Conical Point Swage Nosie Die for Herters .452 die set

[bruce drake]

A friend of mine (Bruce Frechette) and a fellow caster here on the forum recently finished a small project I had asked him to do a few months back on his lathe. He made me a Conical Point Swage Nose-forming die for my .452" Herters (copy of CH4D's Whackomatic Swager) Swaging die set. I've wanted to replicate the classic bullet design that CH4D once offered and that Dean Grennell championed in 45 ACP for many years.

I got the nose die this evening and promptly went off to swage a few. :) He's got the nose profile down perfectly. :). But first off, excellent packaging! Bruce vacuumed wrapped the nose piece so it could have sat on a shelf for a year or more I would not have had to worry about its condition upon opening the package.
The first test bullets were made from Herters .325 170gr spire points. The bases didn't expand fully because they had gaschecks already seated but I was more focused on the nose profile and front driving band on this first squeeze anyways. I'll cast some .40 and 45 caliber pistol bullets in other profiles to reswage into Conical Points this weekend.

Bruce has agreed to make me a .308 CP and a .357 CP nose die for my other Herters/CH4D Swager sets. I can't wait to see the next two nose dies from him. :)

Bruce D

[deltaenterprizes]

Now you went and gave me another project to do!
Nice work!

[bruce drake]

278847
the 308 and 357 conical point nose punches came in yesterday and Bruce did as great work with these two as he did with the first.

[ammohead]

Thanks for the plug Mr Drake. It has been a fun project, and it id great to see the results. I use the vacuum seal bags so that the die doesn't rattle around in the package and bust out.

[Buckshot]

..............I believe my hero, Ole Deano Grennell called that design, "The High Velo Pen" for High Velocity Penetrating (bullet). He was, without a doubt my mostest best enjoyed gunscribe, bar none. I could relate as he did a lot of stuff that was 'Just for fun' so far as reloading went and he wasn't all enthused about himself, or what he'd accomplished. I enjoyed his stories of shooting with his buddies when he lived in Wisconsin, with the "Branden Dump Shooters Assoc". I got a little taste of that when I went deer hunting up in Salina, UT with a guy who owned some property up there. They still had a town dump, and we got to go "Dump Shooting" rats in the early evening.

..............Buckshot

[bruce drake]

..............I believe my hero, Ole Deano Grennell called that design, "The High Velo Pen" for High Velocity Penetrating (bullet). He was, without a doubt my mostest best enjoyed gunscribe, bar none. I could relate as he did a lot of stuff that was 'Just for fun' so far as reloading went and he wasn't all enthused about himself, or what he'd accomplished. I enjoyed his stories of shooting with his buddies when he lived in Wisconsin, with the "Branden Dump Shooters Assoc". I got a little taste of that when I went deer hunting up in Salina, UT with a guy who owned some property up there. They still had a town dump, and we got to go "Dump Shooting" rats in the early evening.

..............Buckshot

I also really appreciate Dean Grennell's writing style and article topics when I can find his work on-line or in print somewhere.