.300 Swaged Boolit for Paper Patching - Bought used Corbin Die

[MUSTANG]

I bought a used Corbin Swage die for Paper Patched 30 cal boolits from one of the members on this forum. This is a Corbin S type die used in a Corbin CSP-1 press. This particular die is a Corbin Point form die; but it also has been drilled in the sides with 3 bleed holes just as their Core Swage Die does, probably to protect the die from damage and limit pressure during swaging as the nose is open for the ejector pin and will form a straight cylinder tip on the nose of the boolit if set for too much swaging. The ejector pin appears to be the standard Corbin ejector pin set up for a .30 Swage die. (You can click on all pictures to enlarge images).

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Received the package last evening and opened it today. Went out to the workshop this afternoon and installed the Swage die and Punch into my CSP-1 press. By feel I could tell the ejector pin was not setting into the ram correctly, so I pulled it out for a close inspection. As you can see in the following picture, the edge of the ejector pin and retaining slot had been damaged sometime in the past, by a previous owner. I took a small triangular file and slowly filed the high ridges out and flattened the bottom of the slot back to a 90* angle over a 15 minute period. It now fits into the Swage Press ram correctly and seems to be holding up. I’ll keep a watch on it and see if the ejector pin needs replaced in the future.

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I had an old core mold that I had picked up on E-Bay several years ago, the picture is below. It casts a .250 diameter core, but unfortunately I can only get a max of about 110 grains out of the core from this mould as the bore of the core mould is too short for greater than 110 grains. This particular Core Mold appears to be a “Swage It” core mold originating with Hawk Bullets - http://www.hawkbullets.com/swage-it.htm Looks like I’ll have to invest in another Corbin or RCE core mold so I can push into the 150 to 220 grain area.. Looked up the Corbin core mold, it’s $165.00 while the RCE is only $105.00, and they both are close to identical in appearance. Probably go with RCE in a few months. At the same time I’ll look into a Core Swage Die to get consistent weight boolits for paper patching.


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The following picture has some of the cores I cast and sample boolits I swaged this afternoon. In the next couple of weeks I’ll Swage some more, try my hand at paper patching them and then load in .308 for testing. Not sure what to expect out of such a lightweight paper patched boolit. I know that this current effort is not even in the ball park of my ultimate objective of working towards a 800 to 1000 Yard Paper Patched load for .308 and 30-06.


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[MUSTANG]

One of my goals is for a Swaged Paper Patched Boolit in the 175 grain range. Since I started this effort on a shoestring and am not currently prepared to spend the money to buy another Core Mold and Core swage die, I thought I would be constrained in my efforts to the ~110 grain cores for a while. I got to thinking on the issue last evening. The various .308 dies I have are a non-starter as they are too wide and I do not have a push through sizer/s to bring them below the .301 diameter of the Swage Die.

Reviewing the molds I have on hand that are smaller than .300 was the next consideration. The .224’s are too small and too light weight. My 25 caliber Lyman 257420 is also too light, as well as the 7mm Lyman 287346 I have which is only 135 grains. But then it hit me, the much maligned Lee 6.5mm “Cruise Missile” sitting in the ammo can. It is listed as 170 Grains.

I cast a few of these “Cruise Missiles” with an Isotope Alloy (~96% lead, 3% antimony, and 1% tin). They came out weighing about 177 Grains. The following picture shows one of the “Cruise Missiles” on the left and a .301 bullet swaged from one of the “Cruise Missiles to the right. On the right side are samples of the previous core and ~110 grain swaged boolits listed in the previous post. (Click on Pics to enlarge)


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I paper patched the 177Grain .301 Boolits as seen in the following picture.

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I used cash register tape for paper in the above Paper Patched Boolits. Cash register tape measures .002” thick on my dial caliper. Wet the paper by licking it, wrapped the boolits with two turns, and then let them dry for about 6 hours. This gave a diameter measurement of .310 as can be seen below. They have not been lubed nor sized yet. Will size using a Lee .309 push through die in the next few days.



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[BT Sniper]

Nicely done! I bet they will shoot as good as they look.

Swage on!