subsonic bullets are crazy expensive.

[BrokenolMarine]

Great project. We all need something to occupy our time, and I too like things that end up with a beneficial product of the other end. I took up reloading when shooting ppc for the same reason. Ammo in that volume WAS expensive.