A few questions

[Plinkster]

I've been reading with great interest on the topic of swaging brass cases into bullets, mostly for .40 & .223. I am planning to make dies for each of these calibers and possibly a third set for my .35 Whelen. Question 1: has anyone tried de capping the case to be used as a jacket and then using the flash hole as a squirt orifice? Seems like it would work and save the trouble of machining one into the die itself. Question 2: how much material is recommended to leave in the die cavity between reaming and finish lapping after heat treat? Question 3: would a lead lap work for finishing the cavity or what is the preferred material?

[MightyThor]

In most instances the only squirt that you have is when you form the core itself. It is preferable to form the Core to a specific size and weight and then seat it in the jacket. If you placed a core in the jacket and then tried to seat and form it to a specific weight at the same time you will have a lot of issues trying to get your punch to seal tightly inside the jacket so that the force pushes lead out the flash hole and not out around the punch instead. This is partly because the Seating process usually expands the core and jacket to nearly bullet size so a punch that seats the core becomes too small to effectively seal against the jacket to squirt lead out the hole. I won't say it can't be done, but I doubt you can get the same level of uniformity that we achieve by shaping the core by itself in a "squirt" die.

[Plinkster]

Thanks that was just the type of info I was looking for, there is usually a very good reason for most of my "innovative" ideas not working. As an experiment after I get my .40 die made I may try making a 2nd punch with a small hole in the top that corresponds with the primer hole just to see if it works. I suspect you are right on the money though. My armchair engineered plan was to make a calibrated dipper from an old case to pour pure lead into the "jacket" case and then swage in one operation, perhaps using the flash hole as a squirt to get better consistency. One way to see if it works I suppose, punches are quick to make at least.

[BT Sniper]

A bit late for me but I can say anything is possible though some things might not be reccomended.

Typically I am using wheel weight cores and they don't flow as easily which in some cases helps me for the bullet. When pure soft lead is used I can get a little bleed from the flash hole in teh primer pocket but it didn't see like a good way to regulate weights to me.

Matter of fact I had the same thoughts and thories about trying to maintain weight as close as possible with my pistol bullets. I did everything! weight sorted cases and cores, trickeled lead powder, added shot, even tried the dipping technique you mention. After making severial thousand by weight sorting everything I came to one conclusion..... when it is bullets intended for me to shoot I don't sort anything! Cast a 120 grain core and form the 40 cal bullet in a 9mm piece of brass. YOu will be supprised at how close the bullets come out anyway. Sure I had to learn the hard way and spend time sorting and weighting, didn't take to long but now..... just cast, swage, load and go!

It gets to detailed and complicated to sort that much. Brass will varry by 10 grains from the same maker, yoru cores will be pretty good if you are only slightly good at casting and at most may varry by 3 grains but typically be very close so you have thousands of cores within say 1-2 grains and thousands of brass that can varry by up to 10 grains........... well it all depends on how much time you want to spend. I still have pages of graphs to match weigths to get deisred finished bullet weight but in the end I skip it all. Don't really notice it on ths targets at pistol ranges for most shooting needs either.


As far as the "dip" method of pooring hot lead in the case.......well if your anything like me you will have to try it to find out for yourself, won't matter what anyone says. I tryed it......it is very difficult, I'll say that much. The lead sticks to the dipper, doesn't poor well, doesn't regulate weight well, and is not any fun to have severial hot cases of molten lead laying around waiting to cool.

I still think simply casting the core and going from there is teh easiest and best method, If you want to bond teh core melt it after you drop teh cold lead core in the case.

Above all else have fun and be safe, Anything is possible, all you got to do is figure out what works for you.

Good to see another fellow Oregonian.

Good shooting and Swage On!

BT

[runfiverun]

trying all that is pretty pointless.
weight sorting is a lot quicker.
and if you find something out by a couple of grains then pull it from the batch.
the only way all that work is gonna pay off is with commecial match jaxkets, then you can squirt die the cores.
but it's for a pistol that slides back and forth, it ain't ever gonna know the difference.

[DukeInFlorida]

Handgun shooting is one thing. I haven't ever sorted any of that, and because the ranges are typically closer, never see any difference in accuracy from one bullet to another. All loads are better than the ability of the shooter to shoot them.

Rifle shooting is another matter. My primary rifle swaging will be for the AR15, and those are made from brass with no primer hole. So, the core making has to be different there.

[runfiverun]

for the 22's you can adjust the core mold or core swage.
i have done it both ways making slightly oversized core for the jackets that take a couple of grains more lead and then run them through the squirt die for the ones needing lighter cores.
[cci versus federal]
otherwise i have to switch the core die back and forth and remember what i was making last time or weigh some [pita]

[Plinkster]

Thanks for the info guys, it pretty well confirms what I had expected. If it worked well I would've seen a write up on it I'm sure. BT's new wildcat .400 BT Mag had me thinking about using a short magnum case and a .40 cal bullet as I like my projectiles on the fat side mostly. That lead to producing more accurate weight bullets and you get the point. Anyway what about finish lapping die bodies? I will be making them from H13 and I was curious how much meat to leave in the cavity for final lapping and what type of lap has been used with good success. My first thought was to swage a bullet and use that as the lap and progress until I get the desired size. Is that about right? I've got a wheeler lapping compound kit with 220, 320, and 600 grit iirc. Any suggestions? Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction!