Bullet swaging for the 450b --CHEAP!--

[oldmanjeffers]

OK good, Just making sure You got them, I mainly want it/them for the shelf but I AM going on a pig hunt next weekend...... hint, hint.

Haven't been on here much (22-250 bug) but have been following you thread, Great work you guys!

[hawcer]

The way I described just before about punching the core in and feeding up side down in the seating die works really well with 45acp brass,the 45acp Lee sizing punch and a 158gr LSWC .357 bullet. I made up a few this way and the base formed really well as did the ogive. I have not weighed them yet...I'll get back to more testing on this when I return from a short trip.

[450b-recluse]

I could have gone with more Gas after all.

Not only did they not cause too high a pressure. They didn't come apart and pepper my chrony. They didn't corkscrew into the next zip code. Every one hit the target paper I was aiming at. I was not sure what to expect in terms of buildup in the barrel, so I cleaned thoroughly every five rounds. So, the results include my control group of fouling shots using 230gr Hornady XTP MAG bullets over the ever-successful 38gr of Lil Gun. Their behavior served to check whether the test shot's performance was my fault, with a fouler every five shots. First, the ballistics:



Now, the results in a single range picture:



While this first venture did not yield bench rest-like results, most shots made minute of deer. So I'd say the the concept is sound. When I get my .243 die, I will be trying this myself. One thing I will probably do is turn the rims down to slightly less than .452. I could feel them drag the case walls when seating and the body of the bullet that followed did not drag the case wall as much. One could actually turn the rim off most of the way to create somewhat of a boattail base. All kinds of experimentation avails itself. I was going to withhold a few and shoot them into my water jug setup to see how the expanded but hawcer convinced me that we probably would be better served just making sure they shoot straight first. This was fun and provided for plenty of barrel cooling time showing them to other reloaders at the range this morning. To a man, they were totally impressed with hawcer's work, as was I.
Hoot, after annealing the 308 case I ran it base first into the 243 die and swaged the shoulder down, rather than trimming it. I haven't finished any for shooting yet, as I am playing with the length to get the weight I desire. Just thought I would run the idea past you, in case you might want to give it a shot

Hoot

EDIT: If you noticed only 4 holes in the 36gr LG target. Close examination revealed two shots went through the hole at .25H/1.25R

[Hoot]

...snip
Hoot, after annealing the 308 case I ran it base first into the 243 die and swaged the shoulder down, rather than trimming it. I haven't finished any for shooting yet, as I am playing with the length to get the weight I desire. Just thought I would run the idea past you, in case you might want to give it a shot

Yet another good idea! Though I favor the .44 Mag, I've got plenty of spent .308 cases. I suppose you could do that with just about any case as long as you have a ram that will fit inside of it. BTW, did some .40 S&W and the thin jacket made them the easiest so far to swage after annealing.

Hoot

[hawcer]

I made a couple attachments for my 243 dies. The first is a steel rod with a conical shape at the end. It is for driving the cored jacket out of the seating die. The conical end is to keep the base from deforming while seating the core or tapering the rim.

The second is just a punch to drive the formed bullet back out of the die.





I made a core punch out of an old cheap air hammer chisel.In this pic I still have to machine down the rim to fit in the ram...But it is finished now. The shaft measures out to .395" and just fits in a cut off 308 case and also works in a 40cal case.

[Hoot]

I made a core punch out of an old cheap air hammer chisel.In this pic I still have to machine down the rim to fit in the ram...But it is finished now. The shaft measures out to .395" and just fits in a cut off 308 case and also works in a 40cal case.

I love this part!

I was considering modding a large timber spiking nail.

I'm going to look into a way to use a piece of threaded stock that matches the collet threads in the top of the decapper as a means to push out the swaged rounds. Just need to turn down one end of the stock to pass through the constriction in the die, possibly drill into the end and inverse taper to impart a point on the lead while pushing it out.

Hoot

[450b-recluse]

how do you get a 40cal case "up" to .452", especially the base/rim ?

[Hoot]

...snip Yet another good idea! Though I favor the .44 Mag, I've got plenty of spent .308 cases. I suppose you could do that with just about any case as long as you have a ram that will fit inside of it. BTW, did some .40 S&W and the thin jacket made them the easiest so far to swage after annealing.

Hoot

The other nice thing about .40 S&W is after they fatten up to .452 from the swaging pressure, the rim stays it's original .424, so you don't have to deal with the rim diameter at all. Though I still like tinning the lead into the case for separation control, I keep running into the issue of the flux remnants out-gassing, causing bubbles in the molten lead. You have to cook it quite a while to get it to stop burping. Tapping on it while it's still molten helps release that last bubble, just not too close in time to when it solidifies or you get a frangible bullet.

Hoot

[hawcer]

how do you get a 40cal case "up" to .452", especially the base/rim ?

The base and rim will not swag up...The body of the case will swag out to whatever size the die is restricting it to. When pressing the lead core into the case...the lead needs somewhere to go under pressure , so it goes outward expanding the case walls.

[hawcer]

One more thing I was going to try.

I was thinking of putting a fitting in the top of the sizing die that I could hook compressed air source to, so I could "pop" the bullet out of the die instead of punching it out. it might require excessive pressure to "pop" it loose and become a huge compressed air gun.

I also have a vacuum pump that will pull 30lbs of vacuum all day...maybe I could suck them out instead,lol. I need to find a way of getting the swaged bullet out without too much damage to the tip.