Thinking about buying the C&H #101 die set...

[Bad Karma]

Can anyone tell me about their experience with this product? I want to get this for myself around Christmas. I want to initially get the 9mm setup or the
40/10mm one. Any advise? I'm on a budget.

[wonderwolf]

I have not yet got the CH #101 dies yet that I got from somebody off the boards here but for the money it seems like its the best game in town does not look like you could go wrong with them. I'm sure more guys with dies and have used them for awhile will chime in later
:drinks:

[Toobroke]

I have a set for 44 Mag. Works as advertised. I use them in the C-H Champion press

[jcunclejoe]

I have two or three sets of the 101 dies in 41 caliber. I have made thousands of jacketed bullets with them and they work fantastic. Great value.

Outlaw Bullets
Joe

[Bad Karma]

Does anyone know of a parson who makes custom hollow point nose punches? I have an article from Handloaders "Bullet making Annual #1" where a 9mm set up was done in such a way to make very nice .380 Auto 115gr HPs. The author was John Zemanek...great article.

[wonderwolf]

Dunno, but looking at the nose punches they look like simple lathe projects...[smilie=1:

I've been messing with mine the past few nights. I'm having trouble swapping out the fp and HP nose punches...any trick to this or are they just tight?

[floodgate]

wonderwolf:

Extensive reading (the Corbin books) and a little experimenting with my C-H Swag-O-Matic die sets and a C-H 105Z zinc-base swaging set tell me that the punches have to fit the die with a clearance of one or two ten-thousandths; more and lead will flow back between them and jam things up (as some of our brethren working with lead wire extruders are discovering); less and they won't go. The best punch and die combos are made up as matched sets, though a good amateur machinist can certainly fit a pair up, with care. Haven't tried it myself - yet!

Floodgate

[floodgate]

Bad Karma:

Try a PM to Buckshot.

Fg

[DLCTEX]

Oops!

[badgeredd]

Does anyone know of a parson who makes custom hollow point nose punches? I have an article from Handloaders "Bullet making Annual #1" where a 9mm set up was done in such a way to make very nice .380 Auto 115gr HPs. The author was John Zemanek...great article.

BK,

I have the C-H swaging dies for 38/357 and 44. I've had them for 20 years or so and have made a lot of bullets with them. I'd say they are pretty darn good since I haven't destroyed mine yet.

As for the hp punch, I made one for each set not long after I got the dies. In both sets I made the new punch with less than .001" clearance and have had no problems with them. I did make about 5 punches for the 38/357 set before I found what seems to work the best for me. the punch enters the bullet about .100" and has a 15 degree included angle on it with a .075" flat on the tip of the punch. It has worked for most of the 20 years I've had the set without a hitch. One thing I found when I initially made the punches that if one has too small of an angle the punch doesn't want to release and if the angle is too large, the punch wants to drive deeper into the bullet and again doesn't want to release. I doubt the angle is critical, but I suggest you work with something near the 15 degrees included.
Good luck.

Edd

[AussieHunter]

I'm a newbie on here Just joined up, I'm in Australia the land down under? or so you Yankees say, But as we are floating around in space who is ta say which way is up???Any one up to that challenge? any way I'M a 50 year old country guy that's now stuck in the City, and Yes I swag jacketed projectiles with the C&H 2die swagging die set in .357/8 Dia: and .44 Mag these swagging die sets work well. I use a under size cast bullet mould to cast bullets that I then use as cores in the larger sized jacket. EG: I cast a pill from a .308 mould at 180 Gr place it base first into the 25Gr slightly under size .35 cal jacket this jacket with the nose of the "moulded core" protruding out of it and facing down toward the bleed off punch fitted into the ram of your press(RCBS Rock chucker press is best??) then VERY lightly lubed the jacket with petroleum jelly( less is more) place the jacket base first up into the No.1 die "core swagging die" and raise the handle and adjust the die down till a firm resistance is felt and a billet is formed and you bleed of any unwanted /excess weight from your billet, Having set your die for correct core/billet weight/length lock the die rings both the large lower body ring and the smaller upper ring that limits the length of travel of the billet with in the die, then make as many of billets as you need before switching dies a 200grain FP bullet is the result of all of this effort ( be sure to weigh you billets for correct average weigh) (*NOTE* 1 or 2 grains in weight over in .358 or larger calibers has no effect on any thing at all) Then fit the second swag die and change to the solid base punch (OGIVE/NOSE FORMING DIE) these dies for a flat point type bullet that's ideal in Lever type Guns with tube Mag's, *if you want Round nose Bullets?* then just put about 100 of your newly swagged bullets into a clean TURO TUMBLER Like say the small Lyman 600 or 1200 models and tumble them for up to 12 hours check on them every 2 hrs until you get the profile that you need (*note* this only works when all pills are the same type shape and weight don't mix up with other weight's styles or brands) done rite it will form perfect round nose bullets. Anyway back to Ogive Die, set it in to your press and run you swagged billets up into this die soft lead end up this time lower Handel and feel the bullet up into the die until you find where the end of the ogive/nose profile stops, You will get a little nipple on the end of your bullet if you push it in to far, if so back the die of just a little until there is no nipple on the pill then adjust the ejector rod down firmly on to the top of the pill in the die and lock it up(this is the small locking ring on the top of the die) use a soft plastic faced hammer to then push/rap the bullet out of the die with several short raps of the hammer catching the ejected pill in you spare hand, with this method you may see small shadows of rings in the jacket where the grease grooves of the cast bullet but now swagged core, at this point I use my C&H Canneluring tool to roll a cannelure onto the jacket of the bullet( you can place up to 3 grooves/ring into the jacket as means of retaining the core or for crimping the case with out distorting the bullet) this process removes any shadows from the jacket, this method of casting your own cores also allows you to adjust the hardness of your core as well, you can also swag a under size piece of lead in these dies with or with out a gas check in the base of the die making a lead gas checked bullet that you can then roll some grease grooves onto? Remember that the FREEDOM OF THE PRESS belongs to those that own one *and a set off these Dies* they are nothing new and many of the old timers in your country used to make there own in this way Cheers to all from the Aussie Hunter from down under (GREG) :castmine: :Fire: THE SHORT ANSWER IS THEY ARE GOOD FOR WHAT THEY ARE AND YOU WILL HAVE FUN MAKING YOUR OWN Cheers :drinks:

[AussieHunter]

[QUOTE=AussieHunter;424978]I'm a newbie on here Just joined up, I'm in Australia the land down under? or so you Yankees say, But as we are floating around in space who is ta say which way is up???Any one up to that challenge? any way I'M a 50 year old country guy that's now stuck in the City, and Yes I swag jacketed projectiles with the C&H 2die swagging die set in .357/8 Dia: and .44 Mag these swagging die sets work well. I use a under size cast bullet mould to cast bullets that I then use as cores in the larger sized jacket. EG: I cast a pill from a .308 mould at 180 Gr place it base first into the 25Gr slightly under size .35 cal jacket this jacket with the nose of the "moulded core" protruding out of it and facing down toward the bleed off punch fitted into the ram of your press(RCBS Rock chucker press is best??) then VERY lightly lubed the jacket with petroleum jelly( less is more) place the jacket base first up into the No.1 die "core swagging die" and raise the handle and adjust the die down till a firm resistance is felt and a billet is formed and you bleed of any unwanted /excess weight from your billet, Having set your die for correct core/billet weight/length lock the die rings both the large lower body ring and the smaller upper ring that limits the length of travel of the billet with in the die, then make as many of billets as you need before switching dies a 200grain FP bullet is the result of all of this effort ( be sure to weigh you billets for correct average weigh) (*NOTE* 1 or 2 grains in weight over in .358 or larger calibers has no effect on any thing at all) Then fit the second swag die and change to the solid base punch (OGIVE/NOSE FORMING DIE) these dies for a flat point type bullet that's ideal in Lever type Guns with tube Mag's, *if you want Round nose Bullets?* then just put about 100 of your newly swagged bullets into a clean TURO TUMBLER Like say the small Lyman 600 or 1200 models and tumble them for up to 12 hours check on them every 2 hrs until you get the profile that you need (*note* this only works when all pills are the same type shape and weight don't mix up with other weight's styles or brands) done rite it will form perfect round nose bullets. Anyway back to Ogive Die, set it in to your press and run you swagged billets up into this die soft lead end up this time lower Handel and feel the bullet up into the die until you find where the end of the ogive/nose profile stops, You will get a little nipple on the end of your bullet if you push it in to far, if so back the die of just a little until there is no nipple on the pill then adjust the ejector rod down firmly on to the top of the pill in the die and lock it up(this is the small locking ring on the top of the die) use a soft plastic faced hammer to then push/rap the bullet out of the die with several short raps of the hammer catching the ejected pill in you spare hand, with this method you may see small shadows of rings in the jacket where the grease grooves of the cast bullet but now swagged core, at this point I use my C&H Canneluring tool to roll a cannelure onto the jacket of the bullet( you can place up to 3 grooves/ring into the jacket as means of retaining the core or for crimping the case with out distorting the bullet) this process removes any shadows from the jacket, this method of casting your own cores also allows you to adjust the hardness of your core as well, you can also swag a under size piece of lead in these dies with or with out a gas check in the base of the die making a lead gas checked bullet that you can then roll some grease grooves onto? Remember that the FREEDOM OF THE PRESS belongs to those that own one *and a set off these Dies* they are nothing new and many of the old timers in your country used to make there own in this way Cheers to all from the Aussie Hunter from down under (GREG) :castmine: :Fire: THE SHORT ANSWER IS THEY ARE GOOD FOR WHAT THEY ARE AND YOU WILL HAVE FUN MAKING YOUR OWN Cheers :drinks:[/FEEDOM OF THE PRESS IS FOR THOSE THAT OWN ONE AND A SET OF C&H SWAGGING DIES QUOTE]