I decided I want to carry my old Charter arms .44 Bulldog more and had it Ceracoated . One issue with the gun is so few good bullets for the 3" barrel velocities I decided I wanted to make my own in a full wadcutter design with a hollow point .
I use a Lee .309 170 grain mold as a core the first stage turns it into a wad cutter with a center dimple then a second pass with a T-40 bit in the punch puts in a deep 6 pointed hole . So far I am just loading the 177 grain finished bullets with 5.5 grains Red Dot and the bullets expand and often fragment in water . Firing one into a 55 gallon burn barrel that repels a 9mm pistol (all rounds so far) it passes through and goes 4" into sod/sand!
These dies are set up like the old Pacific dies for half jacket bullets . Sorry about focus I wish it was better the lead bullet shows the opening in the bullet front that core was not coated before swaging . The coating is Enamel Spray paint baked on and can be done either before or after swaging . This is my first try and the bullets are a bit over size at .435" so I size them to .430 separately . Later dies should be correct size I just goofed a bit on these . Attachment 322265