Question on the 44 swage dies

[Daywalker]

I am trying to set my die up to swage some 44's. I was able to set my 451 die up no problem, the rock chucker cams over and everything.

For some reason, these 429 dies, no matter how I set them, I can not get them to fully go all the way and cam over.

I screw the die down to touch the ram of the press. I have my hp adjusted up. I have adjusted the die way up and way down, I have adjusted the hp up to the point it is almost ready to exit the die...

Could someone please run me through their steps of setting up their 44 (.429) die in their rock chucker press??


Thanks a bunch...

[BT Sniper]

I'm sure I can help. What are you trying to swage? 40 S&W case? The 140 grain core you mentioned? Are you triming the jacket? What has the bullet looked like so far? Stock CH dies or modified? Core seated or one step? Need more details.

Lets see here....... forget about the reloading practices of screwing the die down to touch the the ram. There will be a gap depending on the weight of your bullet.

To set the HP punch hold the die in your hand upside down looking into the die. With the stop screw of the internial HP punch backed out (a lot) begin to adjust the bolt and watch the hp punch enter the die. You should be able to see it moving towards you and notice the reflection change when it enters the actuall bullet cavity. About there is a good starting point. Lock it down.

Now to set the die. You should be able to back the die out enough to cam over the RC. Can't imagine not being able to. Start with it A LONG way from the ram and keep tightening while you work the press each stroke till you start to form the nose of the bullet. You should have been caming over this entire time. Or at least the ram reaches top of stroke. Unless by "caming over" do you mean reach the top or the feal of the force of forming the bullet that sudenly drops off as the cam reaches top of stroke and then lets up?

We know it will work and I can get you some measurments off my press and dies. Get us a bit more info and we will get you set up.

BT

[Daywalker]

Sorry about that. These are the ch4d dies, not stock punches, 40 smith and wesson cases non trimmed but annealed. The 145 grain core is from the lee .401 mold. So far the bullets looks pretty good. The ogive is formed and the hp is ok, not really deep and does not come all the way to the mouth of the cases. I am doing these one step they measure .429 when they come out. I am having to put these in the lyman lathe to trim the mouth down to the lead...

When I mention cam over, I am talking when the ram is all the way up and you feel the lever kinda ummm I will try to explain it, kinda have that extra movement in it?? Right now the way it is, the ram is maybe a little over half way up but the lever is straight out and wont go any further. Doesn't "feel right"? Maybe I am just used to the 45's being shorter cases having the ram go full lenghth and the linkage "cam over so to speak" I could be paranoid maybe??

[BT Sniper]

Yep back the die out till the ram goes all the way up then start to SLOWLY adjust it back down in small 1/4 turn increments or less. You are going to have a bit of dificulty gettign that "feel" with the large jacket and small core as you have a lot of open space there because you just can't compress that much of the jacket (40S&W case) whenit is that long with that small amount of core. You should trim teh case first like you did with teh 45s. Try about .700 - .750 or so in length. If I recall corectly I trimmed my 40 brass down to .75 and got a soft lead tip at about 250 grains. This may bring the lead just to the top of the jacket. If not trim it some more. I think once you get the jacket and lead core to completly fill out the bullet cavity in teh die you will feel that cam over. But defentaly back the die out. There will be nothing wrong with it and the gap between the ram and base of die will not matter as it is the base punch that enters the die doing all the work anyway. So again back the die a ways out and work it back down. It will work!

BT

[Daywalker]

Thanks Brian! I just got home off the road, long night. As soon as I get some sleep and get back up, I will be playing with this again...