it has happened to me a lot. Kinda makes you set up and pay attention doesn't it LOL.
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it has happened to me a lot. Kinda makes you set up and pay attention doesn't it LOL.
Other than deadening the priming, what is the purpose of the citric acid soak? Where do you buy citric acid and what concentration is used. Would vinegar work? I'm starting from scratch and need to pick all your brains.
Bob
citric acid = Lemonshine.
Found in the dishwasher soap aile in the grocery store.
It cleans the brass wery well, when used in an ultra-sonic cleaner.
I use it after annealing the de-rimed brass to clean it.
Lafaun
vinegar works just fine I boil my rimfires in 1/4 cup of vinegar and a tablespoon of diswashing liquid in about one gallon of water to clean the rimfires before you derim them. it usually gets all the carbon and grit dirt etc. out of them. but its not 100% if you dont get all the priming compound out of them when it drys again it will go bang. It doesn't happen very often but it does happen.
Does any one trim the 22LR jackets to uniform length? I saw someone trimming 5.7x28 jackets with a Forster trimmer. I see the #4 collet will hold the 5.7x28 rim but what would you ues to hold a 22LR jacket? A 17 cal pilot would probably work. Is trimming necessary?
Bob
its not a bad idea just depends on how far you want to take it. the more consistent every thing is the better bullet you make.
For the 22 lr most folks just sort their brass and it ends up pretty uniform that way, I do trim the 17 HMR and 22 mag depending on bullet weight. For the most part I just make bullets and then sort by weight. I am not real picky cause I am making plinkers and gopher grenades for myself.
Sorting the brass is my case as well.
I divided them into 5 buckets and sorted 16 000 pieces according manufacturer a measured lenght and weight.
I know this is an old thread but I didn't want to "clutter" and start a new one...
Can .1875" lead wire be used? Or is it too thick?
Just getting into swaging...no press yet..but soon!
Agreed. It's the perfect size for swaging the .224 bullets.
Three ways to get that size wire:
1) Most expensive - buy wire from Corbins, on reels, already to that size
2) Less expensive, more work intensive - Buy a wire extruding die set from ChuckBuster (here at CastBoolits), and use pure lead pre-cast boolits as raw material, and extrude your own wire to that size. ChuckBusters extrusion die set is first class, and comes as in insert changeable design, so that if you also want to later extrude the core wire for .308 sized bullets, it will also do that.
3) Less expensive, least work - Buy a core mold from BT Sniper.... drops pure lead cores the right size, as fast as you can cast them. The previous option is the one is you are not already set up to do molten lead casting.
I have a 20lb bottom pour and lead. I used to cast 457's for my Jack and Reba Haley "Jack Hammer" air rifle. Using a core mold is less work then cutting wire that's already sized? Rotomedals has 25 POUNDS on a spool for $99 shipped!! That seems very reasonable.
I have both BT's core mold and a lead wire swage die. BT's core mold spits out 53ish grain cores like grass through a goose. Great for bullets less than 60 grains. For heavier bullets I'll swage lead wire and cut for heavier cores. $4 a pound for lead wire....ouch. Get BT's core mold, a cheap Lee 44 cal. mold in the heaviest grain you can get and a lead wire die, you'll be set for any 22ish caliber bullet you want to make cores for. Don't buy for the present, buy for the future.
Supe
The 44 cal mold is what you feed into the lead wire extrusion die. In goes a 44 cal bullet, squish, squish,squish, .185" lead wire comes out the top. " Using a core mold is less work then cutting wire that's already sized? Rotomedals has 25 POUNDS on a spool for $99 shipped!! That seems very reasonable." You end up with the same thing, .185" wire. There are threads here to explain the " making lead wire/ making cores from lead wire" to remove questions. Not trying to be rude but there are others on this site who have explained it much more eloquently than I ever could........and with pictures. Check out youtube. I have no idea what your situation is and what your assets are. Sounds like you should start with a core mold. Personally, I have both options, core mold and lead wire swage die. If they made a Magic Wand to make cores I'd most likely buy one of those, too. (I've checked, Magic Wand is still in experimental mode)
Supe
PS You can most likely find pure lead on this site for about $2 a Lb. Lead wire from Rotometals $4 a Lb. Convenience is great if you can afford it.
I also have BTs core mold, works geat & gives you a pile of cores quickly. An option I have been thinking of is to just deepen 4 of the 11 cores to provide a heavier core for heavier bullets. Once I get up & actually making bullets, I'll have a better idea. Should be easy enough to deepen the existing hole w/ an appr bit.
I saw where a guy flipped a mold and drilled out new holes for different size and put the Sprue cutter on that end.
If there is enough metal on the opposite end for depth or drill between the existing spaces but on the opposite side, this would give you 2 core size options per mould. Hope I am being clear, GunWhoreDer
That would be the very first picture in this thread, I used an old mold for 357 and drilled the bottom for my cores. Still use this mold and have even made my own aluminum molds for 25 cal and 30 cal cores. Anyone with a couple of hunks of aluminum and a drill press can make a core mold.
First, let me say that the step-by-step was very informative.
Also, I hope it is ok for me to post this here instead of starting a new thread.
I'm new to all of this stuff and have been picking up all types of brass at a local range, keeping what I will be reloading and trading (and maybe eventually selling) what I won't. That brings me to several questions that I hope can be answered here.
I currently have no plans on swaging in the near future (although I think the idea of it is very interesting), but I do have a lot of rimfire range brass that I would like to ask some questions about. Up until a couple of weeks ago I had no idea that there was a use for these other than taking them to the scrap yard to be recycled, so I had been throwing them in a large tub with the idea of taking them in once I got tired of tripping over it.
With all of that said, here are my questions:
1) As this brass isn’t all fired from me (in fact most is not), and you never know what some idiot at the range might do (for instance take a 22lr apart leaving a live primer in what looks like just another of hundreds of brass that is swept up), does the citric acid wash done to clean brass work to kill that primer, or does it have to soak and does that work?
2) What method of drying do you find works best? For instance, does air drying actually work, or dose the water just stay trapped in the relatively small opening?
3) Are there uses for the other rimfire brass other than the 22lr? My kids and I have separated most of the brass into 22lr (vast majority), 22 WMR, 22 Short, 17 HMR, & 17 HM2.
4) Is it important to tumble the brass before offering it for sale? I currently only have a Harbor Freight 5lb tumbler with walnut, so I’m not sure how well that would work and if it would be beneficial.
5) Is there anything else that you think I should know, or do, before offering these for trade or sale?
Thank you for reading all of this and for any information you could share with me.
I appreciate the help and knowledge that the people on this forum have given me.
Thanks.
Dave