Question for bullet die makers

[MightyThor]

I have two old Hollywood bullet swage dies, one in 25 cal and one in 30 cal. Both dies swage bullets by squeezing the bullet between two halves that meet at or very near the ogive. When the two halves separate the bullet is in the bottom half of the die and is ejected by the down stroke with the ejector pressing on the base of the bullet. The top half of the die is essentially the point forming part only. I have used these dies a few times and results were good with no evidence of oddball parting lines etc. Why doesn't anyone use this style of die anymore? They would seem to be simpler to make.

[DukeInFlorida]

I promoted the stamp/swage style of lead bullet at Thompson Center a long time ago. Old man Center (Warren Center) would have none of it. They continue to hand cast to this day.

[MightyThor]

I have made both lead and jacked bullets with these dies and they perform well, My grandfather used them a lot and gave me ammo and my first rifle, a 257 Roberts on a Springfield action. I took many deer with the 25 cal without knowing that I was shooting his handmade bullets. I have been searching for a picture to post but can't find one at the moment. I will have to get to the home computer to get one up.

[Bent Ramrod]

Fred Huntington did an article in one of the early editions of "The Ultimate in Rifle Precision" about the making and using of RCBS bullet-swaging dies, which work on the same principle as the Hollywood dies. He said the first one was so easy to make that he figured this was a business he was just going to coin money out of. It took over a dozen tries to get a second usable die; the alignment of the halves and the internal shaping and polishing were a lot tougher to do than it looked at first.

In less than 10 years (IIRC) the RCBS emphasis was transferred to reloading dies and the bullet swage end of the business (except for the heavy, compound-linkage "O" press Fred designed for reloading or swaging) was dropped.

The RCBS/Hollywood die design where the core and jacket are swaged to final shape in one stroke was the best thing going for a few years, and bullets made from them won a lot of bench rest matches. But when Biehler and Astles developed the two-step swage process, which locked the core in the jacket with the first press then expanded the bullet up as the point was formed in the second press, the single pass swage die wasn't competitive any longer. It was a lot harder to get a consistent point to form in one operation when the rest of the bullet was being shaped at the same time.

If your Hollywood die sets show no parting line on the bullets, you are very fortunate. RCBS instructions said to punch the bullet up out of the bottom half of the die and run it through the bottom half again to iron out any parting line that might show.

[no34570]

MightyThor
I'd love to see a picture,when you find it,could you post one please?