MakeMineA10mm
01-18-2011, 01:03 AM
Just to bring everyone up to speed, I got my One-Step die from Brian a few months ago, and after muddling through the annealing process and seating some cores, I found that my plain cores were a little light for the full-length brass:
(My bullet is on the right - on the left is a sample bullet from Brian)
http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=404&pictureid=2758
I also figured out that adding a couple-three pieces of #7.5 shot in the bottom before seating the core, brought the lead up just above the jacket mouth.
http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=404&pictureid=2773
Satisfying, but I still wanted more. I felt a little more work/tools and it could become something more. Well, apparently, Brian was a few steps ahead of me... :grin:
He came out with his Universal Notching Die, which I got in December, but didn't get a chance to play with until recently. In the mean time, I kind-of got my second wind, and decided to experiment some more, especially with the notching die. Brian included two stems with my notching die - one is the notcher and the other is a dome-shaped stem that can be used to round-over the tip of a swaged bullet. I decided to experiment with the dome-punch first, and using those bullets with a touch of jacket extending beyond the core (maybe 1/32" or slightly more) were run through. Here's what I got:
http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=404&pictureid=3161
I look at these as kind of a protected-point JHP-RN for pistols. I immediately thought of Brian and his Automag. I think these might be THE bullet for an autoloader in 44 Mag!! Brian, you should try this combination, buddy! I'm thinking these will be the cat's meow in that blaster!
So, I decided to play with the notching stem in the Universal Die. First attempts were rather ugly...
http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=404&pictureid=3167
(The best part of these "mistakes" is that they'll still shoot just fine!!! :lol: )
Then, I started questioning if I was having trouble due to the cores sitting so far below the jacket mouth... I only had a few bullets that I had made that I added the shot to, but I figured this is my educational/experimental stage still, right? I played with them, and quite frankly, I like ALL of these variations!!
http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=404&pictureid=3168
On the left is the bullet I started with. The next one was run through the notching die, and then barely re-ran through the one-step die to get the nose back to round and tapered properly. The third one was the same thing, but I ran it back in the one-step die all the way. The one on the far right was the same as the third one, but I then re-ran it into the Universal Die with the dome-stem inserted. It came our rather interesting... Sort of a notched Jacketed Hollow Soft-Point...
One of the things I did because I had so few of these longer-core bullets is that I started with them by barely running them into the dies and then going progressively deeper in stages. This got me some good success, but it also taught me something...
I learned that it was NOT necesarry to run bullets as far into the dies as necessary. Sometimes less is more. This dawning on me led me back to trying the JHPs with the short-cores. I think I struck pay-dirt!!
http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=404&pictureid=3163
I think I'm going to call these "Gold Talons" (a knock off of the old Win. Black Talons with our brass jackets being shinier/prettier/less-Darth Vader-looking! :D )
To make these, I ran those short-core bullets into my notching die with the notching stem set pretty agressively (deep notches). One must be careful with this, because you can buckle and compress (telescope) the jacket/bullet. Depend on ruining one or two bullets to get the depth adjustment just right...
Once notched, I ran them through the one-step die to get everything rounded-up again and to get the nose curved in. Now, right there, I was pretty pleased with that bullet. (Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics of one at that stage -- got excited and ran them all through the next step...) Got to thinking, and decided that if I used that Dome-shaped stem in the Universal Die and just kissed the mouth of the bullet, that would give me a double-radius and really clean up the mouth where that jacket with no core underneath was at. Well, that's where I ended up, and I'm pretty happy with the way these look!
http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=404&pictureid=3164
I have noticed a couple things in using the universal die. The notcher and dome are "universal". You can use them for any caliber from probably .600" down to .224" (maybe smaller?), BUT this also means that the even-ness of the cut (for the notcher) or the round-over (for the dome) can get off-center, depending on how the stem interacts with the bullet (and probably how your press' ram aligns with the dies or even how deep you push in the bullet on the shell-holder). Caliber-specific would make a more-even product, but for the price and flexibility of this "Universal" die, I'm not unhappy AT ALL!
Another thing I thought of is that it would be cool to have another stem for that universal die that is a straight-taper to give a Truncated Cone shape. I was thinking something along the lines of the shape of the Lyman 356402 bullet, but make it just like the dome-stem, where it will work on anything from .600" down to .224". That way, it could be used to put a TC shape on any caliber bullet. I've shot Brian a PM and asked him for one, so we shall see!!
As you can see, I also ran these all through the citric-acid bath and polisher again. Got the jackets/bullets looking pretty, but it left the lead cores black...
Also, you can see I solved my issue with the cannelure tool. It was a couple things, but MAINLY, it just took messing with it and trying some bullets on it! What I figured out, rather quickly, was that I needed to apply the pressure pretty strongly down on the handle, and also inward, to keep the bullet back against the length adjustment stop. But, the BIGGEST thing that helped give me a perfect cannelure was to go around ONLY ONCE, which amounts to a little over half a revolution with the turning handle on my C-H tool. Going around over and over causes the bullet to start to run back and forth and makes the cannelure "run" and and not stay right where it's supposed to be. So go around ONCE (~ half a turn of the handle) and leave it at that!
(My bullet is on the right - on the left is a sample bullet from Brian)
http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=404&pictureid=2758
I also figured out that adding a couple-three pieces of #7.5 shot in the bottom before seating the core, brought the lead up just above the jacket mouth.
http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=404&pictureid=2773
Satisfying, but I still wanted more. I felt a little more work/tools and it could become something more. Well, apparently, Brian was a few steps ahead of me... :grin:
He came out with his Universal Notching Die, which I got in December, but didn't get a chance to play with until recently. In the mean time, I kind-of got my second wind, and decided to experiment some more, especially with the notching die. Brian included two stems with my notching die - one is the notcher and the other is a dome-shaped stem that can be used to round-over the tip of a swaged bullet. I decided to experiment with the dome-punch first, and using those bullets with a touch of jacket extending beyond the core (maybe 1/32" or slightly more) were run through. Here's what I got:
http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=404&pictureid=3161
I look at these as kind of a protected-point JHP-RN for pistols. I immediately thought of Brian and his Automag. I think these might be THE bullet for an autoloader in 44 Mag!! Brian, you should try this combination, buddy! I'm thinking these will be the cat's meow in that blaster!
So, I decided to play with the notching stem in the Universal Die. First attempts were rather ugly...
http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=404&pictureid=3167
(The best part of these "mistakes" is that they'll still shoot just fine!!! :lol: )
Then, I started questioning if I was having trouble due to the cores sitting so far below the jacket mouth... I only had a few bullets that I had made that I added the shot to, but I figured this is my educational/experimental stage still, right? I played with them, and quite frankly, I like ALL of these variations!!
http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=404&pictureid=3168
On the left is the bullet I started with. The next one was run through the notching die, and then barely re-ran through the one-step die to get the nose back to round and tapered properly. The third one was the same thing, but I ran it back in the one-step die all the way. The one on the far right was the same as the third one, but I then re-ran it into the Universal Die with the dome-stem inserted. It came our rather interesting... Sort of a notched Jacketed Hollow Soft-Point...
One of the things I did because I had so few of these longer-core bullets is that I started with them by barely running them into the dies and then going progressively deeper in stages. This got me some good success, but it also taught me something...
I learned that it was NOT necesarry to run bullets as far into the dies as necessary. Sometimes less is more. This dawning on me led me back to trying the JHPs with the short-cores. I think I struck pay-dirt!!
http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=404&pictureid=3163
I think I'm going to call these "Gold Talons" (a knock off of the old Win. Black Talons with our brass jackets being shinier/prettier/less-Darth Vader-looking! :D )
To make these, I ran those short-core bullets into my notching die with the notching stem set pretty agressively (deep notches). One must be careful with this, because you can buckle and compress (telescope) the jacket/bullet. Depend on ruining one or two bullets to get the depth adjustment just right...
Once notched, I ran them through the one-step die to get everything rounded-up again and to get the nose curved in. Now, right there, I was pretty pleased with that bullet. (Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics of one at that stage -- got excited and ran them all through the next step...) Got to thinking, and decided that if I used that Dome-shaped stem in the Universal Die and just kissed the mouth of the bullet, that would give me a double-radius and really clean up the mouth where that jacket with no core underneath was at. Well, that's where I ended up, and I'm pretty happy with the way these look!
http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=404&pictureid=3164
I have noticed a couple things in using the universal die. The notcher and dome are "universal". You can use them for any caliber from probably .600" down to .224" (maybe smaller?), BUT this also means that the even-ness of the cut (for the notcher) or the round-over (for the dome) can get off-center, depending on how the stem interacts with the bullet (and probably how your press' ram aligns with the dies or even how deep you push in the bullet on the shell-holder). Caliber-specific would make a more-even product, but for the price and flexibility of this "Universal" die, I'm not unhappy AT ALL!
Another thing I thought of is that it would be cool to have another stem for that universal die that is a straight-taper to give a Truncated Cone shape. I was thinking something along the lines of the shape of the Lyman 356402 bullet, but make it just like the dome-stem, where it will work on anything from .600" down to .224". That way, it could be used to put a TC shape on any caliber bullet. I've shot Brian a PM and asked him for one, so we shall see!!
As you can see, I also ran these all through the citric-acid bath and polisher again. Got the jackets/bullets looking pretty, but it left the lead cores black...
Also, you can see I solved my issue with the cannelure tool. It was a couple things, but MAINLY, it just took messing with it and trying some bullets on it! What I figured out, rather quickly, was that I needed to apply the pressure pretty strongly down on the handle, and also inward, to keep the bullet back against the length adjustment stop. But, the BIGGEST thing that helped give me a perfect cannelure was to go around ONLY ONCE, which amounts to a little over half a revolution with the turning handle on my C-H tool. Going around over and over causes the bullet to start to run back and forth and makes the cannelure "run" and and not stay right where it's supposed to be. So go around ONCE (~ half a turn of the handle) and leave it at that!