New Swager

[7of7]

Just bought the corbins S-Press, and a set of dies for .308, with a 8S ogive. I talked with Dave for about an hour, and he showed me that extremly light bullets can be made for my Five SeveN. (5.7X28mm)
I was impressed that there is nothing automated in his shop. Everything is done by a die maker, using lathes and honeing equipment.
It was really an educational hour for me as he also explained what they must do in order to make a die, and how they make the profile out of a separate piece of material, and then use a diamond paste honing material in order to hone the inside of the dies.
It is a pretty small (by todays standards) shop. I actually could have spent a month down there just learning how to do that stuff,... and been quite happy...
His press, is very nice, and he was almost out of them, when I bought mine. He had six left of the 20 he started with on Monday,... and it was Thursday...
So, now I have to play around with the equipment and get used to how it performs...
I tried my first FMJ today, and didn't allow for enough jacket to be past the base of the bullet,... so, the jacket comes to the same point as the lead does,.. I guess I will have to use the core swage die to squeeze some out so I can get the end wrapped around....

[BT Sniper]

Good to hear. Lots of good information on this sight. Hope your bullets come together well. Keep us posted with your results. Seems it is a good time to be in the bullet making business.

Good shooting,

[7of7]

right now, my core seat die is producing .3074 diameter jacketed cores, not much changes after that, when the tip is formed. I may have to send it back to him to have him match them up so the resulting bullet is .308, but the good thing is, the diameter is consistant between the three I have made so far....
I have learned that a good 150 grain lead tipped bullet needs a jacket around .80 long, not 1.25.... LOL
I also attempted a FMJ,... noted that I need to have a slightly longer jacket length for those...
It is rather enjoyable,... I will be swaging a bunch of cores up and setting them aside for jacketing later..... when I get the trim die to make trimming the jackets much easier...

[7of7]

right now, my core seat die is producing .3074 diameter jacketed cores, not much changes after that, when the tip is formed. I may have to send it back to him to have him match them up so the resulting bullet is .308, but the good thing is, the diameter is consistant between the three I have made so far....


Figured out what I was doing incorrectly (wrong). Just needed to adjust the travel so that I got more of the power part of the stroke,... dies now produce 308,... received the jacket trimmer die set, and am working on finding the right jacket length for what I want....
I have made 130 grain, and 150 grain bullets so far,... My funniest, was my FMJ, that I forgot to leave enough jacket to fold over on the end... There is a learning curve...