My Work Order List

[BT Sniper]

23 draw dies complete, 20 to go!

[BT Sniper]

270 dies done and shipped to Nitride.

This was a long time coming. I'm looking forward to getting caught up.

Thank you all for your patience and support.

Brian

[BT Sniper]

Got word the dies are done at Nitride. I expect I'll see them here any day now.

Brian

[BT Sniper]

I have all dies back from nitride now. This includes all dies necessary to fill every customer order and extras.

I still have to polish and lap the dies to their final bullet diameters, make necessary internal parts and base punches, and then final test and tune them to ensure everything is perfect.

I'll have dies shipped to you all just as soon as possible.

Thank you all for your patience and support.

Brian

[BT Sniper]

I fell down yesterday evening and fractured my leg. Not bad but the tip of my fibula is fractured at the knee. I'm resting off my feet for a few days in splint and crutches.

Was at an outdoor concert in the park on a steep slope sitting in the grass. After an hour my leg had gone to sleep. I stood up and waited for circulation and feeling to return to my leg but without warning my leg gave out and I found myself twisting and falling. I remember looking at my leg thinking it shouldn't be able to bend and twist like this, I'm not flexible enough to do the splits.

Seeing orthopedic doctor on Tuesday.

Good news is polishing these dies to get ready for shipment is not "physically" demanding work (still a lot of labor), a lot of standing on my feet, but I imagine I'll be off my feet for at least a week or two.

I'll keep you guys posted.

To give you guys a look at what many of you are waiting on and what you will have to look forward to.... Here is a pic from a customer of mine of the first batch of bullets he was able to make from his BTSniper 22 cal die set. He had never swaged a bullet before and both he and I were very pleased with his results.




Thank you all for your patience. Believe me, I am not thrilled about breaking my leg and adding to delays. I will make sure the wait is worth it. Check out the pic above! You guys all will be able to make bullets that look this good!

Brian

[BT Sniper]

Saw Dr. today. Got to schedule MRI now to get a better understanding of any ligament damage. Was in a bit more pain today. I'll hope to heal as quick as possible yet still give myself the necessary time to heal properly. I can't stand sitting around doing nothing.

I posted a pic of the 22 cal bullets customer made. I contacted him to get permission to repost his first impressions of the dies here. This is what he had to say. Hopefully it reassures all of you a bit that you can expect a top-quality set of dies that will be worth your wait. Thank you all for your patience and support.

Here is the customer's comments and process......

This is just a brief update.
I returned home and finally had the opportunity to put the .22 dies into service.
I spent the first few days sorting all of the empty cases by manufacturer. The bulk of the cases being Armscor, followed by Fiocchi and CCI.
The cases were wet tumbled cleaned and dried.
I started to de-rim the first batch of cases, after first lubricating them with lanolin. The cases went through the de-rim die with no issue, but cleaning the lanolin lube from the cases was a major pain in the butt and I had to resort to using gasoline to remove the lanolin.
The next batch of cases were de-rimmed using Lee case lube. I didn't notice any difference in effort to push the cases through the die. The lube was them removed with simple soap and water.
After de-rimming and cleaning, the cases were annealed in an old Hornady production casting pot, set to maximum temperature, for a period of 1 hour. I did not bother using sand or salt as a medium in the pot. I just loaded it to the top of the pot and covered it with a ceramic wall tile and the results were just fine.
After annealing, the cases were wet tumbled again to remove any oxidization or scale.
The cores had already been cast from pure lead.
The only die that I had to adjust was the core bleed die. As the Armscor cases were weighing a full grain heavier than the U.S. or European cases, the bleed die was throwing a core that was too heavy. The adjustment of the die was easy enough and after a few minutes, I had it set up.
Core seating (with the boat tail die) went very smoothly and again, with no issues. The case expanded out to a measured .223.5" diameter and the boat tail formed perfectly.
Every case dropped free from the die and I had no hang ups at all.
Finally, moving on to point forming. This was the only step that I was apprehensive about and I was dreading a stuck case. However, I ran 1000 cases through the point form die, every case dropped free from the die with no hang ups. I did notice, at the beginning, three or four bullets would get stuck onto the ejection pin, but they were easily removed. This issue was solved by applying a little lube to the inside of the case mouth and no further hang ups happened.
All of the bullet points formed beautifully, with no signs of folding or creasing (so, the annealing process must have been fine)
After a final wet tumble polish using water, dish detergent and a little citric acid, the bullet came out looking every bit as good as a commercial item.
Overall, Brian, I have been very impressed with the performance of each die. As someone who has never swaged bullets before, this turned out to be a very rewarding experience.

I thank you very much for a well designed and manufactured product.

[BT Sniper]

Got an MRI scheduled for today.

My leg felt more painful everyday till last night when it actually started to feel a little better than the day before. Feels like I might be on a road to recovery.

I'll keep you posted

BT

[BT Sniper]

I found out advil is primary reason I was feeling better.

MRI revealed a torn ligament (LCL) and torn tendon (Biceps femoris Tendon) as well as the broken femur bone. I'm not in any pain as long as I don't use the leg. Standing is not too bad. Getting up from seated position is a real challenge.

Until I get surgery scheduled to reattach everything, I'll be able to complete some limited light duty work. I'll make as much progress as I can and keep you all posted.

Thank you for your support.

Brian

[BT Sniper]

Saw Dr. yesterday. Good news is no surgery needed. Tendon and ligament where not as bad as initially thought (so the radiologist says). Top of fibula is still broken for certain, but word is everything should heal in time, and I can return to work but on a reduced schedule and work load.

Got all of dies here ready to be polished and assembled with a lot of customers that have been waiting a long time. I'll get to them all just as quickly as I can.

Thank you all for your support.

Brian

[BT Sniper]

Had a successful day in shop today. Starting back slowly but was good to get things moving again both in my leg and in the shop.

Brian

[BT Sniper]

Making progress, been working on copper tubing dies all week. Very slow process for me to perfect these dies but results are looking very good.

Brian

[BT Sniper]

Leg is doing better.

Currently working on 8 of the 5/16" copper tubing jacket dies. Results are looking very good.

I'll keep you all posted. I'm making some progress now.

Brian

[BT Sniper]

8 of the 30 cal copper tubing dies are complete.

I still need to make the base punches but I'm getting closer!

BT

[BT Sniper]

Completed 10 of the copper tubing base punches today. Results are looking very good.

Brian

[BT Sniper]

Making progress.

Customer from post #606 with the 22 cal bullets from 22lr brass reported back to me that he has completed 10,000 bullets and still going! SWAGE ON!

I got a set of copper tubing dies out the door last week. Really takes me a while to get copper tubing dies together, I need to sit down and cut a lot of tubing as it seems to take me the longest when I am not set up for it. But I do have 7 more sets of tubing dies nearly ready to ship or offer.

Here is a look at the tooling necessary to make 3 different length 30 cal jackets from 5/16" copper tubing....



3 separate length base punches
1 copper tubing jacket form die
1 draw die to reduce the jackets from .316-.305
1 draw die for the lead cores to take them down from nominal .250" to .233"
2 draw die push through base punches that double as flat end finishing to jackets
1 lead draw die push through base punch
1 core seat base punch for the thicker walled copper tubing jackets

all set to exact diameters and lengths..... Looking at all that tooling..... yep a bit of labor on my part.

I finally took note of all these and modeled them all on the computer in autocad so making more should be quicker.

I'm making progress and leg is doing well. Not as strong as it was so I am carful but I'm not in any pain and can work a full day.

Thanks for all your support and patience.

Brian

[BT Sniper]

Just shipped the first BTSniper 6mm point form die that is a near match to the Sierra 107 grain SMK bullet. Results turned out perfect. It was a long process for this die to come to life. Had to get new reamer cut, harden the die bodies, ream the bullet cavity to the die, send it off to nitride, get it back and final polishing and QC checks. It was a long wait, add in the political events and my personal struggles over the last few years......

Well, I'm proud to say I feel the wait will have been worth it for the customer. I was very pleased with the results. I told the customer I could have gotten the die to him sooner, but I don't think the results would have been as good as what I was able to produce today, oh.... the customer waited over 3 years for this die! good gracious that sounds like an awful long time. I know there are others here on the list that have been waiting this long too. I haven't forgotten about you and I'm making progress!

Thank you to this customer and all of you waiting for your orders and final dies. It has been a long time, I will ensure the wait is worth it.

Thank you all for your continued support and patience.

Brian

[BT Sniper]

Making good progress now. Got 5 orders out the door this week and still going. Got all the 6mm PF dies shipped and a 50 BMG depriming die.

I'm currently working on 22 and 30 cal dies.

I'll be out of office for first week of November for elk season. See if my 230 grain 30 cal bullet will get another oportunity.

Brian

[BT Sniper]

Back home from elk hunting. Saw two giant 6 points but I couldn't hunt them as I only had a spike tag. Didn't find any additional elk after that. A strange and wet season, usually not that difficult to find the heard but sure didn't this year. We did see a good number of mule deer with a good number of mature bucks running with does. I say a good number, in actuality we saw about 10 mature bucks each with 8-10 does. Twenty years ago this would have been a small number and cause for concern but just seeing them this year felt like a little bit of a rebound from 5 years ago when we didn't see any bucks at all durning elk season in Eastern Oregon.

I was quite pleased with my 230 grain custom bullets shot from my 300WM. Having not shot at all this year I sent a few shots down range in practice before season started. I sight it in for dead on at 200 yrds which puts it 1.7" high at 100-150, and 2" low at 300.

I did warm up with my 6.5x55 shooting my custom 141 grain bullets and shot those well too. Figure this would be my back up gun or coyote gun. So after a few shots to verify it was sighted in I grabbed the 300 wm. Target was set up at 150 yrds, drop chart said I should be 1.75" high so I aimed 2" low and fired two shots that connected center of bull both bullets touching. Moved on to 200yrds and elevation was dead on with two shots in about 1" group. I know 2 shots really isn't really a group, but I didn't need to abuse my shoulder that much 3 days before the season started.

After confirming my zero I had a steel clanger set up at 135 yrds I practiced my standing shots with both the 6.5 and 300. After several hits I was as ready as I was going to be for ethe short amount of practice. Normal year I would do a lot more shooting and well out to 600+ yrds, but it has been a busy and challenging year. Hopefully the future will allow me to enjoy more shooting.

Work is progressing very well in the shop and I am machining a lot of necessary internal parts necessary to complete all dies on order.

Thank you for your continued patience and support.

Brian

[BT Sniper]

An update as a lot has been going on......

I have had to get a second source of income.

After 17 years of employment at a Boeing owned company, my wife was laid off in late October. This left our family with a substantial decrease in income and with no health insurance.

I have obtained a position at the United States Post Office as a rural mail carrier. I figured it wouldn't be too bad driving around the countryside with no boss looking over your shoulder all the time, finishing by 3pm with evenings to work in the shop..... well.... I did get the family a very good health care plan but the time off to work in the shop has been very limited so far, matter of fact any time off for the month before the Christmas holiday has been more like nonexistent. I have been working 60+ hour weeks and have had maybe 3 days off since Thanksgiving. The training has been very challenging with the boos looking over my shoulder in the office and on the routes, and now that I am delivering on my own, they have the "electric leash" checking on me via cell phone all the time constantly telling me I'm behind schedule.

Well, I'm glad to say the holiday crazy shipping season should be coming to an end very soon and I am getting much better with my delivery route, getting faster and finishing earlier every day. I expect very soon (within a couple weeks) to be consistently home by early afternoon, in the shop, working on everyone's orders.

I know this is not good news for getting delayed orders out the door any sooner, but a man has to do what he has to do to provide for his family. I could not afford to pay for family health insurance being self-employed, the coverage we are getting now would cost us $1700 a month, working for the USPS I pay under $300 a month.

I can say I did make a lot of progress on necessary internal components to complete nearly all the dies on order in the time between my wife getting laid off and my start date at the USPS. It would have been nice to complete all orders on my list by the time I started the second job, I certainly tried. I am close and as I have said before, I WILL complete all orders on my list and make sure it is worth everyone's wait.

Thank you for your support and understanding.

Happy Holidays and hopes for a great New Year!

Brian

p.s. OH..... if there is any good side to working 10-12 hour days running around delivering packages with no lunch breaks.... I have lost 50lbs this year...

I'll do my best to provide for my family and to provide to all of you kind enough, and patient enough, to give me the time I need to provide you all with a great set of dies. It certainly seems like it has been an ongoing challenge for me and my family recently!

My sincere thanks to all of you, THANK YOU for your patience and support!

p.p.s. USPS delivers 6 days a week, of course we all know that, but around here we (USPS) deliver Amazon's packages on Sunday, so it is literally 7 days a week for a new guy.

p.p.p.s. and the pay is not that good for a new guy, but the health care is good.

Everyone says it will get better after holiday rush.... I hope so.

p.p.p.p.s Nope, I don't get a discount on shipping.

[BT Sniper]

Got to spend some time in the shop this evening. Got things all cleaned up and organized, I always get more accomplished in a clean and organized shop.

My second job is going better, I'm "up to speed" with my training and able to get off early enough to allow me a few hours in the evening in the shop. Now that holiday rush shipping season is over, I'm scheduled to even get at least one day off a week too. Crazy busy job!

Anyway, it was a crazy couple months to add to my challenging times. Maybe this is just my new standard of life as I get older...... crazy busy, less time in a day/week/month/year, and everything costs more with less money left over at the end of the month.

I expect to make progress on everyone's orders starting this week. I also expect to take fewer new orders till I catch up on my back order list. My hope for future is to take less orders and actually sell die sets as they become available hoping to avoid these delays and back orders.

Well.... again, as always... thank you to those of you allowing me the time I need to complete your orders.

I'll keep you all updated here.

Good shooting and swage on!

Brian