first try at swaging

[almar]

I recently got into paper patching for my sharps 45-90 and got a great mould from steve brooks. Its a heavy 540 gr bore riding bullet but i wanted to try different weight bullets, maybe hollow point, cupped base etc. I figured swaging was the way to go. I already bought a corbin press some time ago but it was for making checks. I didnt know anything about swaging and still dont that much. It took a few tries at making a reamer that works and a couple of tries at making a decent die but i think im getting there.

The bullets shown were tumbled in birdshot to smooth out some of the edges. I still have to make a proper pin because its not properly fit and allows lead to extrude through. But I managed to make the bullets all around the same weight 398grains. I need to work at this but im making progress.

[HWooldridge]

I made a swage die about 20 years ago but unfortunately made it too large @ .450 finished size - should have been closer to .440 before patching. I used a half round reamer that was ground free hand to make the cavity - I still have the tool and could probably grind it smaller but I sold the rifle so it’s a moot point now. Your slugs look pretty good - they should shoot well.

[almar]

That's what happened with mine as well, i was aiming for .442 but after the diamond lapping it was at .445 so instead of stopping it there i went for a .450 diameter and when wrapped it would be .458. Im having a little trouble figuring the design because the ejector/hollowpoint pin is preventing the slug from being pushed down to the bottom of the die. The initial slug is longer than the finished slug. I think i should order one from corbin to see how they do it but that's going to be a long wait time.