Swaging on the Cheap - 9mm Case to 40SW/10mm JWords

[Stephen Cohen]

Well I'm 60 next month, if I study real hard to learn how to use a lathe, could I be that good by 70. Well done Sir, one must appreciate good workmanship.

[nhrifle]

Ten years would give you some practice! My best advice is to make best friends with someone who has been machining for years. The little tips and tricks passed to you will save sooooooo much time.

Been a bit busy since my last post. I am almost done with this project and I am very happy with the results thus far. I will post pics of the dies and related tooling this weekend, along with an example of what each die does. I believe this process could be used to make any caliber bullet, providing the appropriate sizing/draw dies are made.

Stay tuned.....

[nhrifle]

Ok, time for a big shout out to Cane Man. His idea and the development he put into it gave me the inspiration for this, so thank you, thank you, thank you.

Not sure if this will all fit into one post, but here goes...

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This is the first die in the sequence, the round over die. It starts the process of flattening the jacket base and is the only step that requires any real force to accomplish. Left to right, the die body, the insert nut (holds the insert into the body), the insert, the ejector rod, the base punch, and a couple of jackets from this step.

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This is step two, sizing. Show are the die body, the insert nut, the insert, the base punch, and a couple jackets sized in this die. They are reduced to .351" from their original .375", which lengthens them a bit and also smooths the sides of the jackets.

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Nope, didn't make this die. I bought this die years ago, I think it is from Hawke. It's for making 1/2 jacket 9mm bullets. It has mostly sat unused as I wasn't happy with what I was getting out of it, but it is now repurposed as my base flattening/core seating die. The base is flattened and the core seated all in one step, and since this is a 9mm swaging die the jackets are expanded to .355", too big for point forming so they are run through the sizer one more time. Shown are the die, the base punch, the Lee boolit I'm using for cores, a pair of seated cores fresh from the die and a second pair after being resized.

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Finally the die that brings it all together, the point form, which took the most effort and redesign to get to work properly, not to mention over an hour of lapping to get the final size as well as a nicely polished interior. Shown are the die body, the insert nut, the insert, the base punch, the ejector rod, and a pair of finished bullets ready to throw in the tumbler (which I didn't do yet). I am the most pleased with this die as it forms the bullets easily, and they practically fall into my hand with little more than a nudge of the ejector rod.

And there you have it. There may be an easier or better way to accomplish what I have, but this is my take on home swaging 9mm bullets from tubing. Next planned development is a new set of punches to allow the same results using copper tubing I can procure locally so I won't have to order online.

[Cane_man]

OUTSTANDING!!!!

those final bullets look great and should shoot really well... give us a range report when you get a chance, again, that is some outstanding work!