Air Rifle HP slugs

[kimoleto]

Wish I had your hardware store nearby.... I´ll try with the spring steel and hope for the best

[clodhopper]

For larger punches, I use 1144 steel, Some of the old swagging material called it "stressproof".
Grade 5 bolts are very similar to 1144 steel.

I encourage you to use the material you can get. Is the 1080 spring steel straight, and hard. Or does it come to the factory on a spool?

[kimoleto]

Is straight and seems to be hard, they can sell me any lenght I want

[clodhopper]

I would try using it as is, with no heat treatment.

[kimoleto]

I got 2, 2.5 and 3 mm wire, one meter each, non hardened and straight; a little less than 6 dollars total.

[kimoleto]

After new spring steel pins (formed hollow cavity and extraction improved a lot) and some adjustments (mostly removing burs) Im within half a grain with 60 gr slugs. Excess lead now bleeds a lot easier... I have to re check for more details but its getting better

[kimoleto]

Consistent Slug weight is improving slowly I believe is the effect of me not always pressing even on the arm on every slug I made. Now my concern is related to the slug tip, sometimes is not well defined and looks ragged,



The one on top is perfect (I get some and then return to ragged tips), sorry for the bad quality of the photo, I´ve tried cleaning the die, using lanoline, vaseline, glycerine, different pins...nothing works. This pin is 0.100" (2.5 mm) and has one step to 0.070" (1.7mm). Corbin deals with the problem as the pin being to big (they ar .30 slugs) , I´m just in the recommended size. Any ideas?

[clodhopper]

I wonder if the voids could be lube build up in the die.
Does the nice, filled out point come right after cleaning the die?

Does your die have a bleed hole?

[kimoleto]

I get good ones very once in a while randomly, nothing special is done, die is clean, no lube no lead flakes or dust visible, bleed holes work ok. Cant find a clear culprit.

[kimoleto]

I turned down the ejector/hp pin, it was a 3 mm (0.120") down to 2.5 mm (0.100"), got much better results, I even tried down to 2.0 mm (0.080") but the lead flows through the ejector pin hole. Not yet perfect but a lot better. The ejection part of the pin is now 1.5 mm (0.060")

[clodhopper]

Now I'm wondering if your if the lead would rather go out the bleed hole than fill the nose.

The path of least resistance.

Maybe try warming up your die with a heat lamp, and your lead to 150 or so degrees F.

[kimoleto]

it goes there only when the pin is too small (<2.0 mm), pins with 2.5 mm diameter (+/- 0.100") were perfect.

[kimoleto]

Just tried two of my new slugs, cal .30 80 gr. The second one made a 3.7 cm hole in a block of clay, 10 cm deep. I was expecting the slug to break, it peeled like a banana but did not break, hope the cuts have to go almost all the way along the slug. The first slug failed and 2 of the arms peeled inside.... strange, the second did a lot better