5.7 brass

[midnight]

R.Ph. 380: I got part numbers from a 2014 Sinclair catalog for the neck expander die body:

749-011-715SV-------------17 to 38 caliber

749-008-843SV--------------35 caliber and up to 50

Bob

[DukeInFlorida]

I had (and continue to have) great faith in BT Snipers ability to create a system for forming .308 bullets from 5.7 x 28 brass. I am very reluctant to share or show pictures of his system. I would, rather, urge you to BUY his system from him. It's well worth the expense to get a proven system, which works, right off the bat.

Sure, you can futz around, trying to create something that might work, but when you add up all your wasted time and energy, why bother? Brian will supply you with all the pieces and parts, and very complete instructions for how to use it, and will follow that up with amazing customer service. Brians system is designed for high volume production. I will, indeed, post a image of the huge pile of finished 150 grain bullets we made in short order last Friday. That's proof that his system is worth the money. I wouldn't even think about trying to make thousands and thousands of those high quality bullets any other way.

If any of you think that I have deep pockets, and that you can't afford what I can....... Think again. I'm on a fixed Social Security income. Nobody does things cheaper than I do. I analyzed the real cost of quality .308 bullets. And, when I factored in the cost of the BT Sniper system, the availability of 5.7 brass, and the man hours to convert the 5.7s to bullets, it was still cheaper than buying factory bullets. They are able, in our home made 300 blackout cases of hitting bulletin board push pins at 100 yards in off the rack AR rifles. And, produce enough volume to provide Pee Wee, our friend, Eddie, and I in bullets. It also makes my 168 grain bullets, with equal ease, for my M1A.

Anyways, that's my two cents.

[just bill]

You don't want to anneal them first, I have done that and when you try to expand the mouth they just collapse. Now you can lube each and every one inside and out to keep them from collapsing, which is what I had to do in order to save the 3000 that I was working on. (a pain in the buttocks) Duke in Florida bought the swagging dies for the 30 cal set up from BT Sniper so it has all of the dies included to do all the steps for swagging 30 cal. We have now made over 6000, we had a swagging party this past Friday at Duke in Florida's house and did 1800 in 5 hours. He took a photo of them and should be posting shortly.

This is the quote from Dukes post 3-24-16:


After annealing and cleaning the brass, we use a 5.7X28 shell holder in a Rockchucker press, and a neck expander that I got from BT Sniper, and we expand the necks to accept the swaged cores. The cores are at .243" as cast, and after swaging to weight are at .252", too large to fit into an un-expanded 5.7 X 28 FN normal neck.



I guess you revising the process a tad??.

[DukeInFlorida]

No, that is the process. The raw and swaged cores are too large in diameter to fit into a case that hasn't yet had its neck expanded.

[just bill]

I got a mandrel from BT sniper specifically for the 5.7x28. Have to be careful though, if you press it to deep in the brass, the brass can get stuck on the mandrel and require a propane torch to get it off. Really discolored my mandrel before I figured that one out.

Bill

What is the diameter? Just curious.
Bill

[runfiverun]

you don't need to support the case your just necking it up.
it doesn't have to be fancy just open enough to get the size down stem in it.

[BlackoutBuilder]

I am very reluctant to share or show pictures of his system. I would, rather, urge you to BUY his system from him.

Why not? Quality products and services deserve quality reviews. Besides, it's free advertising. I hesitate to buy anything, without checking reviews. Youtube videos of a good length, are almost a must.

[just bill]

My question is is the final size of the neck, .243 ???, because, my understanding is the core seating punch needs to be very close to the I.d. of the case/ jacket to seat the core, personally I like to keep from trimming jackets, just working on the various weights for each jacket lengths. I too am ffrugal, therefore I don't need a jacket trimming die.

[DukeInFlorida]

No need to trim the cases.

[just bill]

Boy, something is going on in the brass market, 3 out of 4 of the used brass sellers don't have 5.7 any more and the other said they can't keep 5.7 in stock. Hope there is some left when the next S. S. Check comes in.
Bill

[Pee Wee]

yes, Bill, its hard to find. takes a while to get the volume that we need to feed our Blackout and 308 Rifles.

[BlackoutBuilder]

Thats why I wanted 9mm instead. Couldnt find 5.7 anywhere.

[lead chucker]

I just got a good supply of 5.7 pretty easy to work with so far kind of like making bullets out of 22Lr cases with a couple more steps. I'm glad you guys here turned me on to them. A lot less time consuming than making bullets out of copper tubing.

[clodhopper]

The brass is free scrounging at my range. There is a few guys who do serious brass collection to help their retirement income.
I pay them 5 cents per case for 5.7s which is more than twice as much as any other local buyer will pay them.
I'm retired too, often any money in my pocket has a destination.
Sometimes it is inconvenient when the see me at the range and walk up with a bulging ziplock.
But I want the brass, the price is fair and I need to dig in my pocket and pay too keep em coming.

[Prospector Howard]

5.7 brass is very difficult to find around my area. People that say that it's easily available are peddling fiction IMHO. I've been on the lookout for it (reasonable for swaging) for 5+ years and no luck hardly at all.

[lead chucker]

I'm trying to point for some of these bullets from 5.7 brass and every one keeps getting stuck in my die or ejects really hard. I cleaned the die made sure they are all lubed. I annealed them in a kiln at 800 F. All my bullets from copper tubing pop right out. I suppose if you don't get all that coating off they will stick.

[clodhopper]

Leadchucker, I burn the polymer coating off.

Prospector Howard, you are right about quantity of 5.7, My scrounging and buying from the local guys has netted about two 32 oz coffee cans full in 2 1/2 years.

[just bill]

I called the gunshop with a range near me, they had no 5.7 brass and said they had 3 boxes on the shelf for a couple years. The new has worn off and the novelty is gone.
Bill

[lead chucker]

I burned it off but might not have cleaned them good enough. I'm working on a batch now and am going to let them tumble for at least 8 hours.

[Zbench]

Stainless Steel Pins are the best for this. Anneal, burn off the coating and then pin shine.