Henry Rifle Forums

Samples of swaging and messing around
lead bullets
Right to left .357 148grn hbwc swaged to .452 148grn swchp,
two .357 148grn hbwc swaged to .452 296grn swchp



Next up, an annealed 40sw case swaged to .452, with swaged lead and pointed (badly.) final trimmed weight of 285grains




Last up,
annealed 40sw case swaged to .452, final weight 302gairns



Here are the first two that I've done side by side. When I order actual dies, these should clean up and be considerably more even.

.357 bullet made from a drawn 9mm case.




second bullet

I think that one of those projectiles that still has the case, rim, headstamp, and primer intact, would make a good seed for thought on one of your vignettes. Think about a medical examiner that keeps finding them in the drug dealers and sex traffickers that find their way through his facility in a crime riddled urban area someplace.

I can't lie here, I've thought about that more than once.

Part two..

I'm still playing around with the two dies I've got.

1st step, put in swage die, and reform into round nose. This die has a small hole to bleed off excess lead based on how far you adjust the die. you can see that the case lube gets everywhere....



Step two was to run them back through the point form die and form a new ogive. Here are the weights of the seven .357 bullets made from 9mm cases








What the bullets look side-by-side

Soon, once I get a mount... I shall endeavor to become a swaging master.

I've been playing around with case prep, lead amounts and die settings.

The cases were much easier to draw down to .356.

I didn't heat the lead enough; that's why some of the tips are cracking.

Nevertheless, I think the concept is proven. I can't wait for the rest of my swage stuff.

I'll try and load these five hp and the ten rnfps I have and report back

Is the goofing around leading up to something?

Eventually,

I'd like to do another five 9mm to cases to .356/.357 bullets. I want to try these 190's with out the hollow points.

After that, i'll load them all and see how they group.


It'll be the end of february before i can put an order together for swaging dies.

Progress. I'd like this to be a rnfp. I need to figure out how to get this die to get the cartridge out with out needing a ram.

sized to .357, RNHP 220grains.

DsGrouse wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 27, 2025 5:59 pm

Progress. I'd like this to be a rnfp. I need to figure out how to get this die to get the cartridge out with out needing a ram.
...

Mold release spray.
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1010189154?pid=763758

Or case lube.

I've lubed the snot out of these.

It isnt a matter of lube. Its a matter of having the right tools for the job.

These last ones i did on an RCIv instead of on my little 50 dollar lee. The swaging was far wasier, but not having a press set up for swaging and dies for swaging makes a difference.

I might need a couple more dedicated swaging presses.

Loaded,

I sorted them into those that fell into three groups.

170 ish grain bullets,

190 ish grain bullets

200 ish grain bullets.


The 170 grain bullets



The 190 grain bullets


The 200 plus grain bullets



The factory hornady 180 grain JTC-SIL bullets I want to replicate.

DsGrouse wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 28, 2025 5:20 pm

The factory hornady 180 grain JTC-SIL bullets I want to replicate.

I'm enjoying your posts very much.

It's an interesting pursuit and you're making very impressive progress. I think what may continue to be illusive is their uniformity. Hornady bullets feature reliably consistent weights and dimensions.

I'm looking forward to what's next. Thanks for sharing it with us.

CT_Shooter wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 28, 2025 6:21 pm

DsGrouse wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 28, 2025 5:20 pm

The factory hornady 180 grain JTC-SIL bullets I want to replicate.

I'm enjoying your posts very much.

It's an interesting pursuit and you're making very impressive progress. I think what may continue to be illusive is their uniformity. Hornady bullets feature reliably consistent weights and dimensions.

I'm looking forward to what's next. Thanks for sharing it with us.

I'm operating off a 1940s die, a torch, and 148-grain bullets. A core that actually fits in the case and actual dies would make a huge difference. The six bullets I did today with 148's averaged 208. + or - 0.7 grains. That's not bad for six bullets. I'm getting better. Each day I'm trying a different proccess.

In the case of today's swaging, I actually tried three different things. I'll get this sorted down.

So, six 148-grain HBWC melted into the 9mm case averaged 208 +- 0.07 grains. That means a 140-grain core would net me 200grains, a 130-grain core, a 190-grain bullet, a 120-grain bullet 180-grain bullet.

That gives me a place to start when I start dropping cores.

While what you’re doing is way above my head but it’s interesting following along.

All targets at 55 yards.


Here is my go-to load,
180-grain Hornaday JTC-SIL with 5.8grains of Win 244 (this is a GRT-specific modeled load base on my Henry's chamber,) COAL 1.575.
This is a 10 shot group. I cleared the two cold bore shots from the chrono data.




Here is the first grouping with the swaged bullets that ranged from 170-to 179 grains. I had 11 bullets that I made in four sessions, the I tried different things during each session. So, with that caveat, none of these were very consistent. This is 11 shots at 55 yards. 5.8 grains seated at 1.575 coal




Next up, the 11-shot 55-yard group from the 190-ish grain swaged bullets. Again, these 11 bullets were made in four batches. The weights ranged from 189 to 198 grains. You can see there are some stability issues. I fired three shots at the left diamond, but I did not realize two of the bullets went into the same hole. I relocated my point of aim to the bottom of the solid red line. Four of the 190-grain bullets seem to be on the edge of being unstable. Now, is that the load, bullet point shape, or is it something else? I don't know. 5.8 grains 1.585 coal





This is the final group of swaged bullets; there are nine in total. Four weighed 208 grains, and three weighed 220 grains. They were fired at 55 yards. 5.8 grains seated 1.595 coal. The stability issues are more prevalent. I am unsure if this is due to the bullet's overall length or to the inconsistencies in the bullets I swaged.





Now, that little experiment seemed to prove the concept of swaged bullets. For all the given weights, there are places where I think I can narrow this down and have some pretty good bullets.

I'm specifically interested in the 170—and 180-grain range. When I get some actual dies, I'll start by replicating bullets in those weights.

Now that the barrel was warm, I put on my suppressor and fired 15 rounds of my 180-grain Hornady JTC-SIL bullets. Here is that group.

I like how the 170-grain bullets performed. I ordered some spent 380 cases last night. I'll see if I can replicate that 170-grain bullet in a 380 jacket.

Last night I pulled out a .452 die and messed around with some 40 sw cases.

The left two are 360 grains, the right two are 300 +- 3 grains.

Replicated the .452 bullets from last night. 360 grains. All 15 within +- 1.5 grains. All of them are made with annealed 40sw brass.