BTSniper Custom Tools and Dies

[OneShotNeeded]

Ay ideas as to wether or not 22mag brass will be able to be de-rimmed using your dies? Just curious. Also you metioned that the de-rim die was going to be $100. Is this going to be included in the set. I have one I made just curious. Also I have a Lyman Orange Crusher and a RCBS Rock crusher. What mods would you recommend if any?

[DukeInFlorida]

I can't speak directly for BT Sniper, but my understanding is that the de-rimming die is NOT part of the tool set. It would be a separate purchase. So, if you already have that tool, you are ahead of the game.

Ay ideas as to wether or not 22mag brass will be able to be de-rimmed using your dies? Just curious. Also you metioned that the de-rim die was going to be $100. Is this going to be included in the set. I have one I made just curious. Also I have a Lyman Orange Crusher and a RCBS Rock crusher. What mods would you recommend if any?

[BT Sniper]

I would perfer if everyone purchased the three dies as a set. This way we are able to maintain a better quality control. I can be flexable though.

Basicly that would make the 2 die set $475 or the three die set $575. Maybe I will be able to offer a complete package deal that includes everything for some sort of savings. I'll see what I can do.

I have derimed 22 mag brass with this die before. It was with my pnumatic press but I'm sure it will work just the same in any standard press.

As far as extra recamendations..... an automatic ejector will help you produce better quailty bullet by not banging up the nose of the bullet. Also a core swage die will help greatly in making better bullet. I have contacted a fellow member here to offer a core swage die to those interested.

[TJF1]

Bt

do have any idea when your 40 to 44 1 step dies will ready
to acepte orders

terry

[BT Sniper]

Here is another look at one of my 22 cal bullets. This one is from a die that got big on me. I'm lapping it up to .228 for some of the original savage high power rounds I think it was that shoot bullets of this size.


Derimed case, seated core, formed bullet and a standard 55 grain FMJ. This die has a .095 meplat while the dies I hope to offer soon will have a even smaller .062 meplat.

[OneShotNeeded]

one other thing, 9mm-45acp what do I need and what do you have? I evetually want to load for my 45, 357, and 30-06. Is there a post somewhere on here of what cases can be used for what calibers? I have a bunch of 9mm, 380, 10mm. any of those work for what I'd like?

[BT Sniper]

40S&W works well for 44s and 45s
9mm works well for .358, 40s and 41s
380s ???? I havn't used much of
10mms trade at a rate of 5 or 10 to 1 for 40 S&W brass
223 also works well for .358s

To turn a 9mm into a 45 takes a little work but can be done. I did it and posted pics but don't remeber just how much work was involved???

BT

[OneShotNeeded]

How are you trimming the 22 cases? before / after de-rim? I can't seem to get a uniform cut. I do have the small HF mini chop saw / case cutter I use for my 219 zipper. Will that work or do I need smaller?

[MIBULLETS]

Brian, I have to say, those dies look really nice! Nice work!

[BT Sniper]

Thanks, it is slow at times but really striving for perfection here with every die I make.

Merry Christmass

BT

[PhilOhio]

After a long delay, I think I have new information useful to all of you...along with pictures to prove it. BUT I am still having trouble with that, and am not likely to match BT Sniper's photography skills anytime soon.

Initially, months ago, I had nothing but trouble getting expansion with the .40 boolits made with 9mm case jackets. Even at 10mm velocities, they did not expand, although penetrating nearly 8" of solid wood. Sorry guys, I did not and do not buy the argument that it happened because I was not shooting into ballistic gelatin or liquid or soft earth. That was not the problem. I've been reloading and making bullets for 50 years. But at first, I was not hollow pointing them, and that did contribute to the problem.

There is nothing wrong with Brian's fine dies or boolit design. The limitation is using unmodified 9mm empty cases for jackets, but I think I have it worked out.

First, let's understand that this is a brass alloy specifically designed to contain high pressure as well as possible. But for our purposes we want the opposite. We need to have the jacket allow the inner core to expand, to dissipate energy over a broader area. A high strength jacket will not permit that.

Commercial defensive and hunting boolits are made with a soft copper jacket, which allows the core to expand dramatically more easily. Our homemade jackets virtually prevent that...no matter how much you score the jacket around the nose. They work like girdles, holding the lead in. The commercial guys even taper their wall thickiness, to make it progressively more thin toward the nose. That's how you get those beautiful mushrooms from Remington's Core-Lokt boolits.

True, we anneal our case jackets to make them more pliable during the forming process, but that is not nearly enough. The only reason we need the jackets at all is to get better velocity without bore leading, especially in unusual types of bores, like the Glock family of polygon bored barrels. So what we really want is a jacket only long enough to cover the bore riding surface of the boolit, and we could even get along with less than that.

So all of this started out partly as theory. Now I'm confident it is fact. To prove that, I made three types of .40 boolits, all weighing 180 grains ahead of 5.5 grains of Bullseye, a maximum load for .40 S&W. The test weapon was my Glock 27 with 3.5" barrel.

The only variable was the length of jacket and amount of pure lead left uncontained by jacket wall. First, I used untrimmed 9mm cases, where the jacket wall continues all the way to the flat on the nose of the hollow point boolit. Then I made boolits where the jacket covers only half of the rounded boolit ogive. Last I made boolits where the entire ogive is exposed soft, pure, deeply hollow pointed lead. Let there be no doubt, that is the only one you want for defensive use!

So below is a picture of what happens (or does not happen) with jackets left the full length of a 9mm case. We're looking down on one unfired boolit's hollow point, a loaded round, and two boolits that have passed through a 1.5" thick seasoned hard oak board, lodging in a pine board behind. Incidentally, all rounds fired in this test went through the same long board. And coming out the back, they made quite a mess of it.



Next we have some fired and unfired boolits made with the jackets trimmed so they cover only 1/2 of the ogive. You can see quite an improvement in expansion, fired through the same board at point blank range. But it still was not what I wanted.



Now for the good part. I made boolits with case jackets trimmed to cover only the bore riding part of the boolit. It got me exactly what I wanted, maximum and reliable expansion at point blank range from a short barreled pistol. Notice how the pressure sets the fired primer inward. You should see the looks on the faces of some guys seeing this boolit for the first time, as it looks like a stubby loaded round.



So how do you shorten cases for jackets? I recommend you do it before annealing, as hard brass is easier to cut without the cutter digging in. And you can tighten it in a chuck more firmly without crushing it. But it need not be tighter than just enough to keep it from turning in the chuck. I use an old Sears/Atlas 6" bench top lathe. You could spin your cases in a drill press, mounted hand drill, anything. Or use some kind of cutting saw. But be sure you have some sort of "stop" arrangement to keep the cuttoff length consistent. Here's how I did it. In a few minutes, I made a little adjustable guide to clamp on a lathe cutter I also made. The lower screw holds the guide to the cutter and the upper screw (both with lock nuts and both threaded into the guide) regulates length cut. In the end, I stopped using the screw at all, as the length cut with the case mouth touching the guide body gave me the maximum cut I wanted...all of the ogive area. So...

Here I was set up to take off only about 1/16" of case mouth. That gave me the second type of expansion, medium, but not quite what I wanted.



Here is the adjustment screw backed out all the way, to trim the jacket so none of it holds in the rounded ogive lead of the boolit. Set lathe RPM to a medium speed and the cut takes under 2 seconds.



Here it is with the lathe running the the jacket touched by the cutter.



...and then the piece falls harmlessly away or hangs on the cutter. You can do about three per minute if you are fast with the chuck key.



Here are a few of these last type of boolits, all fired through the same 1.5" hard oak board.





So the moral of the story is, keep the jacket as short as possible, unless you want deeper penetration in big game or something. For low velocity handguns, I think this is the only way to go. Stick with a pure lead core and a big, deep hollow point. These should all feed flawlessly in just about any modern semiauto handgun. You have enough exposed jacket, and at the right place, to assure that.

These cores were all simply 120 grain truncated cone pure lead 9mm boolits, placed nose down in the slightly belled short jacket and seated with my core seating die. I strongly recommend you use Brian's core seating die or the equivalent. It makes a much better, uniform boolit and is easier on your boolit forming die.

Is this a lot of work? Not really. You can whistle through 50 or 100 of these in no time. But I don't shoot them at tin cans or paper targets. They are "for serious". And now I am confident they will work. For the few I make, annealing cases on a coat hanger wire over a propane torch flame takes 20 seconds per case. What more could I ask for?

And by all means have fun.

[BT Sniper]

Looking good. I like the trimmer with the built in stop to ensure exact cuts. I got a different HP punch to offer you that might form up those soft points of yours a bit better. I still think you should give the original bullet a try (notched or not) in lined up milk jugs filled with water.

BT

[BT Sniper]

Finished up a set of 338 dies for a lucky customer. They are by far better then my own personal set. Seems to be my business motto. If it's not better then what I use, or if I don't look at it and for a split second say I should keep this one for myself, I dont' sell it. Here is some pics.

[BT Sniper]

Modified a Lee 7mm cast boolit mold to give me both a 130 grain cast boolit core and a 157 grain core. This gave me bullet weights of 205 grains and 235 grains. Use a 145 grain core and you will get a perfect 225 grain .338 bullet from a cut .223 rem case.



BT

[BT Sniper]

Going to try and keep a post current here for links to my custom bullet projects.

Here is a good one for making 45 cal bullets with some video fotage, click on pics to see videos.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=101299

Here is link to video fotage for use of my universal notch die set up.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=120234

another link fo rthe universal notch die operation
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=109840

Link for copper tubing jackets and bullets
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=111370

[PhilOhio]

Lots of great pics and info above, BT. A different nose punch for my soft lead .40 noses would be good, but I wonder if it could be made to work well? The problem is that it takes a certain amount of pressure to eject the finished boolit, and I am wondering if it is even possible to get a nicely formed nose, around the thin hollow point edges, without deforming them during die ejection? It may be asking for too much.

But I really like the way these things open up now. With the pure lead and gaping hollow point, they are not even so dependent upon high velocity to open. Could be a good bullet for the subsonic suppressor crowd.

Regarding shooting the original .40 configuration at water jugs, the northern Ohio winter weather has set in here, and I don't expect to be able to do much outdoor test shooting for some months. That means my emphasis is shifting to indoor gun building projects...starting with a whimsical bolt action .45 ACP carbine based on the strong Japanese Type 38 and Type 99 actions. It's about fun.

Also, putting a long .45 ACP barrel on a very strong centerfire high power rifle action makes it possible to boost velocities way up there, to take advantage of such things as .45 boolits using .40 case jackets. ...all of this without going to one of the super duper .45 cartridges requiring fancy and expensive cases.

[Swageocast]

Hey BT Sniper,,

The Last picture from the above 338 Dies Post ,,,are the two bullets on the right from retasked cases and if so were they nickled cases ?????

Thanks Swageocast ;-}

[MIBULLETS]

They look like lead slugs formed to show the shape of the die interior better.

[OneShotNeeded]

Hey BT on your 338 jackets what's the reason you de-primed them. I thought I read somewhere that it's possible for the pressure to push the lead out and leave the jacket in the barrel. Just asking.

[BT Sniper]

Hey BT on your 338 jackets what's the reason you de-primed them. I thought I read somewhere that it's possible for the pressure to push the lead out and leave the jacket in the barrel. Just asking.

I had a bunch of 300wisper brass culls given to me that still had live primers so I deprimed them all. I don't think it will be much concenr as teh hole is VERY small by the time the base got reduced. Generaly YES, I do recamend we leave spent primers in place.

BT