Looking For Swaging Help

[airforce1]

Good evening all. I'm having a bit of trouble with my first attempt at making some 30 bullets. I have a set of ch4d 30 Cal hollow point dies. I ordered some jackets from rce that have a length of 1.150. I followed the instructions that came with the dies and inserted the core seating punch into my press and screwed in the die and adjusted according to instructions. I cut a core and inserted it into the jackets. I inverted the jackets so the cup portion entered the die first. The core was below the lip of the jacket and I proceed to try to seat the core. After I ejected the round out of the die I noticed the open end of the jacket was crumpled. Being new to this I assumed the core seat punch was supposed to enter the jacket and seat the core. This did not happen as the core seat punch diameter did not match the inside diameter of the jacket. Needless to say I ruined a jacket. Perhaps I'm missing something here. I called ch4d and all he told me was to leave some lead above the jacket rim. If this is the case how do i controlled the weight of the finished bullet. Do I need to trim the jackets down ans if so how. Any help would be great. Also if any of you swage and live in the Las Vegas area I'd like to get together to learn more with someone that's been doing this awhile.

[Hickory]

Place the core&jacket on the pin before the core&jacket goes into the die.
If the pin is too big, you will have to get one to match the inside of the jacket.

[airforce1]

According to the ch4d guy the core swage punch is not supposed to go into the jacket. Got to admit I'm really confused. He said to leave about 1/32 of lead sticking out of the jacket and sewage it that way.

[plus1hdcp]

I am not familiar with the CH4D products but if they are similar to my setup, the core swage punch is used with the core swage die to bleed your cores to a uniform size. Then the cores are seated with a different punch and die. Maybe if you could add some pictures might add some clarity to offer further assistance.

[garandsrus]

Airforce1,

You need a different size punch for lead tip bullets where the seated core is above the edge of the case and a bullet where no lead sticks out, similar to a SMK. Wth the SMK type bullet, the core seating punch has to fit correctly inside the jacket at the depth where the lead core is seated. The inside of the jackets are slightly tapered, so you may need different punches for different weight cores. Too small a punch and lead will bleed around the punch. Too large and it will scrape the sides of the jacket and the bullet will stick to the punch.

A hollow point bullet will have lead above the jacket when the core is seated. The measurement the guy is giving you is after the core is seated in the jacket, not how much initially sticks out. Cut a heavier core and try again. After adjusting the core weight by cutting shorter/longer cores and seating them, the lead above the jacket will be the same diameter as the jacket and the height of the lead above the jacket will be correct. "Correct" is based on the weight bullet you are trying to make. You do need to match your jacket length to the bullet weight.

The result should be a jacketed cylinder with a thickness of lead at the top, the same diameter as the jacket.

You control the weight of the bullet by expanding a piece of lead with a "core squirt die" which allows excess lead to bleed out from a hole in the side of the die. You cant adjust the weight and seat the core at the same time, which is what you suggested .

What weight bullet are you trying to make?

Check out Corbins web site for a lot of information: http://www.corbins.com/csw.htm

[BT Sniper]

Just woke up but I got several answers for you.

Give me a few minutes

BT

[Prospector Howard]

Garandsrus and Hickory are right. You answered your own question. The core seat punch should be just small enough to enter the jacket but not too small or the lead will squish around it. Also the lead core should be seated a little way in (by adjusting the core weight) so there's room when point forming for it come back up inside the jacket to or near the top.

[BT Sniper]

Long story short. CH-4d designed their dies to ONLY make lead tip bullets. So when they seat a core there is ALWAYS exposed lead on the top of the jacket. They use a concaved shaped base punch that is same diameter as the jacket to seat the cores. This punch has a bleed hole in it. This is how they controlled the weight of their bullets. Their design does NOT allow for making bullets of traditional style unless you modify the design of their dies with custom base punches and internal parts as I have been doing for a long time. Their design works if you only wish to make lead tip bullets but I always wanted the option to do both.

I'll be providing necessary base punch to OP to allow him to seat the core below the mouth of the jacket and make a bullet without an exposed lead tip.

BT

[Prospector Howard]

Aha. AF1 said they were hollow point dies. CH4D doesn't even make dies for hollow point then. Interesting.

[airforce1]

Thank you all for your comments. I spoke with bt sniper on the phone today and discussed the issue. When you purchase the dies you had a choice of soft point or hollow point. Apparently its not the typical hollow point we are all used to where there is no lead exposed. To control weight with this die set I need to trim the jacket somehow and cut the core a smidgen longer than the jacket. I guess the learning curve will be a bit steeper than expected. Again thanks for your help and have a good weekend.