NoZombies
11-07-2009, 02:18 AM
Well, this afternoon was my first attempt to make my own bullets by swaging, I got the dies in earlier in the week, and had a few minutes at the loading bench, and figured "what the heck" I didn't have the right stuff to do it, but wanted to see what would happen.
I did a lot of things wrong, for instance, I didn't anneal the brass to be used as jackets, I didn't have any type of cores for the jackets, and I didn't get the plunger/ejector quite adjusted properly...
So, I took some range pick up, but clean .40S&W brass, and washed it with soap and water, let it dry real well, and filled it to the mouth with bird shot, then put a piece of 000 buck that I cast onto the top, and ran it into the swaging die as hard as I could, forming a pretty believable projectile.
I also tried it without the buckshot, not expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised that the shot did in fact stay put through several hours of riding around in my pocket, though I imagine a bit of glue on top would make it more reliable...
Next time around: I'll be annealing the brass before swaging, and hopefully I'll have a core mold set up by then, so I can cast up a bunch of nice cores, hopefully I'll also get my hollow point punch adjusted so that it doesn't leave me with a funky nose..
I did a lot of things wrong, for instance, I didn't anneal the brass to be used as jackets, I didn't have any type of cores for the jackets, and I didn't get the plunger/ejector quite adjusted properly...
So, I took some range pick up, but clean .40S&W brass, and washed it with soap and water, let it dry real well, and filled it to the mouth with bird shot, then put a piece of 000 buck that I cast onto the top, and ran it into the swaging die as hard as I could, forming a pretty believable projectile.
I also tried it without the buckshot, not expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised that the shot did in fact stay put through several hours of riding around in my pocket, though I imagine a bit of glue on top would make it more reliable...
Next time around: I'll be annealing the brass before swaging, and hopefully I'll have a core mold set up by then, so I can cast up a bunch of nice cores, hopefully I'll also get my hollow point punch adjusted so that it doesn't leave me with a funky nose..