Problems shooting my swaged bullets

[Wayne Smith]

I have been making 44 caliber bullets with my Herter's half jacket die and using 357SIG brass cut down and annealed as jackets. First let me say that accuracy with true half jacket bullets using this process is excellent, I just ran out of half jackets.

With my bullets using the SIG brass my accuracy was abysmal. I also had two cores come out of the jackets upon the recoil of other cartridges, leaving the jackets in the cartridge case. This tells me one problem is inadequate annealing. I thought that might be a problem when I loaded them as some loaded much easier than others. Obviously some of the brass wasn't expanding fully to .429" as I swaged them.

I also noticed that these bullets are extremely nose heavy. Since they were making round holes at 15yds I don't think this is as much a problem as I was imagining.

I need to cut some more brass down and more fully anneal them and make some more.

I am using my Lee .338 two cavity mold as my source for soft lead. I get a small tit out of the top of the bullet which is the bottom of my die showing that I have full volume. I'm getting a 294gr bullet.

[Reload3006]

you may have better luck with 40 s&w brass but no matter Clean is key . after you anneal your brass and have it trimmed up the way you want it. clean it and then clean it again same with your cores. I use MEK but others use other stuff. I use MEK because I want to make sure I have no oil on either my lead or jacket that might prevent adhesion. You shouldn't have any more problems after that. but its not imposable to have more lol Murphy seems to work with us all. But if you wanted to use a longer jacket that completely encapsulates the lead I have (for hunting boolits) use some plumbers flux and melt the core in the jacket and then core seat. If you do that however Be warned you must completely clean the bullet and the dies or you will have a rusty mess because of the salts in the flux
Good Luck
Happy Shootn

[BT Sniper]

For best results you need to reduce the diameter of the 357sig/40S&W case first. A lot of the time these cases expand beyond .430 when they where shot in the 357sig or 40 S&W cambered pistols. When you form your bullet the brass springs back (returns slightly to previous size, in this case bigger then .429) releasing it's grip on the core. Push the entire case threw a Lee factory crimp die or the 40 cal sizing die. This should bring the entire case down to around .425 then it will grip your cores better. Also make sure you FULLY anneal the case before swaging. This means apply dirrect flame till the entire case glows.

These two steps should improve your results.

BT

[Wayne Smith]

you may have better luck with 40 s&w brass but no matter Clean is key . after you anneal your brass and have it trimmed up the way you want it. clean it and then clean it again same with your cores. I use MEK but others use other stuff. I use MEK because I want to make sure I have no oil on either my lead or jacket that might prevent adhesion. You shouldn't have any more problems after that. but its not imposable to have more lol Murphy seems to work with us all. But if you wanted to use a longer jacket that completely encapsulates the lead I have (for hunting boolits) use some plumbers flux and melt the core in the jacket and then core seat. If you do that however Be warned you must completely clean the bullet and the dies or you will have a rusty mess because of the salts in the flux
Good Luck
Happy Shootn

Thanks for the advice and I'll remember it but, since these are half jacket dies with a very sharp shoulder it's a no go for full jacket.

Thanks for the advice in re cleaning - I did not do that. Oh, and the 357SIG and the 40 are the same case. The SIG is just a touch longer.

[Wayne Smith]

For best results you need to reduce the diameter of the 357sig/40S&W case first. A lot of the time these cases expand beyond .430 when they where shot in the 357sig or 40 S&W cambered pistols. When you form your bullet the brass springs back (returns slightly to previous size, in this case bigger then .429) releasing it's grip on the core. Push the entire case threw a Lee factory crimp die or the 40 cal sizing die. This should bring the entire case down to around .425 then it will grip your cores better. Also make sure you FULLY anneal the case before swaging. This means apply dirrect flame till the entire case glows.

These two steps should improve your results.

BT

Another die, another step!

[BT Sniper]

Cost of doing it right! Either way the sizing die or FCD is only around $25

BT

[Grandpas50AE]

As BT points out, you need to have the jacket start a little smaller than finished diameter. The swaging process is to expand the projectile with each step of the process so that the "spring-back" of the jacket material will increase its hold on the core. Also, it helps a lot to clean the jackets and the core just before the core seating step to ensure good adhesion between jacket and core. If you do the few things they have mentioned, your problem will go away.