better pic of the .40 swaged JHP

[Grey_Lion]

My cell phone camera is crap - but had the digital out this morning and grabbed a better picture of my swaged JHP .40 S&W projectiles.

This started life as 2 fired 9mm shell casings.
These were them polished, annealed to a cherry red and polished again.
Then a 165 grain 9mm lead core was inserted.
Then one was initially formed with a creasing die to add 6 creases.

Then both were pushed through a BT sniper nose forming die on a walnut hill swaging press to form both the hollow point cavity and the ogive nose of the projectile. This step also expands the lead fully into the 9MM shell and expands the whole thing to appx .4015 in size. WARNING - I broke a rockchucker in this step- highly recommend only doing this on a press rated for SWAGING - never a standard bullet press.

And the end result are .40 S&W JHP with an average weight of 187gr.

Now besides producing a pretty good JHP, these have one other use - If you fire cast lead rounds - especially through a Glock factory barrel - and have leading. The extractor ring on the 9mm casing does a magnificent job removing any lead fowling and buildup in the barrel.

As for the end result on the creased JHP - test firings have the creased JHP's breaking up into up to 8 pieces upon impact - the 6 creased lead pieces of the top point, then the main body of lead in the round, and then the jacket which tends to daisy out into a jagged flower of brass. This appears to be a low penetration stopping round that sheds a lot of its energy breaking up on impact. It's just the sort of performance I look for in a JHP.

 

[Unclenick]

It certainly looks pretty. What media does it break up in?

 

[Sevens]

That's awesome and I am thoroughly impressed. Forum regular FrankenMauser makes some heavy rifle slugs that start life as .40 S&W brass and I bet he'd get a kick out of these also.

 

[Grey_Lion]

I haven't yet tried them through bona fide ballistics jell. Test thus far have been through mixed stacks of phone books and fashion magazines. I'm hoping to make a block of jell in the future to give me a better idea of the hydrodynamics - put a couple cow bones in some of that to give me hard contact information and solid wound track information. Should I get that done this winter - I'll post.

 

[FrankenMauser]

Looks good.
Clay works well for more 'true to life' results.
Phone books and paper products are really hard on bullets - especially if shot dry.


I tried to order some dies from BT_Sniper -- .44 and .475 caliber. The communication was quite terrible, and he never would give me an answer to a question that HAD to be answered before I committed. So, the conversation eventually died and we went our own ways.
I'm still using a 7x57mm die for the .44 bullets and a 6.5-284 Norma die for the .475s (still working out some bugs with that one - it's not ready for production).

I haven't really had any failures with .40 S&W cases used as jackets, unless I was shooting granite boulders or sizable chunks of steel. But, I don't use a 'notch' die.


Early R&D. Not annealed (hence the smaller base). Crude, but effective.

Recovered from a bull elk's neck. Pure lead core. 75 feet. Muzzle velocity 2,332 fps. 275 gr design weight. 181.6 gr recovered weight. 154% expansion, 66% weight retention:

Hit a cylinder head at 2,000+ fps:

Early R&D for .475" bullets from .45 Auto cases (with potential for .308/.30-06/7x57mm family rifle cases cut down for very tough jackets).
They should eventually settle in at about 350 gr w/ .45 Auto jackets and more like 275-300 gr w/ rifle base jackets.
The funky nose protrusion is just a die adjustment issue.

 

[the Black Spot]

Nice!
Frankemauser, do you just shove the bullet up into the 7x57 die and then poke it back out with something?

 

[Dano4734]

Amazing

 

[FrankenMauser]

Frankemauser, do you just shove the bullet up into the 7x57 die and then poke it back out with something?

Lube helps, and is pretty much mandatory with most swaging operations.
My particular die, however, is an old Bair Cub die. It has some really nice, really slick chrome plating and requires little, if any, lube.
I use some O-1 drill rod sized to the hole in the top of the die, and a smack with a hammer to eject the bullets. (And a clamp style paper clip to keep the ejector rod from falling through the die.)
Basic operations:
Expand jacket mouth to .44 caliber. (Lyman M die.)
*Optional for better bullets: Anneal jackets.
Obtain a pure lead core. (Lead wire or a cast bullet.)
*Optional: Bond cores.
Run the core and jacket up into the die base-first using the base punch ("pusher") from a Lee bullet sizing kit. (Seats the core and expands the case body to full diameter.)
Smack the ejector.
Flip bullet around and run it back into the die nose-first. (Forms nose profile - or 'shoulder' profile, if you prefer.)
Smack the ejector.
Out pops a 'boat tail' bullet that tapers from about 0.430" to 0.432", front to rear (because of the 7x57mm body shape).
Run through a bullet sizer, if desired**.
Load 'em up.


*(Core bonding: Paste flux worked best for me. Brush inside of case. Drop core in. Heat until flux boils off, core melts, and lead 'sinks' in the middle. Let cool, and return to swaging operation. [This method anneals the jacket in the process.])

**(My .44 Mags will eat .431-.432" bullets and the .444 Marlins will take .432-.434" bullets. So these don't really need to be sized; but I do it sometimes, anyway.)