BTSniper 308 custom die progress!

[BT Sniper]

some more pics of my progress



my 175 5.7x308 next to a Sierra 180 grain prohunter





Cross section of a 175 grain from 5.7 brass next to a 140 grain from 9mm brass!






lined up ready to load!


Hope to get out this weekend and try them out.

I'll keep you all posted.

BTSniper

[Mustangpalmer1911]

Well this thread has officaly go me interested in swaging!

[BT Sniper]

Made some bullets from these custom dies last night from comercial jackets.



176 grains with the brass and 173 with the commercial jackets. My core mold was to big for the commercial jackets so I melted and bonded the core to the jacket. Should make for interesting recovered bullet possiblity. I hope to get out this weekend and shoot a few of these.

I plan to test these two bullets against each other and use a commercial bullet as well to see what kind of groups I can get out of them. I have a stock Savage 112 BVSS in 300WM for my test platform. Should be fun!

BTSniper

[BT Sniper]

The speckeled or frosted look of the tip of the brass bullets is from me over cooking the brass in the anneal stage. Other then that I think I got a winner here

The copper jackets are a bit thinker then the brass and formed up nicly as well.

BT

[buck1]

Call me strange ,but I like the brass ones better! I have been looking at these case jackets so much that the copper ones look strange!

[BT Sniper]

I too like the look of the brass bullet and it looks even better when it is loaded in a brass case. I had to show that commercial jackets can be used in my dies as well as brass. Also needed another test variable to test these dies and bullets they make reguarding possible accracy differences between the brass and commercial jackets.

By the way I am planing to offer some 475 die for you very soon. The one I sent off to heat treat was .002 to big to start with. It did not shrink in heat treat (which is a good thing to know for future) so I'll be making you another one.

Thanks

BT

[Liseo]

I am anxious to see the test for accuracy with commercial jackets .
Show as many groups as possible

[MIBULLETS]

Looks good! Out of curiosity, what comercial jackets did you use?

[BT Sniper]

They where given to me years ago. I want to say they where seirra. I can tell you the length and weight but might not know much more.

[BT Sniper]

Here you go guys. Best group of the day for me. It's a bit late right now today. I'll post all details about my range trip later.

110 yrds! 176 grain brass jacket bullet, 300WM, 72.5 grains RL22 powder

5 shot group .885!

AWESOME!

Good shooting and Swage On!

BT

p.s. Pictures are all uploaded to my photobucket account. It will take me a while to edit them and post here but I'll get to it ASAP! Here is link to all my pics. http://s636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/BTSniper/

[gvanzeggelaar]

This is impressive. Are you going to be selling some jacket making dies and swage dies for 308?

[BT Sniper]

This was the proof I need to varrify the potential of these dies and the bullets they make. With results like this I will have no problem offering these dies for sale. I will be posting pics of everything I used to make these bullets and putting together an offer to make avialble for anyone that may be interested in making their own 308 bullets.

Yes I was able to make these bullets using a decent reloading press. There is not even as much pressure used making these 308s as there is making my 40 cal one step bullets and severial here are sucessfully making these bullets and larger.

By the way, the commercial jackets shot well too. I had a 4 shot group less then .75 (first three went .33) and got excited and pulled the 5th shot. Shooting 5 shot groups when the first 3 go under a 1/2" is a bit tough to control your excitement.

BT

[Liseo]

BT


I sent you a PM

[b2riesel]

He is most likely really busy machining some dies. I imagine his PM Inbox is really full and it may take a while for him to get back to several of us. Brian is quickly finding out the crush of having a successful product. I just hope he embraces it and loves what he does.

[BT Sniper]

Yes inbox is pretty full and I have a few messages I need to get back to. It is a good time for sure making these dies and seeing the results you guys are getting with them.

Plan is to try and keep up with demand while providing quality dies that are easy to use and make great bullets. These 308s certainly look like a good start.

I need some final tuning of the dies and the extra tools needed to properly make these bullets and soon as I get them perfect and have a few sets of dies in hand I'll post an offer to the many I'll post plenty of pics of the dies and tools required.

More to come!

BT

[buck1]

""By the way I am planing to offer some 475 die for you very soon. The one I sent off to heat treat was .002 to big to start with. It did not shrink in heat treat (which is a good thing to know for future) so I'll be making you another one.""


BT that is AWSOME!!!

Keep us posted on how the .308 from 9mm do. ...Buck

[BT Sniper]

"Keep us posted on how the .308 from 9mm do. ...Buck"

Will Do!

[Radio Flyer]

BT when you have or are going to have a set of draw dies to take 9mm down to jacket size for .308 please let us all know...

I would be up for a set myself as I have Corbin’s set to make .357/.355 jackets from sheet copper and then to draw them down to .308 jackets would make me fully self sufficient as far as jackets.

[Hickory]

I need more money.

[BT Sniper]

Complete results from weekend at range with new custom bullet from BTSniper custom dies!



Test platform! I just noticed of all the stickers on the rest the most important one is missing! I'll be sure to get a few BTSniper stickers on there ASAP.




loaded and ready!





Recovered bullets from brass jacket that started at 176 grains and all ended up at 101-105 grians.




PICTURES ARE POSTED IN ORDER THEY WHERE FIRED

Test Components

-Stock Savage BVSS 112 300WM with 50 rounds threw it. 26" long barrel will generate higher FPS then standard 24" barrel length of typical 300WMs
-Sorted federal brass all prepped (everything short of turning the neck) and trimmed to be equal.
-Fed GM215M primer
-OAL 3.34
-COL 2.61
-RL-22 powder
-Bullets made from my custom dies with both commercial jackets at 172 grains and sized FN 5.7x28 cases for jackets in a 176 grain .308 bullet.

All reloading precautions and warnings apply to posted data!



1.
Here was the first four shots of the day. Call them fouling shots, getting refimilar with gun, or just warming up. Results are from the 180 grain sierra prohunter pushed with 75 grain of RL-22. THink it shows the custom made bullets are potentially just as good as factory.
FPS was 3019, 3046, 3039, 3036



2.
First group of custom brass jacketd bullets pushed from 70 grains of RL-22
FPS was 2853, 2857, 2892, 2876, 2880




3.
Results with comercial jacket and 72 grians of RL-22. Notice first three shoots went .3 then I got excited. 4th shot went a little high and 5th shot was pulled low. Must have been a defective bullet on that 5th one
FPS was 2977, 2927, 2922, 2910, 2928




4.
best group of the day .885"! 72.5 grains of RL-22 pushing my custom brass jacket 176 grain 308 bullet.
FPS was 3030, 3070, 2993, 3029, 3004




5.
Target from comercial jacket pushed with 74 grains RL-22 This group I felt good about the shots at the break of the trigger but seemed like the combination was not favorable for accuracy. Goes to show that a couple grains of powder does make a difference. That 72 grain load with the commercial jackets certainly looks like it deserves another look.
FPS was 3103, 3073, 3061, 3073, 3038





6.
taget from brass jacket pushed with 75 grains of RL-22
FPS was 3161, 3149, 3127, 3153, 3116




7.
Last group of the day. Again first three shots where tight and pulled the last two. Commercial jacket pushed with 76 grains of RL-22
FPS first shot ????, 3199, 3204, 3157 3153


I did not clean barrel for entire shooting section of 34 rounds fired. Barrel was never too hot to not hold on to. After a few shots with these custom bullets I had good confidence in their ability and flet like some of the larger groups could have been shooter error.

Some food for thought and somthing I need to test a bit more but it seems, everythign being equal, the brass jacketed bullets are faster then commercial guilding metal jackets! I'll have to test this theory a bit more but looks like maybe 50-100 fps and this is with a bullet that is 4 grain heavier. Well again I'll do some testing.

Next to test would be lighter bullets or longer range shooting but for teh purpose of proving these dies and bullets I think we have a winner here.

Good shooting guys!

Swage On!

BTSniper