BTSniper 9mm dies!

[BT Sniper]

Another project a couple years in the making here but finally got a set of my 9mm dies polished and ready for a customer.

My intention was to make a very good match to the Hornady XTP bullets using RCE 9mm .500" long jackets and a simple 93 grain .311 cast boolit for the core. What I came up with is a very good looking 9mm 110 grain BTX bullet. I think it might look a bit better then the 115 grain 9mm XTP bullet I got it pictured with but my opinion might be a bit bias, I'll let you guys decide.


My 110 grain BTX bullet shown in the 9mm brass.






The process of making the bullet with the RCE jacket & 93 grain core next to the Hornady 115 grain XTP on the right






158 grain, 140 and 110 grain made with my dies just to show different weights possible.



124 grain Montana Gold bullet, 115 grain Hornady XTP and my 110 grain BTX 9mm bullets




I'm very pleased with how the dies and bullets turned out. At 5 cents per jacket it is certainly tough to beet the results from using the RCE jackets. I plan on making a few bullets use the top cut off portion of scrap 223 blank brass to show it can be done. Of course we can always draw down various brass to make jackets but again.... 5cents a piece is half the price of what it cost to shoot 22lr now days!

Good shooting and swage on!

Brain

[wmitty]

Great looking bullet!

[DukeInFlorida]

Brian,

Your oldest fan here!! I am happy with every (EVERY!!) swage set I have gotten from you, and this one (9mm) is the one I have been patiently waiting for the longest.
However, I really can't justify a five cent jacket for making these.

I use a lot of jacketed hollow points in 9mm for my 9mm Lugers and also for my 357 Sig cartridges. The standard weight that I use is 124 grains.

I'd really like to come up with a donor case of some sort (perhaps even a 9mm Luger case), and back extrude that down, after trimming to a length, and form that into a projectile jacket.

I've been saving and saving and saving for this day, and since you are working on this, maybe now is the time. I'm sure I am in the same boat as others. Come up with a donor somehow ( I have tons of 223 rem, 5.7X28 FN, and 9mm, and also some 380 autos) to provide a "free" jacket (with some work). I'd buy that from you.

Again, my target weight is 124 grains, and I am a big fan of the BTX (which is similar to the FTX) style hollow point. This one would need a cannelure tool, especially for the 357 Sig loads, and my new Chuckbuster cannelure tool would be perfect for finishing these 9mm bullets.

So, any thoughts, Brian? Would love to jump in, onto your schedule list again.

[BT Sniper]

Good to here from you Duke, I'm sure you are enjoying FL weather but from the looks of it the Pacific Northwest has been a little warmer then what you guys are experiencing down there at the moment

I'll show how you can use the top part of a piece of scrap 223 rem brass to make the 124 grain 9mm bullets soon! then save the bottom half of that 223 for those making 375 cal bullets! Got to finish up a few more back orders first. Won't be too long


BT

[goblism]

Good to here from you Duke, I'm sure you are enjoying FL weather but from the looks of it the Pacific Northwest has been a little warmer then what you guys are experiencing down there at the moment

I'll show how you can use the top part of a piece of scrap 223 rem brass to make the 124 grain 9mm bullets soon! then save the bottom half of that 223 for those making 375 cal bullets! Got to finish up a few more back orders first. Won't be too long


BT

Could the bottom of a 223 cartridge be used for something like a 35 cal bullet as well?

[BT Sniper]

Yep!!

[plus1hdcp]

Looks great BT and I will be interested in how the 223 is formed

[monmouth]

Any way to size down a 9mm case to use for the donor jacket? I have tons (literally) of 9mm brass.

[BT Sniper]

Anything is possible and has been done before! just depends on how much labor you wish to go threw. Me? I like to pay 5 cents a piece for RCE 9mm jackets. That is $50 for 1,000 jackets! well worth the labor involved to draw and trim 9mm brass for jackets. I don't like to think of the effort to cut and draw 1,000 9mm case down to 9mm jackets. I've done it! and now $50 seems worth it. I even havy pneumatic and hydraulic presses and still...... but like I said, anything is possible and yes you can draw down 9mm, 223, and 32acp for 9mm jackets.

BT

[khamill2000]

I have a set of 9mm swaging dies that BT made for me a couple years ago as a prototype. They work perfectly. Also have a set of his draw dies to make 30 cal jackets from 9mm brass. I have found that taking the 9mm brass and running it through draw die #2 makes a perfect 9mm bullet jacket. Just trim to length.

[Virginia John]

BT, great looking bullet. You are making me reconsider swaging.

[xman777]

I have a ton of 223 blank cutoffs from making 300 BO will those work? Man I hope so...

[BT Sniper]

Anything is possible... the blanks do have more brass on top of them then a standard 223 but..... again it's just a labor of love at that point. I got some blanks too but.... maybe some day I'll give it a try but I know when the 223 is cut for 300 BO there isn't much of the larger diameter case left and that is really what is needed for the .355 jacket.

BT

[BT Sniper]

Put together a set of 9mm dies this evening. It has always been the challenge as to what commonly available materials could be used for 9mm jackets. Well..... it always has been and will continue to be that RCE llc. with his 5 cent jackets is by far the best choice when it comes to making 9mm bullets.

But for those of you that have the time there are a couple of options....... 3/8" copper tubing, sizing down 38ACP or 9mm (though I find it kind of strange to shoot the same brass out the end of your barrel that you loaded it into) and the cut off top of a scrap 223 case.

While still trying to do it economically and avoiding the high cost of a true copper tubing jacket making die I was able to put together tooling to close the base up till there was no more then a hole slightly larger then 1/8" diameter worth of exposed lead, certainly good enough for shooting purposes. I used to shoot hundreds of bullets constructed exactly like this out of my 44AMP pistol.

Using a 32 cal 93 grain core gave me the following final bullet weights.....

127 grains with copper tubing
110 with RCE llc jackets
108.5 with cut top of 223rem

Here are some pics.

127 grain copper tubing process




108.5 grain from 223rem process






the three bullets all next to each other





Good shooting and swage on!

BT

[DukeInFlorida]

So,
Brian,

Doesn't look all that difficult to further develop a 124 grain final weight from your die set.

When I look at your sequence:
108.5 grain from 223rem process

What I think I see is that you cut the top of the 223 brass off at the beginning of the neck shoulder transition. And, that you left some dimension of the body from there.

I'd really want to focus on 124 grain BTX/XTP weight, since that is ALL I shoot.

How are you feeling about making the brass cut off a little longer, and adding a slightly heavier core?
Will your die handle it?

I have a neat .311 (M1 carbine) mold that drops at 110 grains. Adding a slightly longer brass piece to that core weight should get me pretty close. I also have a .380 auto mold that drops at 105 grains. That might be a tighter (in the brass) fit.


If so, I'll jump immediately into the order list.

[BT Sniper]

Heavier bullet would be no problem. All I had was a 95 grain core which gave me a 108.5 grain bullet so jacket must have weighted around 13.5ish grains so...... your 110 grain mold plus a scrap 223 cut top should be perfect.

BT

[DukeInFlorida]

Back on this date, you had a couple of sets available.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...=1#post3248730

Was that an older design, that has now been further improved on?

Any of the new and improved design in stock, and ready for shipping?

[BT Sniper]

I got the BTSniper 9mm dies perfected (in my opinion) from the day I offered them this spring, as they where my latest offered dies in pistol cal I had all the time to perfect designs and techniques on previous calibers incorporating all I had learned into these 9mm dies. All I did to make the bullets pictured above was add a special punch to the core seat die to allow us to close up the end of a 223 to use for a jacket.

Amazingly enough I four point form dies in stock but no core seat dies. I will be machining new dies and sending a batch to nitride in the next 4-6 weeks. I expect to have the 9mm dies as well as may more available by Christmas.

Brian

[DukeInFlorida]

OK, then. Put me on the list. I will send a deposit check (or maybe PayPal) as soon as next month's Social Security payment gets dropped into the bank.

I'm all excited about this one. It's the capstone to my swaging sets. I will now have all the important ones (to me).....

Current sets include:
9MM > .40
.40 > .44
.40 > .45
.45 > .500
5.7X28 FN > .308

I'm doing my swaging on a modified Rock Chucker press with chuckbuster threaded ram, BT Sniper universal notching tool, BT Sniper universal eject structure, ALL BT Sniper die sets with threaded bottom punches, and lots of phone time with Brian, all his manuals, videos, etc.

[captain-03]

MAN -- this is interesting!! this could easily turn into a hobby inside a hobby!!