Found an old CH Swagamatic

[kawalekm]

Was at a gun show this weekend and saw a bullet swager. It turned out to be an old CH Swagamatic with 357 hollow point dies. The guy sold it to me with the dies and 1000 copper jackets (the plastic bags on the left) for 70$ all together. At the left-hand base of the press is one of the jackets and one of my cast cores. Before I try it though I thought I'd do two things. First, I'll totally disassemble it and thoroughly clean it (maybe spray paint the bare frame); and secondly, determine which core weight will give me bullet that just fills the jacket up to the top without any lead touching the bore. I can then compare how these bullets perform compared to those make in my 101 dies. Thought it would be fun to try making bullets like in the olden days. Yeah, as compared to casting!
Michael

[beagle]

Just don't put too much pressure on the handle of the Sawge-O-Matic. I busted one one time using core that were too hard.

The brochure for the Swage-O-Matic is on Castpics as well as I recall if you need it...or I have it here somewhere.

The SOM is great for HPing sized and lubed .38s.

Good score./beagle

[kawalekm]

Hi Beagle
I didn't find "Castpics". Is it a website, or a section of this board? I'd like to check out the manual.
Thanks,
Michael

[Nueces]

Scroll to the bottom of this page, under Shootin' Links - thar she be.

Mark

[kawalekm]

Well, I got it disassembled, cleaned, and then I spraypainted the bare frame a nice Lyman orange. Got it back together last night and swaged my first bullet with it. The jackets that came with it are quite long, so with the cores I have, the bullets came out weighing about 175 grains. That weight just fills the jacket up to the start of truncation (SWC ogive) so I get a jacketed hollowpoint with no bore-riding lead. It is a very purdy looking bullet. I think I'll section one down the middle to see how well the core/jacket fit is. Once I find a camera that can shoot that close, I'll take a picture for you guys. Next step is to make enough for some ballistic testing. I'll get back to you with groups once I get shooting this spring.

By the way, years ago when I first bought my casting outfit used, the guy also gave me some assorted swaging parts. I never knew exactly what they were untill I disassembled the Swagamatic. Well, I just realized that I also have a .452 swagamatic die set, so I can make 45 caliber bullets also. That was a treat just in itself.
Michael

[floodgate]

kawalekm:

Good show!

I'm looking for a set of .308 dies for my Swag-O-Matic; probably for the "plinker" type bullets, but with various nose shapes. I've got the half-jackets coming from another member, nad ould like to try some. C-H will make me a new set, but for well over $100, and I'd like to beat that. Like you, I had a set in my hands a couple of years back, but didn't know what they were, so passed them on and can't remember to whom.

floodgate

[TAWILDCATT]

I have two.one in 357 and one 9 mm.I used the 357 to swage my cast 38 wadcutters,lubed bulet put in press and bump them.took out any iregularities and made nice smooth bullet.same accuracy so stopped doing it. :coffee:--[smilie=1:

[hbramrunner]

Howdy gentleman, i just found this site yesterday, so I've been doing a lot of reading. I'm new to the process of swaging so I'm really enjoying this site. A year ago I bought a bunch of brass from a local gunshop and included in the mix was a Swag-o-Matic. Had .357 &.44 dies. It was missing the pin to hold the ram to the toggle. About a month ago I bought a set of 22 swage dies off Ebay and they were straight from Richard Corbin. He is making me a core mold now. I got a bunch of jackets made and just waiting on the mold. I placed a call to CH4D and Dave was able to find me a pin. I was also trying to get the spanner as well, but he doesn't have any. I glad to hear of you guys using his dies, because I was thinking of ordering a 9mm set. He has a bunch of different nose punches for Swag-o-Matic but the rest of the parts are pretty limited. One question on turning the 40 cal into jackets or any casing for that matter, are you leaving in the primer? Looking foward to spending some time with you guys.
hbramrunner

[kawalekm]

Hi Hbramrunner
Yes, I left in the primers. I put lead into my cases two ways. I cast a 175 grain pure lead core using a Lyman 175 grain truncated cone in 40cal. I pushed that into belled/annealed cases point out. That swaged down into a 245 grain hollowpoint. I also tried dipping the cases into molten lead and carefully setting them aside to solidify. That made a funky 290 grain hollowpoint. For a few of the "dipped" bullets I did notice a slight leak of lead out the bottum of the primer pocket. The lead stayed in a thin ring around the rim of the primer without really being extruded out the bottum.

Did the CH4D people mention how much they want for a top-punch? I also have a .452" die, but no top punch for it.

[Harry Eales]

Good Grief,

I must be really getting old, I can remember when the C-H Swag Om Matic first came out.
They were usually accompanied by a small cutter into which was fed pure lead wire from a spool. The cutter was adjustable so that cores of various weights could be cut quickly.

Cast cores were not recommended by the manufacturer, just pure lead wire. (The press isn't strong enough to swage lead/tin alloys).

A variation of this bullet making process were bullets swaged without the copper jacket, this being replaced with a pure zinc washer which supposedly scraped out any leading from the gun barrel.

The bullets got a good write up at the time, especially for handgun hunting, the pure lead mushroomed beautifully. Best used in revolvers, most semi-automatics didn't feed them too reliably.

Harry

[Pavogrande]

Harry - you jogged my memory - went out to the bench and there it was - CH 105Z die and a bag of zinc washers. I inherited the die a while back and have not yet tried it out. Perhaps you also remember the Harvey Pro-tecs-bore mouids that were a similar method, zinc washer cast into base of bullet. Both 38 and 44 I believe.
I noticed your address - Is that near the big horse on the hillside?

[Harry Eales]

Harry - you jogged my memory - went out to the bench and there it was - CH 105Z die and a bag of zinc washers. I inherited the die a while back and have not yet tried it out. Perhaps you also remember the Harvey Pro-tecs-bore mouids that were a similar method, zinc washer cast into base of bullet. Both 38 and 44 I believe.
I noticed your address - Is that near the big horse on the hillside?

Hello Parvogrande,

I can remember the old Harvey zinc washer moulds, although I never owned one myself. I doubt you could get the 'washers' these days. There were so many experimental bullets around back in the 1950's and 60's.

Personally I'm a fan of swaged lead, paper patch bullets for 19thC Single Shot Rifles, but then everone has their faults, lol.

The nearest 'White Horse' to me is about 120 miles to the south of where I live, in the county of Yorkshire, there are several White Horses carved into chalk hillsides scattered around Britain.

Harry

[floodgate]

The zinc washers - made on the original Harvey machinery - are now available from Andy Hill at <kimberlt@dandy.net>.

floodgate

[hbramrunner]

Morning Kawalekm, Go to www.ch4d.com and get the phone #. I talked to a couple of nice ladies and Dave called me back late in the afternoons. If I remember right, he said that he sorted those nose punches, so he would be able to let you know. I lucked out and found the spanner wrench. At the same time I bought the Swag-o-Matic I also got a box with Pacific swage dies for the C-Press with the interchangeable Rams. My spanner was in that box. Also got 357 and 44 dies in that box. I just bought a bunch of 44 jackets and cores off auction arms, and I have quit a bit of 40s&w brass that I can try your method. My Swag-o-Matic did come with the core cutter and about 5lbs of wire. I do hate to tell you I gave $10 for the whole shooting match. I did find the Pacific press on Ebay and It cost me $30. I do want to get a newer swage press one day and I'm really thinking about the CH Champion. Good loading and shooting! hbramrunner