Half-jacket swage die info

[Wayne Smith]

I talked to Dave Davidson at CH4D the other night. Always an interesting man to talk to. He still has some of the old CH half jacket swage die blanks back in his store room. He is in the process of making me both a .451" and a .401" die set. Don't know the cost yet. The .401 nose punch is questionable, he does his work on CNC machines, one off stuff is a problem. I told him if necessary to go ahead and make the die and I'd talk to Rick (Buckshot) about making a nose punch for it if it is too much a problem for him.

I'll update this thread as I find out more.

[DukeInFlorida]

This the type that works in a Swage-O-Matic press?

I have been looking for a .44 set to process all the .44 half jackets I have.

If this is what you are talking about, let me know how that goes. I might want to do the same... have him make me one.

Unless someone else has a .44 set for the Swage-O-Matic that they'd part with?

[Wayne Smith]

I'm using mine, so you can't have it! Yes, these fit the swage-o-matic press and the Herter's knock off of it and the Herter's 9 ton, I believe.

[Lizard333]

Im guessing because DukeinMaine has a set of BT's dies, that using BT's dies is not possible with half jackets. Is this correct? I have recently purchesed some half jackets, and needed to know if I needed to order a set of dies from RCE.

[ReloaderFred]

I make some bullets with half jackets in my CH4D swaging dies and it works just fine. The longer the jacket, the better they work. I try to make a bullet where the ogive starts at the junction of the jacket and the exposed lead. This helps to stop leading with the pure lead cores.

I also use my CH4D swaging dies to reform already sized and lubed bullets. The lube holds it's place in the lube groove, and I can make cheap hollowpoints this way.

I also use these same dies for making bullets from cartridge cases in several different calibers.

I reserve my Swage-O-Matic presses for light duty swaging, which means pure lead cores and half jackets, or even reforming sized and lubed bullets to SWCHP bullets. Sometimes I'll add a gascheck to the bullet when I reform, depending on the intended use.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[DukeInFlorida]

I have a .38 sized set of dies for my Swage=O=Matic, and currently use it only for reforming cast and lubed 9mm bullets into .38 special size. It gives me a nice SWC nose and bumps out the diameter on the 147 grain 9mm's (close enough to 148 grain swc's)

I got some .44 half jackets some time ago, and they have been in storage because I couldn't find a set of tools for the .44.

I also have a set of .30 swc CH dies, but thinking of selling those off because they aren't at all what I was hoping they were. It's a two die set. Core swage and point form.

[Wayne Smith]

There is a very significant difference between the old CH half jacket dies and the current CH4D series of dies that BTSniper based his original work on. These half jacket dies are simple ones that have a die in the base of the press and a nose punch mounted above that. The bottom die is a two diameter die hardened with a single diameter hole in it that is the diameter of the bullet. I'm currently using the .44 dies with a cut off and fully annealed and cleaned 40SW case as the half jacket. I will use the same arrangement for the .45. I'm planning to do the same with 9mm for the .40.

This is apparently very similar to what Fred is doing. These dies are limited to half jacket and pure lead bullets, and the half jacket apparently cannot extend up to the nose punch.

[ReloaderFred]

Wayne is right, the Swage-O-Matic dies won't allow a jacket that extends up to the nose punch. The jacket buckles when it contacts the nose punch, if it's too long. The Swage-O-Matic dies were made specifically for making half jacket bullets.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[DukeInFlorida]

The bpdy of the Swage-o-Matic is aluminum, and not designed for heavy duty brass expanding. The job of making half jacketed bul;lets is to expand and form the noses on the lead. That's about all these presses are able to do.

But... if you have the set of dies for the bullet size you want to make, it's very good at making half jacketed bullets for that size.

[runfiverun]

and half jaxkets work just fine in brians 44 dies.
you do have some lead exposed at the nose protion as expected, but the ogive shape keeps the bare lead to the bore contact at a minimum.