Forrest r
10-28-2014, 01:31 AM
Saw where hornady came out with a set of blank dies so I ordered/bought a set and they've been laying around for a couple months now. Finely made the time to start playing with them and came up with these for a 1st attempt at using them.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/blankclose_zpsfa35601d.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/blankclose_zpsfa35601d.jpg.html)
Those are nothing more than 380acp cases (untrimmed) and a mihec 32cal hbwc cast bullet for a core. I simply put the cast bullet in the case and ran that up in the hornady "notching" die to form the grooves in the lead/case. Then ran the up in a 222fl sizing die to form the nose. I put a cannalure on them because I'm going to run them hot (full house test loads of power pistol, 2400 & mp300) to test them in a 357mag.
They came out weighing 145g.
The next bullets to make/test will be 175/180g bullets using the same hornady/222 setup with nothing more than 9mm cases (untrimmed) and 125g cast 30cal bullets for cores. Depending on the bullets (cores) being used (3 different cast bullets) I should be able to swage them into 175g hp's, 180g fp's & 180g sp's.
Cheap/fast/simple
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/blank_zpse1c0b731.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/blank_zpse1c0b731.jpg.html)
Gotta love that high-tec bolt I made/used for tapping the swaged/finished bullets out of the 222 fl sizing die. Didn't want to mess up the hp.
On a side note:
The hornady blank dies have an 1/8" hole in the center of both of the case forming heads (6-point nothcing & round nose forming). Herter's dies use the same bolt/thread's as the hornady dies. I took the bolt/seating stem out of the herter's 222 fl die (it's shorter/2" long, than the hornady die/3"long) and drilled a 1/8" hole in the herter's seating bolt. After I ran the 380acp case/cast bullet combo up in the hornady notching die I pushed it back out with an 1/8" piece of rod.
Why the 222 fl die?
I have 3 different sets of swaging dies to make .357 bullets. But all of them make a strait walled bullet. I wanted to make/test a lllooooooonnnnnngggggg bodied swaged bullet that has a slight taper to it. If you look closely at the finished bullets you will see a smooth/shinny area just below the cannalure. That area of the bullet is .358, just above that to the top of the cannalure is .357 and above the cannalure to where the notches start is .356.
The tapered bullet should perform extremely well at max pressure/speeds. It has a .358" body for extra case tension, a cannalure for heavy crimps and a .356" nose that should center better/easier in the forcing cones of revolvers.
There's only 1 way to find out.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/blankclose_zpsfa35601d.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/blankclose_zpsfa35601d.jpg.html)
Those are nothing more than 380acp cases (untrimmed) and a mihec 32cal hbwc cast bullet for a core. I simply put the cast bullet in the case and ran that up in the hornady "notching" die to form the grooves in the lead/case. Then ran the up in a 222fl sizing die to form the nose. I put a cannalure on them because I'm going to run them hot (full house test loads of power pistol, 2400 & mp300) to test them in a 357mag.
They came out weighing 145g.
The next bullets to make/test will be 175/180g bullets using the same hornady/222 setup with nothing more than 9mm cases (untrimmed) and 125g cast 30cal bullets for cores. Depending on the bullets (cores) being used (3 different cast bullets) I should be able to swage them into 175g hp's, 180g fp's & 180g sp's.
Cheap/fast/simple
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/blank_zpse1c0b731.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/blank_zpse1c0b731.jpg.html)
Gotta love that high-tec bolt I made/used for tapping the swaged/finished bullets out of the 222 fl sizing die. Didn't want to mess up the hp.
On a side note:
The hornady blank dies have an 1/8" hole in the center of both of the case forming heads (6-point nothcing & round nose forming). Herter's dies use the same bolt/thread's as the hornady dies. I took the bolt/seating stem out of the herter's 222 fl die (it's shorter/2" long, than the hornady die/3"long) and drilled a 1/8" hole in the herter's seating bolt. After I ran the 380acp case/cast bullet combo up in the hornady notching die I pushed it back out with an 1/8" piece of rod.
Why the 222 fl die?
I have 3 different sets of swaging dies to make .357 bullets. But all of them make a strait walled bullet. I wanted to make/test a lllooooooonnnnnngggggg bodied swaged bullet that has a slight taper to it. If you look closely at the finished bullets you will see a smooth/shinny area just below the cannalure. That area of the bullet is .358, just above that to the top of the cannalure is .357 and above the cannalure to where the notches start is .356.
The tapered bullet should perform extremely well at max pressure/speeds. It has a .358" body for extra case tension, a cannalure for heavy crimps and a .356" nose that should center better/easier in the forcing cones of revolvers.
There's only 1 way to find out.