When ordering a set of dies, oneshould be very careful to let the diemaker know what diameter bullet ispreferred and also the ogive that youwant. The bullet should be measured atthe base. On most match bullets youwill notice that the base is about .0003larger than the rest of the bullet. Thisarea, about .015 in length, is called a"pressure ring." Its purpose is to seal offas much gas as possible when the bulletis being driven through the barrel. Justin front of this ring is the true bulletdiameter. For example, a .22 caliberbullet should check .2243 at the basewith a body of .2240, a 6* or 7 caliberogive and a weight of 51 to 53 grains.This is about the size of most .22 caliberbullets shot by bench resters.

[1l[D~(B000ffiG:]0Wffi(B~0DIE BODY

FOR[1l[DI](B000ffiG:]ITJOJ~~~IT0

LOCK RING

LEAD CORE

CORE SWAGE

CoreSwageDie

RAM PUNCH

PUNCH HOLDER

24

By BOB SIMONSON

~~'ITH BENCH REST SHOOTINGW becoming more and morecompetitive every year, group sizesshrinking and records being broken withsuper-sophisticated rifles, many shootersare turning to hand-swaged bullets inorder to control another of the accuracyfactors. With the three leadingcomrnercial bullet makers producingexcellent match bullets, one does notneed to feel out-classed if he is notshooting homemade bullets. However, ifone were to look closely at the resultsof the many matches held throughoutthe country, he would notice that a highpercentage of the winners are shootingtheir own bullets.

The making of a hand-swaged bulletdoes not require a lot of skill, justcommon sense and the ability to followthe instructions from the fellow whomade the dies. The cost of a top-qualityset of .224 caliber steel dies will runabout $200 to $300, depending on thedie maker. A set of .30 caliber dies maycost as much as $400. Carbide dies willrun about $100 higher per set; however,unless you do a whale of a lot ofshooting, I feel it isn't necessary toinvest the extra money in carbide dies.

The equipment necessary for bulletmaking consists of a good sturdy press,a lead wire core cutter, one-inchmicrometers that read to oneten-thousandths of an inch and a veryaccurate powder scale. Bullet jacketscan be obtained from Sierra and theappropriate size lead wire can bepurchased from Kenru ReloadingService, 166 Normandy Avenue,Rochester, New York 14619. Jacketsare available in varying lengths in .22,6mm, and .30 calibers.

Before proceeding to the steps inmaking the more difficult .30 caliberboat tail bullet, let's take a look at thedies. The illustrated cross-section of thecore swage gives us a good example ofwhat a bullet die looks like. The diebody is made of an oil-hardened toolsteel. I prefer to do final grinding on the7/8-14 thread after heat treat, so I canget a perfect fit to the threads in mypress'. The inside thread of the die bodyis 9/16-18 and is cut in a lathe while thebody is still soft. 1 prefer to have threebodies, one for each swage; however,this is not essential.

The plunger, which ejects the core, isalso of oil-hardened tool steel. It isground to a slip fit in the die body and alap fit in the core swage. You will notethat this knock-out plunger also forms aboat tail on the end of the lead core. Imachine this boat tail in the plungerafter heat treat and after the plunger isground and fitted to the swage. This

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way I know the I.D. and O.D. areconcentric. Some bullet makers use anautomatic ejector attachment on theirpress, but I prefer to push out the coreby hand. The ejector system is the sameon all three dies.

The ram punch is also hardened andground to a tight fit to the core swage,which is made of an air-hardened toolsteel with a hardness of 66 Rockwell.Note the three .022 bleed holes in thisswage which let excess lead squirt outwhen the ram punch compresses thelead core. More on this later when wediscuss the steps in making a bullet. TheI.D. of the core swage should be about.004 smaller than the LD. of the jacketyou are going to use. This hole throughthe center of the swage is first drilled,then bored, then reamed to .003 smallerthan the finished size. The 9/16-18thread is cut before the swage isremoved from the lathe so the threadsand the LD. are concentric. The swage isheat treated, then the LD. is honed tosize with a mirror finish. A perfectfinish is required so the lead core willeasily eject; also the plunger and rampunch can be better fitted so no leadwill squirt by them. The core must fit soit will not trap air at the base when it isbeing seated in the jacket.

The next die, the core seating swage,is the same as the core swage except theLD. is .3075. This die has a 13-degreeboat tail cut into the knock-out plunger.This swage is used to pre-form the boattail on the jacket in addition to seating.the core. Two ram punches are required.The first punch, used to pre-form the

boat tail on the jacket, has a diameterabout .002 smaller than the inside ofthe jacket. This punch also has a13-degree boat tail machined on the endof it. The second punch is used to seatthe core into the jacket.

The third and final die is -called thebullet swage and is used to form thepoint on the bullet. It works like theother two dies except it has a 1/16-inchdiameter spring-loaded knock out pinwhich is used to eject the finishedbullet. It is the hardest of the swages tomake. The die is made of the sameair-hardened steel as the other twoswages. The bullet cavity can be formedby several methods. Some die makersdrill and ream the 1/16-inch knock-outhole, then cut the 9/16-18 thread on theswage, then reverse the die 1D-the lathe

This 2-die bullet swaging set, designed and built by the author, consists of, at left, the coreswage, core-seater swage, center, and point forming die, at right

November-December 1969

Making precision bullets requires a sturdybench and press, such as this RCBS A-2, qualityjackets, carefully cut lead cores and highquality bullet making dies.

and drill and ream the cavity about .003to .004 under bullet diameter with aspoon reamer. The shape of the bulletdesired is on this reamer.

There is definitely nothing wrongwith this method, however, I prefer torough drill the cavity and then hardenit. After heat treat, I finish burn orElectrical Discharge Machine (EDM) thebullet cavity. The electrodes are in theshape of the bullet and are made ofcopper tungsten. I bum the cavitywithin .002 of the finished size,revolving the electrode as it burns outthe cavity. By this method I can get amore concentric and smoother cavitywith less steel to hone out. This is thesame method used by the thre~ largestbullet makers when making theircarbide production dies. After thecavity is burned out, I hone it with asteel lap and lapping compound. Thelaps will also have the same ogive as theelectrodes used to bum the cavity.

When I feel that the cavity is smoothenough, I make a bullet, checking it forsize and concentricity. Bullet run out ofnot more than .0005 is acceptable forbench rest shooting. I then finish honingthe cavity, periodically making bulletsto check for proper size. After thebullet is the size I want, I polish thecavity with diamond compound and ahard piece of wood. The higher thepolish in the cavity, the easier it is toform a bullet and the easier it is to eject.

With some idea of what bullet dies

(Continued on Page 51)

25

Precision Swages(Continued from Page 25)

are, let's move on to the job of making a.30 caliber 168-grain hollow point boattail bullet. First, prepare lead wire forcutting and swaging the core. The wirefor a .30 caliber bullet should be .240 indiameter and comes in 25-pound spools.Cut the wire in lengths of about 18inches, roll these lengths on a flatsurface to get them as straight aspossible, then wi~~the wire clean with asolvent such as ~hbon tet (making sureto avoid the fumes). This will removeany foreign material which couldscratch the inside of the die and ruin it.After the wire is clean, again wipe it,this time with a cloth moistened withHoppe's No. 9 or castor oil. This willlubricate the core so it will form andeject easier from the die.

After the 1S-inch lengths arelubricated, cut the wire into the properlengths for swaging with a core-cutter.The weight of the cores should be aboutfour grains over the final bullet weight.With the core cut, swage to size and tothe correct weight. Weigh the jacket andthe swaged core together on a scales.

After the core swage die, or "squirtdie," is screwed into the press (I use anRCBS A-2) and the correct ram punchlocated in the punch holder, insert thelead core and at the same time pushdown on the press handle. This bringsthe ram punch up, forcing the lead coreinto the die. (Be careful of your fingerswhen you bring up the ram punch.)Slowly work the press handle up anddown and at the same time screw thedie down further into the press untilexcess lead starts to extrude out thebleed holes. Be sure the ram comes ~f>top dead center each stroke. Now I backthe ram punch completely out of thedie. Pushing down on the knock-outplunger will eject the formed core.Again, weigh the core and jacket forproper weight. You probably will haveto adjust the die down a little moreuntil you bleed off enough lead to giveyou the weight. bullet you want.

With the die properly adjusted forcore weight, swage the rest of the cutcores. After the cores are all swaged,remove the lubricant by washing themwith a solvent, handling the cores verycarefully. The cores are now ready forseating in the jackets.

When jackets are purchased theyhave a semi-flat or dome-shaped base. Itis very difficult to seat the core and atthe same time fill out and form the boatNovember-December 1969

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tail; therefore, it is necessary to formthe boat tail on the jacket before seatingthe core, which is done by slipping thejacket down over the ram punch thathas the 13-degree chamfer machined onit. The die used is the core seating die,which, as mentioned earlier, has a boattail cut into the knock plunger. Whenthe jacket is pushed into the die the rampunch bottoms out on the knock-outplunger. When the press is top deadcenter it will draw the jacket andpre-form the boat tail. The jacket isejected by pushing down on theknock-out plunger.

After the boat tail is formed on thejacket, use the same die to seat the core.Before seating the core the jackets mustbe lightly lubricated, byrolling the jackets on an RCBSlubrication pad or uninked stamp padcoated with pure lanolin. Then standthe jackets mouth up in a loading block.Be careful not to get any lubricant onthe lead cores, which are inserted bydropping them into the jacket.

We can now seat the cores. Install thecorrect ram punch in the punch holderfor core seating. This punch should bethe same size as the inside of the jacketbeing used for if it is too large it willscratch the inside of the jacket walls orit may trap air being forced out of thejacket when the core is seated. A littlelead can be allowed to work by thispunch during the core-seating operation,so long as it is not a great amount.About .015 in length is okay.

To seat the core, set the jacketmouth-down on the ram punch, beingcareful that the core does not fall out.Pushing down on the press handlepushes the jacket into the die and at thesame time the ram punch forces thecore to the bottom of the jacket. Thiscompletely forms the boat tail and

expands the jacket to the correct size.The die should be adjusted so that theram is top dead center when the jacketis expanded to correct size. I seat mycores to expand the jacket to a diameterof .3080. With the ram punch backed outof the die the jacket can be removed bypushing down on the knock-outplunger-if the jacket was properlylubricated before core seating. When thecores are all seated, wash off all thelubrication with a solvent. I roll thejackets in a towel that has beensaturated with carbon tet.

I should mention that I can alsomake a flat base bullet with this sameset of dies by installing anotherknock-out plunger with a flat end andreplacing the boat tail knock-outplunger in the core seating die.

We are now ready for the finaloperation--the most rewarding ofall-forming the point. The core-seatingdie is removed from the press and thebullet swage die screwed into place; theram punch with a 13-degree boat tailmachined into it is installed. I also havethis punch ground to a very snug fit inthe die to insure that the boat tail of thebullet will be concentric with the bodyof the bullet.

Before forming the point, I againwash off all the lubricant that was lefton the jacket from the core seatingoperation for I like to have an evenamount of lubrication on the jacketseach time I start a new operation. Whenlubricating this last time, be careful notto get too much or too little lube on thejacket. If too much is used, the bulletmay come out of the die too small indiameter and may not be concentric. Ifnot enough lube is used, it may result ina bullet stuck in the die-which can bevery frustrating. Unless familiar with the ~several methods of removing a stuck II

51

·,---

Many shooters question whether it isworth all the trouble to buy a set of diesand make your own bullets. My onlyanswer is that I get much personalsatisfaction in making my own dies andswaging my own bullets. Whether ashooter should make his own bullets isentirely up to him. I know many goodshooters who load right out of thefactory box-and they win matches, too.~~======~==~~========~ In all honesty, it is very difficult tomake a .30 caliber boat tail that willshoot any better than the .30 cal.bullets now being made by Sierra andHornady. As mentioned at thebeginning of this article, many worldrecords have been shot withhand-swaged bullets. However, most ofthese records were shot with .22 or6mm bullets of the flat base variety.These bullets are much easier to makeand I personally feel that good ones willout shoot factory-made match bullets.

Me, I prefer to make my own.

bullet, it is best to send the swage backto the die maker to have it removed.Most die makers will remove the bulletfree of charge.

careful not to damage the edge of thispunch and set the jacket into it verycarefully. Then push down on the presshandle, which will push the jacket intothe die and form the point. I adjust thedie so that the tip of the bullet willcome to the bottom of the 1/16-inchdiameter knock-out hole. When the rampunch is backed out of the die, thefinished bullet can be removed bypushing down on the spring-loadedknock-out plunger. After the lubricationis removed the bullet is ready to shoot.Home-made bullets are not the answerto getting one-hole groups, they are

,Ther.e are two good methods in

lubricating the jacket for final swaging.One method is to roll the jacket on alube pad that is coated lightly with STPor lanolin. I prefer to roll each jacketbetween my thumb and index finger,which are lightly coated with lanolin, asI set them on the ram punch prior topoint forming. To form the point, justset the jacket on the ram punch. Be

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52

only one link in the cham. As any benchrester knows, it also takes a veryaccurate rifle, good scope, and manyhours of practice on the range learningconditions and developing techniques.

03~ d_.;,·--Loading For Bear(Continued from Page 13)

consideration by a handloader inbuilding loads for an important trip to adifferent climate. Use the figure of 60psi change for each degree (Fahrenheit)of powder temperature change as aguide, and use the Powley PSICalculator with good velocity datil todetermine the basis of any change.Remember that, at normal highpressures, a 10 per cent change inpressure equates with a five per centchange in muzzle velocity, and that thechange from a standard to a magnumprimer, or vice versa, usually representsa pressure change of two to five percent, all by itself.

Such computations, intelligentlyused by the advanced riflemen of whomThe Rifle's readership is apparentlycomprised, can provide that last iota ofefficiency that makes the differencebetween success and disappointment ona faraway hunt. ~

The RIFLE Magazine