Home Swaged 32 WadCutters Working Out Well

Greetings,

I recently machined a mould to produce slugs for swaging. The reason for this is that you can experiment with different alloys.

My testing has shown that there is little difference in group size between Pure Lead, salvaged 22lr metal, and 20:1 alloy.

The slugs cast out at 101.5 grains. I then swage them down to 100 grains, if possible. The targets posted used as cast slugs weighed and swaged in a Core Seat die (no bleed hole). I have since made several die bodies of different diameters with bleed holes.

Here are some typical groups fired at 50 yards in a barrel tester.

Attachment 223613Attachment 223614Attachment 223615

"COZENS" is the name of the guy I bought the 22lr salvage from.

I use a Corbin Silver Press with home made dies.

The barrel is a Pardini HP with a 0.3135" groove diameter.

I lube the bullets lightly with Lee Liquid Alox. After firing 100 rounds, the barrel is remarkably clean with only the usual Lead/Carbon fouling in the leade.

Cheers,

Dave

Howdy, Dave. First class scholarship there. I know I'm not alone in craving details of your die making process.

Greetings,

Making the die bodies is simple.

Knurl the OD, turn and thread the die to fit the press, drill and bore the bullet hole.

If you want to bleed metal off, you need to drill a small weep hole in the side. I used 1/32".

Heat treat, hone and polish.

Punches are turned on the lathe with the profile desired. Heat treat and the punch diameters ground to size.

Visit the Corbin website. He has a lot of great illustrations of the swaging process.

Cheers,

Dave

Nice, can you show some photos and provide more details? I've got a Hammerli 280 I need to feed. There aren't many molds available for 32 WC bullets.

Greetings,

Accurate Molds has several choices.

http://www.accuratemolds.com/

For the 280, you need a mould that finish sizes to 0.314".

Larry Blackmon sells swage press kits.

http://www.bulletswagingsupply.com/

Order a Core Seating die, no holes, and "bump" the Speer 98 HBWC up to 0.314".

Cheers,

Dave

What steel do you use. Could I see pics of your grinding setup for punches? Thx, YR!

Steel alloy and heat treat process has me intrigued

Very nice work!

Like you I have been impressed with how nice BLL leaves bores.

You might try adding 2% carnuba wax melted into your alox next time for truly sparkling bores.
Would love to see a photo of some of your swaged bullets.