No core seating for me.

[pillardrill]

I make my bullets in 1 pass with a tool I designed and which is so versatile it can reform fired bullets. No core seating and is very cheap to make and requires only a vise. I make .355/357 boolits out of .315" Cu tubing.

1. Cast lead into a section of soft copper tubing. Tubing is automatically annealed.

2. The lead filled tubing is cut using a regular pipe cutter. Mine has an adjustment to get a consistent length (read weight here).

3. A cut bit is placed inside the tool, and tool placed in the vise. The vise presses on the red and blue parts (2+ tons produces no wrinkles) forming the bullet.

4. Bullet nose and butt can be given any shape, including hollow point for the nose and boat tail for the base. The hollow point nose attachment is not shown.

The plunger is a snug fit inside the bore to prevent any material from squeezing between the plunger and the bore.



Awaiting your comments folks

[docone31]

That makes sense to me.
Many ways to skin a cat.
It looks like it might just work. I had tossed around the concept of a wire jacket, poured through in a mold, then swaged into final shape. The wire would be soldered to the inner core, the drawing in the die would keep it intact.
I paper patch instead.
Less work.

[elk hunter]

PD,

Interesting idea. I'd be a little concerned that unless you somehow closed the base at least a little bit there is the possibility of the pressure pushing the core out leaving the jacket inside the bore. I've never experienced that problem, but have seen it mentioned in print by someone, possibly Smith or Corbin can't remember. I don't know if it is a valid concern or not, but I remember the same thing being said about cutting the nose off military FMJ's to make soft points. I hope it works well for you.

[Red River Rick]

...... there is the possibility of the pressure pushing the core out leaving the jacket inside the bore. I've never experienced that problem, but have seen it mentioned in print by someone, possibly Smith or Corbin can't remember. I don't know if it is a valid concern or not, but I remember the same thing being said about cutting the nose off military FMJ's to make soft points. I hope it works well for you.

Very much a reality! Not a wise practice, you'll never know when it's going to happen..............until it happens. By then, it may be too late. Closing up the bottom of the jacket would be your best bet, but you'll need the dies to accomplish that.

FWIW.

RRR

[JohnM]

I think this is a very good concept, though I think I’d use two steps. Seating the core correctly is one of the most important steps in bullet swaging…

Using a vice I think is brilliant and should work with care.

Just another small point, I've looked around my workshop and believe my vise is the most important/useful tool I have brought.....


John

[shooterg]

OK, now show us some pics of the bullets !

[mac0083]

So you're casting lead directly into the soft tubing and then cutting it into small lengths and then push it into shape using a mold? This sounds incredibly easy. ( so simple, why didn't I think of this before?)

WE REALLY want to see pics of your setup. what do the nose and base of the bullets look like?

[pillardrill]

Hi folks,

Elk hunter - the core cannot leave the jacket since the front end closes onto the core. I have fired hundreds of these types of heads with hot loads and never had a separation in the barrel.

Mac - that is right. As a note you have to heat the tube to cast properly like a regular bullet mold.
The bullet head shape resembles a soft point since as the jacket closes towards the point the lead flows forward. I will post a pic of the hollow point process. Till now I have an ogive point and a spire point.
The base can be flat, concave or boat tailed depending on the plunger used.

Here are some of my firsts

[docone31]

Looks good to me.

[pillardrill]

Extreme hollow point bullet G Type

These heads are formed in one go. Base, point and hollow are formed at once. Hollow is of 1/4" diameter. These heads may present feed problems. To avoid fed problems a plastic Air Soft Ball (either hard or soft) is pressed into the cavity. Expansion occurs after only the first 30mm of sand.

[pillardrill]

The round showed is the before, attached is the after

A cross is cut in the slug prior to swaging. This weakens the jacket at set points. When the boolit hits the target it peels nicely at these points like an orange

[MightyThor]

Air soft pellet, brilliant! I knew there must be something useful to do with those damn things. Now If I can just get my wife to sort them out of the vacume.

[BT Sniper]

Good looking slug you recovered. I have also used the airsoft pellets in my bullets but have not fired any yet. I picked up the 6 grain 10mm BBs for my 44s and was able to form them to shape pretty easily. Your's look good. I have not seen the "soft" airpellets but will look into it a bit more. You obviusly must put them in before you squish them. Never mind I saw your attached diagram. Looks like after bullet is formed with HP you send it through again with the BB in a RN point form die. So which airsoft pellets are considered the soft ones?

How do you eject the bullet?

Nice work. Love this sight for everyone's new ideas.

BT

[pillardrill]

Sniper - that post was an excerpt from my notes. A friend of mine gave me a load of paint filled airsoft pellets. I saw a guy on u-tube using airsoft pellets to tip rifle rounds. Some are brittle and will crack if really skwished.

Ejection is pretty simple. Open the vise, insert a piece of tubing and press on the plunger. Bullet and point former are ejected from the die. You may need to eject the bullet from the point former if the point is acute or hollow point former is used, but ejection works the same way for this too.

[mac0083]

PILLARDRILL, did you make the die and punches yourself, or did you have them made?

[pillardrill]

Mac - I have a small machine shop and therefore I made them myself. The die is very simple to make. I had to make some attempts before I got the dimensions right between heat treatment and final machining and polishing.
The die body is left hard and to prevent the material from cracking I heat shrunk a mild steel tube around it.
I have another plunger design eliminates which any misalignment there might exist between the plunger and die.

[pillardrill]

You might noticed the taper on the inside of the die diagram I posted at the beginning of the thread. This is intended to recover fired bullets which may be a bit mangled. This die set up reforms them apart from making them.

A die just intended to make boolits would be even simpler to make. I just needed a load of bullets for test firing and could not be bothered if they shot straight or not nor if they looked good. Surprisingly recovered and reshaped boolits worked well even if they lost weight every time they were fired. Talk of the immortal boolit.

I forgot to mention that the plunger is also hardened.

I also spray the slugs with a light teflon based oil before squashing them, but the die works well even without lube. Bullet diameters are consistent.

[mac0083]

Hi Pillar,
I've been wondering about your boolits. Have you shot a bunch of them? If so, do they feed well? Accurate? Any copper fouling in the bore? Thanks

[pillardrill]

Hi Mac,

have you got my message?

Yes I have shot several of them. I even recovered the fired ones and swaged them back into shape and used them again.
They feed well with no problems, if the shape of the nose is interfering with the feeding just replace the die nose former. If you are referring to the hollow points I have had no problems even without the airsoft pellets in the hollow points. I just fit them to be sure, thus eliminating any possibility of feed problems and to improve the aerodynamics of the point.
I found them reasonably accurate even if so far I have only used them for gun test fires.
The boolits I have used so far have a larger bearing area than the regular 9mm and have left no discernible copper fouling in the bore. I have even fired .358" through a regular 9mm barrel with no problems.
There should be no reason why the boolit should be off center even If I have to section one to check. There are definitely no voids since the lead inside the copper tube is compressed. If the nose or tail are off center it is only due to to a poorly manufactured nose and plunger. I have run bollits on the lathe with a dial gauge and both nose and base were fine. The base is perpendicular to the boolit's side. This may be present if not enough pressure is applied.

Bottom line is I am happy with the result.

[mac0083]

Sorry Pillar, I didn't know you sent me a message, I just read it now! Thank you. I'll send you a message soon.