At last a Boat Tail (sort of)

[DAVE A]

Hello all I just thought I,d take this opportunity to share some of my experience trying to make a boat tail bullet
A while ago I managed to break one of my dies needed to preform the boat tail so I attempted to make a jacket with the BT already formed,this failed so I went with plan B which was to make a new die ,I converted a point form die I was making and I was quite pleased with the result,it's not perfect but at least now I can make a rebated boat tail bullethttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/07/19/yma4uhup.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/07/19/e3yre6a4.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/07/19/je4edere.jpg
I've also been working improving my jacket making dies and I am now able to make a very concentric jackethttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/07/19/uja5abup.jpg
The main die body and punch guide are made in one and a hardened and ground bush is inserted to form the jacket ,the jacket is (loaded ) into the side of the die and the punch never leaves the guide during the drawing process ,I am very happy with the jackets I am making now and the only problem I have is that I just cannot get hold of any 95/5 gilding metal and I'm having to use pure copper but if fouling becomes a problem I may use HBN or Moly
A word of warning ,if you use stainless pins be very careful to check everything http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/07/19/py9abapa.jpghttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/07/19/yzejy9ur.jpg and in a battle between a copper jacket and a waste disposal unit there is only one winner http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/07/19/a5esetu5.jpg

[Prospector Howard]

Nice work. I haven't gone down that road yet of making jackets by drawing them like that. A project for the future if scrap brass cases get expensive and hard to find. Really nice looking bullet and jackets.

[DAVE A]

Thank you, I just hope they shoot like they look.

[R.Ph. 380]

Quite a novel idea, to use a waste disposal in your swaging attempts. Think I would avoid that one though. ......hehehe

Nice looking work.

[aaronraad]

I do like that punch guide set-up Dave!

How do you go getting the punch guide to work with an internal taper wall jacket design, or are your jackets straight/parallel walled?

Where did the preformed BT jacket go wrong? The other alternative I know of is to preform the boat-tail on the jacket in core seating die with a tapered punch (ala Bob Simonson style) before seating the core obviously.

I've just about removed the rebate from the boat-tail with my 7mm and 30cal designs, but ideally a preformed boat-tail jacket is on my preferred list for accuracy results.

Great pictures too...looking very D46 there all be it OTM and 155gr(?) instead of FMJ and 185gr.:drinks:

[DAVE A]

Quite a novel idea, to use a waste disposal in your swaging attempts. Think I would avoid that one though. ......hehehe

Nice looking work.
I think you are right, the surface finish isn't quite what I was going for .

[DAVE A]

I do like that punch guide set-up Dave!

How do you go getting the punch guide to work with an internal taper wall jacket design, or are your jackets straight/parallel walled?

Where did the preformed BT jacket go wrong? The other alternative I know of is to preform the boat-tail on the jacket in core seating die with a tapered punch (ala Bob Simonson style) before seating the core obviously.

I've just about removed the rebate from the boat-tail with my 7mm and 30cal designs, but ideally a preformed boat-tail jacket is on my preferred list for accuracy results.

Great pictures too...looking very D46 there all be it OTM and 155gr(?) instead of FMJ and 185gr.:drinks:
The first punch is straight walled the second has a slight taper,the jacket sits in a (nest) just before the actual draw die so the punch is lined up well before it touches the jacket and the last punch is tapered .26 to .276 over 1.25" less any material removed by polishing ,this gives me just the right ID for the .265 core seating punch I have, this also nests just before the draw die and the punch lines up long before it touches the jacket.
I haven't completely given up on the idea of a preformed BT but one of my big problems is with trimming the jackets ,my pinch trim die was flattening the base of the jackets and I have had to mill a concave into the bottom punch to maintain the shape of the jacket and if the jacket had a BT then the punch would also have to have a BT .
The bullets I made this time are 176gr but I trimmed the jackets a bit too long at 1.266" which is just about on the limits of my press and dies so yesterday I tapped a grub screw into the adjustable punch and it is now set at 1.2"
The bullet I am trying to match is the 167gr Lapua Scenar and the next step will be to machine some punches without the rebate I just have to get the reamer right.
Iv'e read a lot of the debates about rebated verses conventional BT and I think the general conclusion is that there is not much difference between the two so for now I am going to concentrate on getting best consistency out of what I have and hopefully I will be able to post pictures of some very small holes soon.