Swaged lead slugs for competition

[Naphtali]

In muzzleloading slug gun shooting, some slug gun competitors swage two-piece bullets, base being softer than nose. Among these I anticipate some swaged bullets are [also] mechanically joined in addition to the swage, perhaps by a male teat inserted into a female hole. Would the male to be inserted be integral with soft base or with harder nose?

[onomrbil]

Good question. I shoot swaged lead bullets in my supposed Schuetzen rifle which is chambered in 357 Herrett. I tried all sorts of stuff to get the right obturation and not get leading, which is probably similar to what you are trying to do, but I never tried a 2-piece bullet. Instead experimented with the usual lead-tin alloys as in the PBCR dicipline. I ended up swaging a 20-1 core in a C&H swage, ran them through a Corbin knurling tool and coated them with dry teflon/HBN lubricant. They can be pushed pretty hard with a cardboard base wad.

2-piece bullet swaging sounds like a lot of unnecessary work as you would probably end up having to run each bullet through some sort of die set 3 times if base, nose and final bullet are all swaged. If you can get more details about the process, equipment and sources i would be much interested in hearing about it. Sounds like something neat to experiment with. Who knows? I may even get a better bullet out of it.

[runfiverun]

you'd cast them then swage to shape.

if I were going to try this I would have the patience to pour the nose and let it cool then pour the base and re-melt the alloy in the mold.
this would fuse both halves together.
then I would swage the finished product.

[aaronraad]

Maybe an injection moulded polymer base skirt you can insert into the mould and then pour the lead on top. Something similar to the Minie ball with a hollow base. Keep it short so you don't get too front heavy with the plastic vs. lead density. Maybe serrate the skirt to encourage complete obliteration into the rifling.

Sort of like a sabot, but sticks with the projectile like a gas check? Probably been done before so there is a good chance someone on castboolits would know if it works. :lovebooli

[Pipefitter]

Years ago I saw a mold that cast in 2 cavities, the intent was to cast a soft lead nose with a "teat" for the base, then the nose was placed in the other cavity to cast the harder lead base. Pure lead melts at a higher temperature than alloyed lead, this was supposed to encourage expansion of the bullet in game animals. You could cast the nose from hard lead and then swage soft lead for the base in the point form die.
Sorry, but I dont remember who made the mold, or what calibers it was available in.