Want to make a bump/swage die.

[barrabruce]

I have searched but in vain.

I have a few 30 cal moulds that cast bullets that need a little tweaking.
A bit of a nose reduction ,middle pushing out and drive bands reduced etc.
I’ve been wondering that the likes of Adito made die’s for his barrels/moulds so they mated perfectly.

I have the reamer that cut the chamber

Can I just ream out a bit of barrel steel or such and use a base pin to whack the lubed cast bullets in and a nose punch to gently tap them out?
Or is it not simple.

Any guides for swaging for dummies or Neanderthals be greatly appreciated.

Or how he used/uses his.

Thanks
Barra

[garandsrus]

This will keep you busy for a while, as well as tell you a whole bunch of info: http://www.corbins.com/

[Stephen Cohen]

Old mate of mine made a bump die for his45/70 projectiles some years back. Made a simple reverse shape in die and a punch that fit in the rear end with a flange as a stop, put cast in place punch in rear of die and hit with hammer. I took his mould home and lapped it for him to correct size a lot less work all around. That info above is worth the read I have it all down loaded and printed in book form. Regards Stephen

[Willbird]

The reamer you have and the barrel stub will let you re create the throat but will not provide the bullet body you need to fit inside the case mouth.

I pondered on swage dies and then one day got off dead center and made a D Reamer and a swage die way quicker than it seemed it was going to take. I did not polish or lap the die at all and for a cast WW bullet .458 in dia it seemed to work great. Because I was slap dash just trying stuff the complete die was not as nice as it could have been as far as runout of the ejector pin was concerned.

That said making a swage die for a monolithic cast lead-tin-antimony bullet can perhaps be WAY simpler than one made for bullets with a jacket.

I just used 12L14 steel which machines like butter.

You can study on the D reamer but it boils down to
Taking O1 drill rod, turning it to the shape of the inside of your die...and polish is smooth.
Cutting it exactly in half (some go a bit more or less than half..like a few .001 less or more). I did this by milling.
Relieving it behind the cutting edge. I did this with a file and needle files.

I will not call it the final step but heat treating it is a step. When you heat treat it can differ, some heat treat the round part then grind it to cut it in half, ideal might be to use a surface grinder but some do fine carefully on a bench grinder.

If you use the 12L14 steel the machining is WAY more forgiving, who knows how long it will last.

For base punch I suggest using a gage pin, they are honestly quite cheap, pre hardened and ground. They come "plus" and "minus"...for this use maybe not super important, it just means whether the tolerance is plus or minus from the specified size.

https://www.amazon.com/Vermont-Gage-Steel-Tolerance-Diameter/dp/B0006JCAWQ/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=.310%2Bgage%2Bpin&qid=1639500061&sr=8-1&th=1

I linked .310 but they come in .001 and .0005 increments.

And I'd think you would want a matching reamer, if shooting for .310 a .308 or .309 reamer would allow you to ream then lap to size.

if you are half handy with a lathe IMHO you can whip up something that will work far easier than you might think :-).....to do what you are saying, to make thousands of jacketed bullets and last a lifetime doing it for sure more difficult :-).

[Willbird]

I had a few hours spare time and thought "this is not going to work first try but lets give it a shot and see where we need to improve"....but it worked first try pretty much LOL.

https://i.ibb.co/kST9xwb/die-1.jpg (https://ibb.co/3CbM7j6)
https://i.ibb.co/gz2vKNY/die-2.jpg (https://ibb.co/5B0YHmZ)

[Willbird]

That is swaged from pure lead wire by the way. Have not tried an allow like WW yet.

[barrabruce]

Thanks gentleman.
I think I’ll have a go at making a d-bit and see what I can do.
Have no free machining mild steel but see what I have and scrounge.

[Willbird]

I have bought some 12L14 bar ends on eBay pretty cheap

There are some 12” lengths of 1” out there for $15 or so shipped. Not too bad imho.

The only down side of the leaded alloys is they are not good for assemblies that get welded.

Just for messing around burned out 416R barrels might be a good resource too, they have a nice straight pilot hole :-). Not that Iv seen many offered for sale tho

Bill

[barrabruce]

Well Wilbird I can’t see anyone giving me a 416r barrel to play with.
When they start to shoot into the high teens or such They usually get them re-chambered to 243 6.5 or 308 and flogg ‘Em off on to varmint class shooters.

Ghee I would love to scrounge around in a few scrap bins of the elite shooters thou.

I would say things would have passed through a few hands before I will ever see one.
Ha.

I’m sure there would be plenty of people would love to flogg me a dud barrel for near new money thou.

[Sasquatch-1]

That is swaged from pure lead wire by the way. Have not tried an allow like WW yet.


Be careful with alloys. I split a $125.00 die just reshaping some .357 cal. bullets.

[barrabruce]

Be careful with alloys. I split a $125.00 die just reshaping some .357 cal. bullets.
Thank-you.

[Rapidrob]

Swage in steps. Don't try to do it all with one stroke. I will do several small "pulls", back off and go a little further the next pull. This reduces the stress on the die and allows the bullet to help maintain shape.
I use Hornady Unique case lube with very good results and have never had a bullet stick in the die. A little lube goes a long way. One tub last for years.

[Willbird]

My goals with this kind of thing have always been to cast to near net shape then swage to make a better bullet. This sounded a lot like what the OP had in mind as well.

[Forrest r]

Egan used a different approach with the bump dies that he made. His were designed around the lyman or rcbs luber/sizers.

I have 1 of the egan 30t 1.5* bump dies. It looks the same as any of the lyman/rcbs sizing dies except that it has no lube holes drilled in it. The egan bump dies use throating reamers to make the taper in the bump die. His 30T (30cal) bump die is .316" at the top and goes down to .285" at the bottom.

I have a 1* throating reamer and made a 1* bump die mimicking the egan die specs. Egan sold a 1* bump die that was .316" at the top and .290" at the bottom. The 1* bump die that I made has the same measurements.

Instead of a nose punch I use a home made punch that has a .311" recess in it that aids in keeping the gc's strait/aligned to the bullets body/nose.

These things are caveman simple to make. Turn the body, drill out the center, use a throating reamer or taper pin reamer to get your desired diameter, make a ejection pin & a bullet base nose punch.

Page #43 (non-lubricating dies)
https://www.slideshare.net/mtngun/don-eagans-mold-catalog

[barrabruce]

Thanks Forrest r
I will have a go when things get a little less hectic..
Sounds like it is what I’m looking for.
Cheers

[barrabruce]

Well I went forth and knocked up a die.
Should have re-read this thread because after boring with a 2" bar trying to hit 0.300" or smidge smaller I ended up with something.
It’s 0.311" on the base and comes down to 0.310 for the free bore. Then a taper a little sharper than the forcing cone into 0.2992" ish.
Next time I’m making a d-reamer.
I will see if the bullets will shoot anyway.
It’s a beeswilly too small on the nose and a smidge to fat on the base.
I can hone it out if I need to.
But see if the gun likes it.
It has a tight bore. Or needs to wear in some. A tenth or two more is needed but will see when it fouls if it shoots.
Still have to make some knock out pins for different noses and hollow points.
But at least the base sits at the bottom of the case neck and not in it.

Always better if you can cast and shoot as the come out but reforming and knocking back out to use the Hg #38 or the likes of the Saeco 316 clone
294215.hand seated to base of case and nose touching the bore.
We’ll see.
Ha
294216
Thanks for the help.
I may have to knock a ‘nutha one up .
Proper even.