my weekend projects

[BT Sniper]

Been busy upgrading tools and trying to finalize a bullet design for the 429-40S&W project.

Here is some pics. Our good computer took a dump and now have to figure out a whole new program. Haven't figured out how to reduce their size yet so some may be a bit big.






this was my attempt to make a better base punch to secure to the standard shell holder. The new ram only needs a threaded bolt with a nut to hold it in place. should be very strong.









Well it seemed to work as the pics don't look to bad and all same size.

Good shooting guys. Hope to get some recovered test results from some of these bullets soon.

BT Sniper

[sav300]

BT,thanks for the great pictures.I am useing 40s&w cases for my 444marlin.
Some questions if you do not mind.
1/ Do you anneal your brass?
2/ Do you swage the base of the brass to 429/430?
3/ What do you use for a core and weight please?
Thank you and like the w/c.

I annealled some brass for several minutes,cooled them and seated a core After swaging the base was the same size as the case,shot well too.Only done 5 (310gn) as a test to see what happens

Lionel

[BT Sniper]

1. yep.

2. yep, taken care of from the core seat and/or final swage die. Needs to be annealed to the point they golw from a heat treat oven or direct flame of some sort then it is easier yet still takes a little force from the press. After you annealed it and set the core you said the base was the the same size as the case. Does this mean ..429-.430 or the original .425ish?

3. right now a lee 2 cavity 175 grain 40 cal truncated nose that I reamed the lube grove out of to give me 185 grains. I bored out the other cavity to give me a core to make 280 and also have a piece of alunimum bored out to also give me a 300 grain. Haven't shot anything but the 255s yet though.

Try to get us some accuracy results or recovered bullet pics, always like to see those.

Good shooting

BT

[littlejack]

Very nice Brian.
Jack

[BT Sniper]

Anyone care to guess what sort of performace the JHPWC would have? I can pretty much figure out it's balistic disadvantages but what about expansion or explossion of what it hits?

[d_striker]

How do you make those notches?

Do you ever do that to your swaged .40 bullets?

[BT Sniper]

Haven't yet but I could. I would need to use the core seating die to do it. Kind of a bit of a process but I have posted the work here before. Think I deleted the pics though. I'll take some new pics of the process.

Short version.... I took a grade 8 steel bolt and turned it down to fit inside the seating die of the 40 S&W reloading set. If you notice the top of the grade 8 bolts has 6 hatch marks. this was my pattern as I cut away the excess to form 6 cutting teeth. Then mount the core seated jacket in the shell holder run it up in the die to make 6 cuts. After that I ran that into the seating die with a concaved round surface to get the look of the JHPWC or you run it into the regular swage die to get the XTP look bullet.

I am in the thought process of making this work in one step of the core seating die.

[scrapcan]

Once again thanks for sharing and nice work. I like the JHP. I was reading some info last night in a machine shop tips and tricks book I got for christmas and it said to anneal and heat treat in stainless foil to keep scale to a minimum. And it was mentioned that depending on temperature you may be able to do it in regular cooking foil.

[Ammosmith]

What case is that? Is that a .45 magnum?

[BT Sniper]

44 Auto Mag Pistol (AMP) Only pistol I have. Case is a cut down and reamed out 30-06 or any other standard case with a .473 rim diameter. Same length and power of a 44 Rem Mag. Fits the pistol in my avator or name tag thingy.

<----------- that one there

[sav300]

BT.swaged size is .430.both side and base,have a little bit of extractor groove left.Not game to try more pressure on the handle of the press.

[BT Sniper]

If you are at .430 I would say you are good to go. Certainly don't need any more pressure then that.

Good shooting

BT

[Ammosmith]

Nice cannon! My cannon ripped my rear sight to shreds. It's a Grizzly 45 magnum. Shooting a 255gr cast SWC with 24.0grs of H110 was too much for the sight. I think I need to put the 357 barrel back on it when the sight comes back. What kind of performance are you getting? From the swaged bullets that is as far as accuracy?

[BT Sniper]

My accuracy testing is limited to 30 feet at the moment. The 40 S&W jackets were giving me about 3/4" to 1". I'm no expert either with pistols and hope to get some reall testing in soon. I can make a bullet from a thinner more conventional brass jacket that dang near went one hole at that close range. It was certainly on par, if not better then the hornady 240 grain XTPs I was testing against. So far I have pushed the 255 grian 40 S&W jacket to 1300 FPS with W296. Could probably get even more but didn't want to be so hard on the cannon

I'll have to check my numbers and data a bit. Got more pics too if I can find them. Have had quite a few other shooters doing pretty well with the 40 s&w jacketed 44s too.