Making Jacketed Hollow Point .45 acp Bullets Using A Lee .243 Sizing And .40 S&W Bras

[Forrest r]

does Hornady still make a blank die set with the notcher? are you casting you own 148 grn. HB or are they store bought. i would like to make some of those. good job.
Rick

Yes hornady still makes a blank die set.

http://www.midsouthshooterssupply.co...et-Blank-Cart-

I cast my own 148gr hbwc's.

I do not size the 40s&w cases, I do use a 44spl/mag expander on them to make them bigger/closer to the .451 diameter.

I use the same 40s&w cases (untrimmed) for the 44spl/mag. Came up with an excellent bullet that's a real thumper.



Another bullet that's caveman simple to make. 115gr .355 9mm bullets from 223 brass. I need to take the time and see how many jackets I can get out of 1 piece of brass. With this initial test I didn't anneal anything, simply cut the the neck off & then measured .4" down from the shoulder line of the case where the neck meats the body of the case and cut it off there. Then I put a 32cal 98gr hbwc in that cutoff piece of 223case and ran it up a 223 fl die and formed the bullets shown below.



I'm thinking that if I anneal the 223 case I could cut a jacket, run what's left of the 223case back up in a press/fl die and reform the shoulder area of the case. Then cut another .4" off the newly formed case to use as another jacket. What is left of the cut down 223 case could be ran thru the same draw die I use to draw down 380acp and 9mm cases.
223 ='s .378
380acp ='s .374
9mm ='s .394

The end result should be two 9mm bullets and 1 38spl/357 bullet out of every piece of 223 brass. Some bullets I make for the 38spl/357's out of 9mm brass (175gr) and 380apc brass (150gr).



Good luck

[ncbearman]

^^^^^^^case conversion on steroids haha nice job!

[Rick459]

RCBS 225 grn RN in co-ax press

Bumping the nose for better alignment for hollow point punch

going into .243 F/l sizing die to form and hollow point

going int to lube sizer. i do not lube the bullet at this point i tumble lube them.

after sizing and next to R/N for comparision

another view

finished slugs

loaded in .45acp cases redy for testing using 4.5 grns. of 700X

if you notice the swaged slugs now have a increased bearing surface which in theory should make them more accurate will see tomorrow. HTH
Rick

[kcatto]

Those swaged lead bullets look great... dead simple. Are you are still under $20.00 total cost?

[Rick459]

Those swaged lead bullets look great... dead simple. Are you are still under $20.00 total cost?

yup.....

[Rick459]

any ways here are my first results shooting the swaged lead 225 grn lead bullets. distance is 25 yards shot off hand. load is 4.5 grns. of 700X. next time out i will chrno these loads. gun used is a Para Ordnance P-14

[Rick459]

here is an update on this ongoing project. so i was thinking to upgrade the Lee .243 F/L sizing die by getting a grade 8 bolt to fit the threaded top portion of the die. problem is that hole is 3/8" in diameter with a 27 thread per inch thread. good luck trying to find that size. i was about to give up when i found a old RCBS small base sizing die that i bought decades ago. so i pulled the de-capping rod out and measured the hole. it also is 3/8" in diameter but is 24 threads per inch. an easy bolt to find. so after buying one i drilled out the center of the bolt to fit the hollow point punch that i made. so far everything looks good. but what i found out is that no matter i much i screwed down the punch i could only get the bullet to bump to .451diameter. with lee die there were coming out at .453-454. and then i would have to size them down. not so with the RCBS die. next week i will try making some jacketed bullets using the .40S&W cases. notice the different in size and shape in the photo of the lee swaged bullet and the RCBS swaged bullet. more info to come. one more thing. the base punch is from the lee .457 push through sizer it"s a little too fat for the die so i took a small bit off of it with a file and sand paper. or you could make your own.

[Rick459]

ok here is a photo of the completed .243 F/L sizing die converted over to swage .45acp HP from RCBS 225 grain mould. the bolt that i used for the stop collar for the HP punch is a 3/8x24 number 5 grade bolt which so far is working ok. will test accuracy tomorrow. any one needing more information can PM me and i will give you my phone number. HTH

[Rick459]

ok here are the results of the groups shot with this swaged lead HP bullet. tape on target is because i ran out of targets so had to recycle used ones. first is with a load of 5.0 grns. of 452AA targets set at 25 yards using range finder. average speed over cronograph was 815fps. 5 shots in this group.

next is 6.5 CPP powder(comerical pistol powder) 25 yards 20 shots. speed over cronograph was 830fps.

so they group fairly well. next the dreaded water expansion test...stay tuned.

[plus1hdcp]

Absolutely love your innovative idea and results! How did you come up with using a 243 sizing die for your taper? I wasn't sure if you happened to have one around and decided to repurpose it. The reason for the question is I may try to do something similar for .357 and 9mm. I think the same die may work just as well for the small diameter. Thanks for sharing.

[jcren]

Haven't tried it, but a 223 die should be just right for 9mm

[jcren]

I can't claim this is my idea, cause I saw this somewhere before, but instead of the $100 hornady set to start a taper fold, ballistic products sells these to start the crimp on shotgun shells for about $30

[Rick459]

Absolutely love your innovative idea and results! How did you come up with using a 243 sizing die for your taper? I wasn't sure if you happened to have one around and decided to repurpose it. The reason for the question is I may try to do something similar for .357 and 9mm. I think the same die may work just as well for the small diameter. Thanks for sharing.

PLUS1HDCP,
i can"t take all the credit only the idea of making the hollow point punch to work with the .243 F/L sizing die. i got the idea for doing this from a guy on youtube named mannyca. he was making jacketed FP bullets using a .308 and .243 die using .40s&w cases for the jackets. i just took his idea another step. he makes 9mm and .357 using a .223 F/L sizing die. what i am trying to accomplish here is creating a swaged lead HP bullet that can be used for home defense with little or no leading, good accuracy, and reliable expansion. which is the next test. if you or others here want to try this use a RCBS die or any sizing die that the hole for the de-capping rod is threaded 3/8" x 24 threads per inch. as you can find the grade 5 bolts and nuts at home depot. the lee die uses a 3/8" x 27 threads per inch which is hard to find. if you have more questions PM me. HTH
Rick

[Rick459]

ok made a couple of jacketed HP bullets using the 148 grain wadcutter cast .38 bullets and .40 s&w cases. i noticed that forming the bullets were a lot easier using the RCBS small base .243 F/L sizing die than when using the lee die. also the RCBS die gives more of a taper at the nose. so if i can get these to shoot a decent group at 25 yards i might just stick with making jacketed bullets. more to come stay tune.

[kcatto]

those look awesome.... I cannot wait to hear how they perform... those are as good as any high dollar set of swaging dies....so what is your total cost to date?

[Rick459]

well being tha i had everything except for the two bolts $1.72 and the four nuts $0.75 so under three bucks and my time.

[Rick459]

ok i modified the HP punch by cutting a shoulder at the tip. now the hollow points are more uniform and i have to say other than being a truncated cone design they come out just as good as the bullets that i made with the CH4D swaging dies before i sold them. ran out of .40 s&w brass so i used some 10mm brass that i had no use for.

[EMC45]

Those look great Rick!

[Rick459]

thanks EMC45,
i hope this post helps those here that want to try swageing but don"t have a big budget to do so. my little contribution to the castboolit members here.
Rick

[kcatto]

once again, super nice.... now I can afford to configure swaging dies for all my calibers...