My Poor Man’s Swaging Adventure begins

[Joshua]

If I had to give the above photo a caption it would be “Not even close, but I learned a few things.”

This one would be “Getting closer, but not there yet.”

The goal is to make a swaged bullet for my 40 S&W using only reloading dies and Lee sizing dies. A few people have done this successfully.

I just bought a mold from Brad to make the cores. A Lyman 356402. I haven’t cast with it yet. But it came with two bullets in the cavities, so I got excited and started with them.

I annealed a handful of 9mm brass. These will be the jackets.

I shaped a 16 penny nail head with a file and a hand drill for a temporary ejector. As a more permanent solution I will be boring out the center of the decapping pin bushing and making an ejector pin with a hollow point tip when my lathe shows up.
I was gonna use a 220 Swift die as the only swaging die. By itself it was crumpling the brass at the nose. So I tried a 30-30 sizing die as a point forming die because of the shallower shoulder angle. Then final swaging was done in the 220 swift die.

It’s raining today so I couldn’t cast any cores, so I started making cores out of some 30cal rejects, with bolt cutters. That didn’t work because I wasn’t getting enough diameter.

Then I tried a few powder coated Lyman 358477. These will be two heavy too shoot but by using them I figured out how to get a decent looking nose and the proper pre sizing diameter.

Ran all these through a Lee .401” sizing die. They mic at .4015”. Now my gun slugs at a generous .402”. I’m still a little nervous about trying to shoot these at that large a diameter. I know that a few of you have fallen down this rabbit hole and will most likely have some advice regarding final sizing.

Josh

 

[Ian]

That's pretty fascinating. But you know you could get 50 cents apiece for those cases on the 'Broker....

 

[Joshua]

That's pretty fascinating. But you know you could get 50 cents apiece for those cases on the 'Broker....

More likely that my buddies who have given me all of that brass and are now hurting for ammo are gonna get sad when I show them my new accomplishment!

 

[L Ross]

That's pretty fascinating. But you know you could get 50 cents apiece for those cases on the 'Broker....

What????? 50 cents for fired cases? And to think my dear old father hauled 750 lbs. of range pick up brass to sell for scrap. And I only kept a couple of 5 gallon buckets each of 9m/m and .223.

 

[RBHarter]

I stretched out some 380 cases once and made just a few 357 WC , proof of concept kind of thing .

Every time I see a bunch 5.7 FN cases I think , I only have to go down to 308 , wash them out with a little soldering acid , and flux em when I pour them back full on the hot plate . Then I'd only need to form them for aesthetic value and have either a gapping HP or a soft point with a brass bonded core . If I leave them fat they're about right for the 7.7 .

Bonded 22 LR to .22 jacketed is always a thought and it always ends the same way if RCBS and Lyman etc can cut a .225 hole centered on a split in 2 pieces of iron with 5 dia and a compound radial radius held to .0005 why isn't there a reamer set to drill , finish and lap a 7/8-14 die body . I don't even want go into all of the concave , cup , and penta HP pins .

I'm sure that my "if it's already broken it won't hurt anything to take it apart and see what broke" mind set is way over simplifying the concepts .............

I did just force a 243 case into a 6.5 Japanese die on the Big Max so it seems to me that after the rim is removed the only fly is keeping them 350° to let the air out before the lead sets up . I guess you could just dip them full . Their going to weigh what the case and form weighs . Their pretty fragile anyway so an HP is just for show and and one hole coyotes .

Why don't swage guys just dip them full or use a measured ladle to fill the jackets up ? It doesn't seem like it would take many trials to get the volume down to just enough to fill out the point and have a minimal squirt . The old seconds dad had , had a squirt tit and a fallen halo on the sp .
Again probably just over simplification .......

 

[Spindrift]

Fascinating, Joshua! I’ll be following your project with interest. I have no advice to offer, though. Never swaged any bullets.

 

[Intel6]

Very neat making them with regular stuff you have. I cheated and got a set of BT Sniper dies to make .40 bullets out of brass cases. I mainly was looking for making heavier bullets for 10mm at the time. Made and shot quite a few through the years.

In the pic L to R:

195 gr. JHP
195 gr. JHP with dual cannelures for revolver use
210 gr. soft point
240 gr. JHP made from a .38 super case




This is what you get when you shoot steel with them, brass flowers!

 

[fiver]

I got some advice for you.
don't even start.

 

[Joshua]

I got some advice for you.
don't even start.

So, is this for financial reasons. Is this advice akin too the often repeated adage.

“If it floats, flies, or provides emotional and physical support, you should enter into a rental agreement that provides both parties involved a liberal termination clause.”

 

[Ian]

Yes. If it flies, floats, or fornicates----just rent it.

 

[fiver]

it sucks you in.
and then you find yourself looking at 150 dollars worth of jackets at 2 am, just so you can justify having another 125$ mold and that 1500$ die set, and another press... then you need the right lead, and another core seating stem,,, and how about your lubes viscosity?
you finally knock out that perfect little batch of 50 bullets and realize they only cost 5$ each.
then your up at night trying to remember if you used an extra slow stroke on the handle, cammed over at the end or stopped on top, how long did you dwell count under pressure, what was the P/F dies temperature when you started.
did I clean before and after annealing? should I wash the lube off with mineral spirits or acetone, if I anneal with just heat and not a torch can I avoid the pitting, what if I peen with BB's versus rolling with them.

 

[fiver]

then after all that.... you stick one in the P/F die.