I just received a set of swaging dies I custom ordered a little over a year ago to make bullets for my smokeless muzzleloader. These are an opent tip match (OTM) design. They probably have a little lower BC than the Parker MH bullets I have been shooting but I can make them much more cheaply.

It has been a little bit of a learning curve but I have made a few this weekend and have a few I feel good about. Picture of blems I made two days ago; used them today to see if I could get them to hit paper and fly point forward. From left to right:

1. 291.1gn

2. 317.7gn

3. 309.5gn

4. 321.5gn

5. 329.5gn




I spent the morning making some barricades to train on for the upcoming DMR match, helped clean the house, then headed to the range to see if I just wasted a month's pay on this project or if I could sleep easy tonight. I measured out six charges of 65gn of IMR4198 and sized a 250gn BE. I swap this scope between guns and don't always remember what it was mounted on or what the correction is to get it zeroed on whatever it is newly riding on. At the range I loaded the 250gn BE and shot it at the large piece of cardboard I was using as a target. I hit 6.2mils left and 4.8mils low so I guess it was on my .308Win last. I dialed on the correction, took a deep breath, and loaded up the 294.1gn bullet then let her fly.

5 prototypes, from 291.1-329.5gn, all over 65gn IMR 4198:


I was curious what shot 4 would do as I miscalculated when I made it and it was pretty much a solid instead of an OTM. It opened the entire cluster to 2.5" with the rest being in 1.5", and the best 3 being .75" or so. This is by no means, scientific, or definitive. Things I feel like I can say at this point:

1: I calculated this bullet design to work in a 1-24" twist or faster. My McGowen is supposed to be a 1-24 (actually closer to 1-23.5" when measured) and while I didn't chrono these today, they are flying point forward and making neat little holes in the target. That means they should work in a stock Savage with sabot or any sabotless gun that is 1-24 or faster so long as muzzle velocity is over 2100fps. The lower your MV the more twist you need.

2. I am not worried about the tapered jacket. I didn't anneal these jackets prior to swaging and I did not make any adjustments on my die from where I size BE or MH bullets. These sized with the same effort as anything else and loaded with about the same resistance as a BE or MH.

3. My idea of what would work in regards to bullet design was not completely wrong. The bullet design seems to be fairly forgiving as the bullets have a 40gn or so weight spread and with a single charge shoot to the same relative POI with pretty good precision.

4. In my gun 65gn of IMR 4198 was fine up to the 317gn bullet. I used that same charge for the 321.5gn and 329.5gn but it was a little on the warm side.

The dies from left to right, with corresponding punch: Jacket Draw Die (.50 to .458), Expander Punch (is tapered and is used with core seating die), Trim Die and punch, Core Die (excess lead squirts from that bleed hole as you adjust weight), Core Seat die with two flat punches (since jacket is tapered) and one ogive shaped core seat punch, Pointing die and punch, Punch carrier.



Making a jacket:

Jackets start as .50 caliber, 1.250" in length, and weigh 103gn (on right). After they pass through the draw die ( as seen on left) they are .459, 1.362" in length, and weight 103gn


This is accomplished by using bullet swage lube


A small amount of lube is applied to the outside of the jacket


The jacket is then placed, base up, on the draw die punch and pressed through the draw die


Just like a bullet sizing die, a jacket is drawn down, captured in the die, and pressed from the top of the die as the next bullet is drawn


I can draw about 400 per hour (I need a break about every 30 minutes)

MAKING CORES

To make cores you need lead wire (this is a 25# spool), a core cutter, and a hammer:


The lead wire is fed through the holes in the cutter and placed against the stop screw:


The cutter is then given a sharp blow with the hammer and the core is cut. They need to be cut heavier than the target weight:


Once cores are cut they are sized in the core sizing die:


The cut core is lubed in the same manner as the jackets and placed in the core sizing die:


As it is forced into the die the excess weight is bled from the die:


The sized core emerges from the die on the down stroke:


Technique varies, I'm sure, as does weight due to technique. I have gotten down a process that allows .1-.2gn consistency. These all weight 230.5gn and will make a bullet that is 333.5gn:

SEATING CORES

Core seating die and core seating punch:


The two flat punches and the ogive shaped punch:


Place a degreased lead core in a jacket, place the pair in the die, and press them home:


Core seated and shaped like the ogive:

7mm,

A really interesting write up so far, and quite nice pictures too.

I'm looking forward to the rest of your write up!

POINTING

The pointing die and punch are installed. As the pointing requires quite a lot of compression and the backing out the die a little helps with leverage (I point a bullet in 5 strokes as I work the die down). The bullets are placed base up and pressed into the die:


The bullet is ejected from the bullet die by a bit of large gauge spring wire:


Finished bullet (this one 335gn) at .458:

Today should be the last day of testing bullets before I do the first run of 500. Weather looks like it is going to hold out through the afternoon. The range faces southeast so I prefer to shoot in the evenings, plus this time of year there is almost zero wind the last two hours of daylight.

Bullet drawn to .452 then full formed for my .451" rifle:

It rained all day yesterday so I ran some errands and had dinner with a buddy whom I haven't seen in a year or so but is in town for school for the next month. Today started off dreary and windy but by noon I decided it wasn't going to rain so I packed up for the range. I did a little pistol shooting and checked some .223 Wylde loads I loaded up in range brass. I refuse to leave good brass at a match so I practice with good brass since it lasts and shoot range pick up brass in matches. Once I was done training, I pulled the Bushnell HDMR off my auto-loader and strapped it onto the Green Beanie to do my last test (my second only real test) of the .45 OTM bullets before I make the first run of 500.

I tested bullets at 316gn, 328gn, and 334gn:


I tested them with 60gn of H4198. That charge was arbitrarily picked but I figured it would work fine. With the 334gn bullet it began to bulge primers. The best of the three weights is the 316gn in my gun with this charge. This gun usually averages around 1.5MOA so the performance is in line with what I expected. The 316gn might have done a little better but I just pulled the optic off of one gun, swapped it over, then dialed on the rough adjustment I knew I needed to get close to zero with my SML and it was a cold, clean bore. I did have the steadiest winds while shooting the 316gn:


All bullet were sized using the same setting I use for everything else and could be seated using one firm, or two light hands. I loaded and shot them as fast as I could but it wasn't a Civil War battle drill. Winds were pretty steady, from my 4 o'clock, at 9-12mph with an occasional gust of about 15mph. The 316gn bullets came out at 1.2MOA, the 328gn came out at 1.5MOA, and the 335gn came in 1.7MOA and bulged primers. I don't know if that is because that barrel is a 1-24 and they needed more twist or if the bullet is just more statically stable at 316gn. Regardless, I am going to mash up a bunch of 316gn bullets and push them out for testing.

I know that is a little heavier than some want, and a little lighter than others want. It is just about the right weight in my opinion for 99% of shooting. I will make some lighter ones later using sintered copper and some heavier ones using a heavier and longer jacket. For now this one gets the nod,some guys on another muzzleloader board will test them, then we'll adjust based on feedback.

So, I got my bullet making dies back the first week of August but I have been on the road/mountains/range/etc non-stop for the last month and half. This is only my 3rd weekend home since the middle of July and I spent all day yesterday trying to jump out of an airplane but the weather isn't playing nice. I was going to drive up and see Mike and meet Richard today but my wife has a puking bug I don't want to pass on in the event I have it. Instead, I made and tested some bullets.

Since the light bullets are the thing most of y'all requested I made some 300gn (the lightest I thought would stabilize) and shot them today. I barely beat a rainstorm off the range and while the Shoot'n'See target survived the rain the paper targets from the 100yds test didn't but I was able to rough measure them while they were still hanging.
I shot two groups of five at 100yds to see what was most accurate, wad or no wad, for this load. The load was 300gn BOMB, Fed 209A, and 10/50 duplex of VV N110/IMR 4198. The no-wad load shot a high of 2487fps, a low of 2473s, and had an SD of 7fps with a precision of about 1.3". The wad load shot a high of 2446fps, a low of 2437, and had an SD of 4.5fps with a precision of about 1". The wads shot better and I still had them out so I used them to do the drop test at 300yds. The load may seem arbitrary but it is one I have used before with very good precision in this rifle with 300gn MH bullets. I also knew it was on the lower end of velocity and with the 1-24" twist in this barrel would be the closest to instability I could push this bullet. If you haven't seen them before this is the 300gn variant (I will test the 340gn and 400gn variant in the coming months):


When I finished shooting my .30-30 Improved I hung it's target board at 300yds and put a 1" pasty a few inches from the top to use as my aim point so I could measure drop from a 100yds zero. Winds were picking up by the time I moved to 300yds and were from 3 o'clock at a steady 8mph with gusts to 12mph according to the Kestrel. These last three were loaded and shot with break between as I knew a storm was about to hit:

The group is 3.11" outside to outside or 2.659" center to center for .846MOA. The group is only .62" tall which means with those low deviations it held .197 MOA for vertical. The reason I mention that is because it allowed me to very precisely measure drop at 16-11/16" (16.6875" or 5.312 MoA).

Things I can tell you about this bullet right now:
1: The bullet is short and fully stabilized from a 1-24" twist at 2440fps (just like it would be in a factory Savage) with stability factor of 2.324 at muzzle.
2: Using the MV and drop at 300yds it appears the G1 BC of this bullet is in the high .4s but I need to shoot further to see because that is hard to believe but it is what the calculator says based on drop.
3: It seems to be capable of sub-MOA precision and all I did was run it through my die as it is set for the MH bullet and pick a charge to test .

Interesting thread so far! I am curious how you load these, do you have a special sabot or do you have a process for getting them down the barrel?


Mark

I have an adjustable die made from a portion of my barrel so that I engrave the rifling and size them in one pass. I have another die that draws them down to be land riders. Both ways work but I like the full form bullets.

A friend of mine has been testing these bullets for me and killed the first deer with one. Said it did massive damage to the thoracic cavity. Shot was 236yds thru both shoulders.

Well I would say that is a very good start!
Tell your buddy congrats!

Got my gun tuned up last night for this load and am ready to go deer hunting once I start vacation next week. This Brux barrel has been a pain in the ass but I finally got the full-form sizing sorted out on this gun:


My buddy shot these from his gun using a little hotter load than mine:
300yds


100yds

Now that I got this Brux barrel sorted out and feeling good about it I decided to drop test the BOMBs again. After verifying the Bushnell LRHS on a tall target test last week I swapped it over to the SML for torture testing. Today was 72°F and breezy, great day for shooting.

I had 4 of the Bad Bull version of the 275 Parker BE so I used them to get the new optic zeroed. First round was a half mil low and half mil left. I made a correction and shot the next three (far left). I loaded up and shot three of the 316gn BOMB to establish POI (middle), then shot a 300gn BOMB to establish off-set if any (right):


The 316gn bullet was .5 MOA low and the 300gn bullet was 1.5 low. At 302yds I shot 3 of each, measued drop, subtracted off-set, and calculated come-ups in MOA. I was on track for two, sub-half minute groups but missed a wind call (I get a lot of swirl on the last 1/3 of the range):


316gn bullets were cruising at 2622fps and 300gn bullets at 2685fps. It was really sunny and breezy today and I got some bigger ES numbers than I usually get so I am going to try this again later in the week toward dark and stretch it out to 500yds if nobody in on the range. I still need to shoot them further but I'm running a G1 BC in the .4s and was off by .1MoA on drop at 300yds

Today was overcast so I hit the range again to re-chrono those loads since I got garbage readings the other day:

FF bullets were shooting 2687fps with an SD of 16fps
SF bullets were shooting 2655fps with an SD of 9fps

The SF bullets shoot slower but have lower deviations (the ES for the SF bullet was the same as the SD for the FF bullet) but I would assume that has largely to do with my sizing and seating consistency. The SF also shoot a little bigger groups (.625 MoA compared to .3-4 MoA for FF) but who really cares.

Did anyone get me a LabRadar for X-mas?

That's a bunch of fine shooting, even more so with home made bullets. You're sure doing well with it all.

Just one request; Please post a picture of your bullet press far enough away to see the whole thing.

Thank you,
George

Have you done any expansion tests with these bullets? Just curious with the velocities/jacket thickness with the size of the hollow point what the performance characteristics you expect on different sizes of game animals.

Matt,

I have pulled some bullets out of dirt berms at 100yds but that is not a great test and the only way to describe hitting a berm with that bullet is, "violent".

That buck that Jeff shot is the only thing we have recovered a bullet from. The bullet started out around 2400fps, the shot was 236yds, and the buck dressed at 231 lbs for frame of reference. It monster mashed the lungs and the jacket was found in the exit hole:


My guess is that the jacket and core stayed together until that point as there is no additional hole. At that point the skin grabbed the jacket and the core sailed on. Jacket as recovered:


The bullet also caused the skin to separate from the body from the off side all the way to the head. It was just one long air pocket. It made caping him really easy. I have only seen this with blast injuries and it is called subcutaneous emphysema.

These two were shot to see what happened when the bullet hit bone. One was 97yds the other 107yds:


I have about a week to see if I can get another test done.

George,

It is a Walnut Hill press:

Pretty impressive, I built a few smokeless 45's in the last couple months and was truly impressed with the performance of those rifles. I only used the 300gr Hornady SST MZ bullet sized to load on the lands. IMR 4198 and 3645fps with easy sub-minute accuracy. I've read about the Parker Match Hunters not expanding very well and was curious. Definite expansion on that buck. Thanks for posting the info.

How much powder are you using for that 3645fps? I'm right at 55kpsi according to Quickload and 51kpsi per RSI pressure trace.

Well, knowing little other than what I've read about them and that a few guys were running up to 70grs and getting closer to 2950, I started with what I figured would be a milder load of 65gr. Never strayed from there and the darned things just shoot. Recoil isn't bad at all but I did install muzzle brakes. Zero primer blow by and very normal looking primers so it all looked good. Did bounce that info off some cartridge data, it's high for a 45/70, and well under for 458 win. This was with Luke's new smaller diameter plug and the hunter bolt nose kit for the rem 700 ML action. I also made loading funnels that work as an in-line bullet seater and ramrod guide...made a nifty spin jag for the ramrods too.

Matt,

You want a few of these 300gn bullets? I'm finishing a batch of 1500 today and tomorrow.

I'll send you a PM....just ordered 6 more barrel blanks, 1-20 tw .45 cal....word of mouth from this last batch generated a few more builds...need to make myself one this go around too.

I took some of the 344gn version of these bullets out for some testing:
100yds

505yds

Great write up 7mm. Quite a project.

quote:

Originally posted by RandyB:
3645fps??

Pretty sure that's a typo. Pressure traces show that would be unsafe to unachievable.