I'm interested in swaging a 200 gr lead pill in .44 caliber with grease grooves. I realize this can be readily cast in a mold (which I already do), but I’m primarily interested in very consistent weight from one to the next, and the ability to duplicate diameter in a variety of lead hardnesses.
I have a machine shop at my disposal and have built swaging dies for paper patched 45-70 boolits, and I own a 7 ton mechanical screw press, along with a 50 ton hydraulic arbor press. I also have a copy of Corbin’s #6 handbook but the only bullet examples I’ve seen are slick-sided, whether lead or jacketed.
It occurred to me that a good way to create the grooves might be to roll them onto a finished slick, similar to a cannelure but wider and deeper. I can easily turn the form rolls on a lathe, which could create both crimp and lube grooves.
Alternatively, I suppose a finished cavity could be made, but ejection becomes a problem and I’d have to create a way to pull the undercut areas, similar to what is done on plastic injection molds.
I don’t want to reinvent the wheel, so I’d ask if anyone has swaged a lead slug with grooves in a different manner, or am I generally on the right track?