Universial notch dies ready!

[Jailer]

You Guys AMAZE Me! Those are going to go BIG. That's the picture I was wating for! WOW! Seems I don't get as much time as I would like to play with these tools. It is sure nice to see the tools I have made can produse results like this.

Do post details! 45 cals correct? 40 S&W brass correct? Trimmed? Base looks like it swelled out nicly. What press? Total weight? Core size weight? Pure lead or alloy? Sequence you used in order to final result? Sorry for the 20 questions. I know they will come up again. A couple pics of the notched jacket before final swage? Man I can't wait to see a loaded round and the carnage from a recovered bullet should be impressive.

Better then a commercial bullet right there guys!

Swage ON!

BT

These are the .45 cal 2 step that I got from you. Brass is .40 range scrap trimmed to .688 in a Lyman case trimmer with a cordless drill attachment. Cores are 145 grain .40 cal mix of range scrap and wheel weights cast from a Lee mold. The brass was annealed on an old grill. Final weight after being swaged is around 212 grains.

It was all done in a Lee Classic Cast press with a longer stronger handle. For these I seated the core then notched and then swaged. It took a couple tries to get the notch right but they seem to have turned out quite nice. I think that these actually formed a little nicer than the regular hollow point. The notching operation actually pushes the top of the brass out a bit and brings the nose in. I think this makes it fill out the nose a bit better when you run it through the point form die. It could just be an optical illusion but the nose looks a little less tapered on these than it does on the plain hollow points.

You know I thought about taking a pic of a start to finish operation but it was going so good I just finished them all up. I have a buddy stopping over today to check out my setup so I'll get a pic of each step of the operation and post it up later.

[BT Sniper]

Thanks! I bet they will shoot and perform great!

For an even more finished look try bumping the nose slightly into the rounded punch that came with the die. Certainly not needed as your results look so good but it will bring the tip together just a bit more. Just a cosmetic thing. Fun to play with anyway.

Keep us posted.

Good shooting

BT

[MIBULLETS]

Looks great Jailer! This is exciting stuff.

[Jailer]

Here's another pic showing the progress from start to finish. From left to right is fired .40 brass, annealed and trimmed .40 brass with core inserted, 145 grain core, seated core, notched seated core, point formed, sized bullet and last is the finished product after tumbling to polish them up.

I run them through a Lee .451 sizing die since I ordered my dies from Brian to drop at .452 for my 454 and 450 bushmaster. You can see the faint line about mid way up where they are sized by the Lee die on the second one from the right. Once I run them through the sizing die I can use them in my 45's.

Don't pay any attention to the green you see on the bullets. My daughter was standing next to me when I took the picture and she was wearing a neon green soccer shirt and the reflection showed up in the pictures.

[mr mom]

im doing .44's but am i doing something wrong ???? im putting the core bullet in upside down . why are you putting them in the right way ??? should i be doing this diffrent ???

[Jailer]

im doing .44's but am i doing something wrong ???? im putting the core bullet in upside down . why are you putting them in the right way ??? should i be doing this diffrent ???

Do whatever works for you. I get better base expansion when I seat them right side up, that's why I do it the way I do.

[mold maker]

Santa came to my front door, by way of a mail Jeep, today. I couldn't wait to try out the notching die.
Sorry I don't have a camera, but take my word for it. They look just as good as factory XTP and they put a huge smile on my face. I may not be able to keep that Christmas Ham in my mouth with this grin.
Thanks BT.

[MIBULLETS]

Jailer, what do you use to seat your cores? I know the standard CH die seats the core outside of the brass but you are seating yours below the top of the jacket. I think I saw where some were using a expander die, just wondered if you were doing the same.

[BT Sniper]

I made him a special punch insert for the seating die to seat a core at perfect depth below jacket. I do this with all the 45 sets. Could also be done with a 40 cal swage base punch but I think this works a little better this way.

Looks great Jailer.

Yes the core can be seated up or down, some times it makes a difference. All gets squished.

BT

[runfiverun]

in the 44's
i like to seat mine upside down too,using a 158 rnfp boolit.
i'll be trying a swc and a full wad cutter boolit core
plus a heavier core weight with the flat nose.

i annealed the enire case on a bunch of mine and notched the noses, before then after swaging then swaged again. i am also getting 430 right on the money.
with 8.5 grs unique through the browning92 and win94 they would flatten the whole case to about 1/16th thick, at 50 yds losing the core b . [this is on hard packed dirt at about 1300 fps]
testing before using for hunting is gonna be mandatory.
i gotta figure out how to bond the case and the core.

brian: as soon as funds permit you'll be getting more work.
41,45 [need something 250-270 range], and of course the ejector.
and a 375 in the 220-250 range would be awesome too.

once you guy's figure out the process you'll like these dies.
my DW 44 was able to hold under 2"s at 50 yds with mixed cases
and me firing it, so these are working well

and if you take the time to sort cases and weigh your cores these will make some scary accurate bullets.
i haven't explored everything that these will do yet, but i have modified several cast boolit designs with them, annealed different lengths of the cases, tried dual alloys, and just plain had fun.
i am even considering buying a marlin as i know these will shoot through that type of bbl just fine.
every pop can at the range shivers when i come in now.

[Cowboy5780]

Never ceases to amaze me at the skill and ingenuity our members have at making things

[MakeMineA10mm]

Brian,
Just wanted to let you know I got my notching die. Haven't had time to open the box yet, but it's here! Can't wait for Monday, when I should have some time for loading projects...

[ReloaderFred]

I used my notch die yesterday and today with the dies I bought from MIBULLETS and the Hollywood Sr. press I bought from another forum member. They all came within a few days of each other, so I was able to get them all put together and make a couple hundred .44 bullets from .40 S&W cases today.

I experimented doing it several different ways and what I settled on was the annealed .40 case, an as cast 148 gr. .38 Wadcutter bullet, the CH-4D dies and the notching die. The process I finally settled on was seating the core in the core seating die, using a .41 caliber plug, with the case upside down. This seated the core all the way in the case and left the jacket mouth untouched.

I then ran the core seated case into the notching die, closing the case mouth all the way, as in making a shot shell or blank. Then I finished by running the notched case into the hollowpoint swaging die and they came out great. I seated a finished bullet into an unsized .44 Magnum case and determined the proper location for the cannelure and then applied the cannelure to all the finished bullets.

I had washed all the annealed cases in citric acid and tumbled them before starting, so when I was finished with the bullets, I just ran them through the tumbler again for about half an hour to remove the lube and restore the shine.

All my bullets came out of the die at .429", and 215 gr. +/- 2 grains. When I get a chance, I'll load some up and see how they shoot through my S&W 629 and the Marlin carbines. I've also got a Winchester Model 94 in .44 Magnum that's never really been a shooter, so I'll try them in that, too.

If I had a clue how to post pictures to a forum, I'd show the various steps I used, but I don't know the first thing about posting pictures. Sorry.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[BT Sniper]

Good to hear from you guys.

Mr. 10mm, I got your funds the day I sent your die out. Perfect timing!

Fred, Sounds like things are going great for you. WOW a 215 grain 44 from untrimmed 40 S&W brass jacket! I got to try that. That's a big acomplishment without having to trim the brass frist. If you can email me the pics I should be able to post them. BT_Sniper@hotmail.com

Keep us posted.

Good shooting!

BT

[ReloaderFred]

BT,

We've got a match today, so I'll try to take some pictures when we get back home this evening.

I didn't want to have to trim the brass, which is why I went the route I did. I found that crimping with the notch die, and completely closing the case mouth prior to swaging, gave me a better bullet. I was getting wrinkled jackets without using the core seating die first and without using the notch die first. The hollowpoint plug just rolls any excess jacket into the hollowpoint enough to make a great looking bullet.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[BT Sniper]

Can't wait to see it! Sounds cool!

[ReloaderFred]

BT,

I just sent you some pictures. If they come through, would you please post them for me.

Thanks,

Fred

[BT Sniper]

See next post!

BT

[BT Sniper]

Great work Fred! Here we can make any weight bullet we want using the notch die and standard untrimed brass.

Swage On guys!

BT

[BT Sniper]

Good looking set up you have there Fred. I like the blue box full of shiny new bullets.

Let us know how they perform.

Good shooting,

BT