Hunting bullet

[Stephen Borud]

I build this core mold for my 45 2 4/10th Hartford! I had boughten the swaging equipment from Corbin a few years ago with intention of swaging a .440 straight side paper patch bullet for hunting! I did kill an antelope and a deer with this swage bullet but put it in the back burner because of the cost of buying the lead rope got expensive!

Last weekend I decided to build a core mold out of some scrap 3/4 X 3/4 key stock! After a few days of working on it after work, I finished it up last night! Fired the lead pot up this morning and it worked perfectly! It casts a .435 OD bullet weighing 507grains, after swaging it it weighed out at 497 grains with a .440 OD! My target weight was 500 grains! I also didn't put vent lines in the mold blocks, I wanted to try and duplicate an old Winchester mold, I basically left the end mill marks on one mold block!

http://m559.photobucket.com/albumview/a ... l?newest=1

Stephen

[Clarence]

Steven,

Nice job! I bet you can overheat that small mould in a heartbeat, though.

Clarence

[Stephen Borud]

Clarence I only casted 5 bullets, but you are right, it does keep the heat! Next time I will use a larger chunk of steel! You run out of room when you drill this many holes in that small of blocks!

Stephen

[bobw]

Stephen got an update on your swaging project yet? bobw

[Stephen Borud]

Stephen got an update on your swaging project yet? bobw

Worked like a charm Bob! Swaged about 50 bullets so far! I've killed a few animals with this bullet in the past, looking to do it again!

Stephen

[bobw]

Stephen what weight uniformity are you getting? How much range? bobw

[Stephen Borud]

Bob I've been getting about three tenths of a grain in weight variation!

Stephen

[Kurt]

Stephen.

I don't know if you have a two die set or just a single stage nose form die with a bleeder. You can get the weight down to the exact weight by double pressing the the core.
Lead will flow through the bleeder hole but as the pressure drops the bleed off slows down and if your not holding the lever down the same from bullet to bullet the variances will differ.
A swagged bullet with 3/10 variances does not make any difference in performance because of the lack of voids as long as you get bleed off.
squeezing the core twice or three times will get them exact in weight.

Kurt

[Stephen Borud]

Thanks for the tip Kurt! I have a two die set and only press once! I will try it your way next time!

Stephen

[Kurt]

Like I said Stephen, three grains with a swagged bullet you will never make any difference or even ten grain at hunting distance you will never see it with a swagged bullet.

[Orville]

Another way to get better control on the wt. is a count at the bottom of the stroke which gives more time for the lead to bleed off.

[Stephen Borud]

Orville that's what I do now, of course you taught me that when I got my first swage set up! 3 tenths of a grain in weight is close enough for any kind of shooting!

Appreciate the advice Orville and Kurt!

Stephen

[Stephen Borud]

Orville get that propane bottle set back up on the ranch and we can try this bullet out at some longer ranges!

Stephen

[Orville]

It is set up and still there.

[Stephen Borud]

Good! I need to see if the 45 will keep up with our 50s then!

Stephen