Today's Lesson Learned in Newbie Swaging

[mckenziedrums]

I read everything I could read before swaging that first bullet... Swore I'd never be that guy with the bullet stuck in the pointing die. (I'm sure I'm not the only one that promised themselves that right? ) Well as they say, the best laid plans...

Last week I attempted to make a punch work that was a bit too small for the jacket. We're talking fractionally too small. .210 would be ideal... this might have been .2095 or maybe a touch less. Learned that a punch that lets just a sliver of lead squeeze by can cause the jacket to snap with a nice loud snap and a pretty clean cut. Who needs that fancy J4 jacket anyways right? Well a few of them looked OK so I proceeded to attempt to point them. These were boat tailed 10s 6mm bullets btw... As I'm learning the pointier ones are a bit more problematic in the pointing die. What I should have done was melt the lead out to the ones where the jackets didn't snap and been smart. Instead I wanted to make some boat tails for the first time so I proceeded to attempt to do so. After a few successful ones I had one where the jacket apparently had been damaged when seating the core because on extraction the jacket separated and remained in the die. D'oh!! Tried a few times to put more lube in, push it down further, etc... Failed to accomplish anything useful so I sent back to RCE to let someone that knew what they were doing remove it.

Yesterday I got the die back in the mail along with a set of punches. Woohoo, back in business! I take 20 soon-to-be bullets and get to work. Point up bullet number 1 and it's beautiful, best one I've made yet. Heck yea I've got this swaging thing down! Bullet number 2... Point it up... go to extract.... oh no I can feel the ejection pin going into the bullet... and yep there it goes out the top... Managed to get the core out but of course the jacket remained. This time, entirely me to blame. I'd had some wrinkled bullets before and was trying to find the minimum amount of lube needed. Guess what? I found out how much is too little! Stepped away from the press last night and went back this morning. Put a dab of lube in the die, put a lead core in there... add pressure until you're sure it's closed up the tip... and say a little prayer before lifting up on the handle... Yay! Out comes most of a jacket with some lead crammed in it. There was much rejoicing! I'd have waited a few weeks to send it back to RCE again out of sheer embarrassment.

Ok so maybe you don't perfect this bullet making thing in a week or two.

[BT Sniper]

Yep, it just takes a little practice. Not something you can learn necessarily in a day as there is a little bit of a learning curve.

"Stepped away from the press last night and went back this morning."

That was the best thing you could have done! I advise all my customers when things get frustrating to "step away" and take a break, when you come back things tend to just magically fix themselves. I know this first hand as I had an extreme amount of frustration in developing my products and specifically a quality point form die.


Good to hear your back in business. Sounds like you might be applying a bit too much pressure during core seating, once the lead starts to flow around the pin and the jacket swells out to diameter you are good. There are other signs to look for too in proper core seating, regarding jacket length and a faint shinny line around the outside of the jacket at the top of the lead level. I bet you will remember that loud pop/snap for a long time, first time that happens you think you broke something, nope, just used too much pressure in seating the core.


There are those that have stuck a bullet in the point form die and there are those that will. Keep that mangled bullet on your bench as a reminder to use a little more lube next time

Good shooting and swage on!

BT

[mckenziedrums]

Hey BT,

I'm not so sure it was too much pressure... I made it a point to go easy on it and since I was forming a boat tail there was obviously a certain amount of pressure I had to use. Richard was the one that clued me in on the fact that the punch was probably just a tiny tiny bit undersized. Heck I made it a point to go slow as I was forming the boat tail and try to exert the bare minimum of pressure needed to do it. You're right though... I certainly know that SNAP sound now!

I've been slack and need to grab a Lee press so I can put those 45 dies to use!

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

I seat cores JUST a bit past the point where the core stays in the jacket. It really doesn't take a lot of pressure to seat cores for flat based bullets...especially if using dead soft lead.

[mckenziedrums]

Yea the flat based bullets... easy stuff... The rebated boat tail is going to be a bit of a learning curve. Thank you for all your help along the way!!

[BT Sniper]

Yep boat tails...... there is the fine line between adding enough pressure to get a good boat tail and not so much you pop the jacket.

You'll get it!

BT

[bullet maker 57]

Been there, done that a few times. Walk away is the best thing to do before frustration sets in.

[JRPVT]

Yes, walking away is the ideal fix. As far as the learning curve goes on the rebated boat tails, you should be able to leave your punch where it is when switching from the BT1 die to the BT2 die. It's supposed to be calculated into the dies. That way you don't overpressure them. Dave

[R.Ph. 380]

I have the best way ever to approach the Boat tail die, I just don't. The flat base is good enough for me. It takes a good man to know his limits................................hehehe