swaged rease groove bullets

[ebert]

i am looking into swaged grease groove bullets. dave corbin says it can be done at a hefty price. richard corbin says it can't be done. does anyone have any experance with 45/70 swaged grease groove bullets.any info would be appreciated. thankyou

[Rat-Man]

ebert,

Welcome to the forums.

It can be done, check out this thread that shows the dies that will do that.
Finding them will be the only problem that you will have.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=66896&highlight=clam+shell

[sagacious]

Another way to do it is to swage to final weight/profile, and then grooves can be pressed into the bullet with a cannelure tool. A lubrisizer can be used to fill the grooves with wax-based lube, or one can apply alox, etc.

This method allows for a lot of flexibility in design and application. Not an expensive option either, just have your dies dimensioned correctly, and then buy/make a cannelure tool.

[ANeat]

Ive tried just a straight cannelure tool and it didnt work too well. A regular cannelure tool has a smooth side the bullet roll against as well as the cannelure ring. With a lead bullet it put a slight groove but also mashed down the OD as well. Not a good thing.

I know dave corbin makes a lead grooving tool and I believe it has opposing ridges that the bullet rolls against.

Another option is to cast a core with the lube groove in it, lube, then swage to final shape. The lube prevents the groove from collapsing.

Buckshot has some great pics of lubed bullets he turned into hollow based bullets by swaging

[ANeat]

Here are some Lee tumble lubes I cannelured, knocked the OD down about .004 if I recall.



http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=153&pictureid=1704

[sagacious]

Looks good. Yes, you have need to have your dies dimensioned correctly if you use the straight cannelure tool. You can also re-bump them after wax lubing.

This is the way I make low-velocity slugs for varmint/pest use. Swage a rnfp from soft lead, turn on a cannelure groove, tumble-molycoat, wax-lube, and them re-bump to make sure the bases are not nicked from moly-tumbling. So far so good.

[ANeat]

Im still hopeing I can just roll a single lube groove without reducing the od. If not Ill cast the "cores" lube as usual and swage.

One "project" Im looking to accomplish is a 45acp 185gr swc hollow point

[Leadsmith]

I concur with sagacious. I have Corbin's power cannalure tool, swage BP conicals with it, and then roll grooves into them. What I find is that the displaced lead on either side of the goove raises up a ridge on either side of the groove and actually makes the maximum diameter of the bullet larger. The deeper the groove the fatter the bullet gets. Lube is the last step I perform.

Works great for me.
Bob

[MightyThor]

Rolling any kind of grove into a bullet will displace material and possibly require reshaping or resizing. For a grease grove I have in the past, cut the grove, removing material and thus eliminating the need to reshape. I used my case trimmer as a little lathe and a reshaped pocket knife blade. In the long run I found that it was more time consuming and labor intensive than just casting the bullet I wanted so I quit.

[kawalekm]

It's very easy to take a cast bullet that you've already added lube to and then swage it to make your finished bullets. Here's how I made swaged lead hollowpoints.
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/kawalekm/swagingcastbullets.jpg