Ok, i have a desert eagle that does not like my PC bullets nor do i like paying for j words to go blasting with it. I don't use it for hunting and just general shooting and destruction of electronic items that have failed me. That being said I read up on alot of the threads here and watched the videos on youtube just wanted to confirm what i doing was right before expanding operations for production. I only did a few for proof of concept thatworks for me without an excess amount of work to it.
1 - Took un-sized 40 smith brass and heated via torch till they were orange. I did not SS tumble them afterwards, but I would plan on doing that for production.
2 - used a plum bob to expand the cases to allow the boolit to fit in. Took one of my PC lee 180 grain and stuffed it in the case using the method mannyCA had on youtube. I think i got the boolit in there far enough. I do not have pure soft lead available but the stuff i'm using is a mix of a lot of different types. some water pipe, some WW, some soft flashing. No i'm not going to fine pure soft lead for this.
3 - used an 06 die to form the nose and sent it through the lee sizing die afterwards. only the base / web of the case came out the right diameter. should more of the case towards the lip be closer to that? the bullet seamed to taper.
4 - loaded it up in 44 mag and shot it out of my eagle and redhawk. accuracy was ok but it wasn't under ideal shooting conditions. I did have three primers in the loaded projectile come out. There were three small holes in the cardboard. i did find one of the rounds, that one the primer was missing. Using this for suppressed operations might be problematic with a loose primer.....
Plans for larger production and expansion to other boolits, (45 to 458) i saw that dropping them into a lee pot for 10-15 minutes works per BTsniper, for annealing??? I'm not putting them on a grill or using a turkey fryer, nor am i buying a $800 ceramic oven. I do that and the wife will want to start throwing pots and other crafts.
Also, if using a lee pot and its the right size boolit for the case, would remelting it in the case work better? Combining, essentially, seating and annealing in one step?
Any suggestions?
.