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Make a full form bullet sizing die ?

Anvil Jenkins

Hot Rolled
Joined
Jan 18, 2013
Location
Ohio, United States
That would be a die to allow you to pre rifle a bullet so that it was a push fit from the muzzle. Should be somehow able to be adjusted for diameter. They are made from a section of the rifle barrel from the muzzle end usually.

Has anybody ever made one ??
 
Anvil, a full form bullet sizing die is not too hard to make if you know your way around a lathe and are comfortable with internal and external threading. I did a post with pictures over on Dougs message board a while back. It is in the tips and hints section in the savage/smokeless thread. I will try to post a link but don't "hold your breath".Building a full form bullet sizing die | Doug's Message Boards

Hope this helps, keep in mind that some designs are patented...the design in my post is not. It is actually a fun build if you like to tinker as I do.

All the best,

Mike
 
The link worked really great :-).

So if I am understanding correctly the main part of the drop does the "heavy lifting" of the full form sizing, and that last tiny little bit where the 45 and 47 degree angles are working together to squeeze the drop down is what sizes the bullet smaller than just a barrel drop would ??

I have heard of folks just trying a barrel drop and was not suprised to hear it did not size a bullet enough to get where we want to be :-).

I think I can pull off the dia as you show it there, and will have enough drop left over that if it did not work to my satisfaction, still hire the guy with the patent to make me one from the rest of the drop :-).

Thanks so much for the info :-).
 
Anvil, You are correct in your analysis of how the die works and remember that the demensions I gave are not carved in stone. I have found that a finer pitch thread on the internal function generally works better but it still takes quite a bit of effort to squeeze the top using a wrench. Also the dies are caliber sensitive, i.e, can't use a .458 drop to size a .452....would destroy the edge of the die. Takes me at least 4 hours to make the die,and that is if everything goes well, so if you are still in the "time is money" situation, swinglock's 189.00 price tag is not excessive. I am retired so it is not a burden to spend a lot of time on projects. I have used these dies for more than 3 years and have had no problems yet. One thing I have found that really surprised me when using FF sized bullets is how imperfect some of the premium barrels are. Try this, when you get a bullet sized very close, rotate the bullet one land/groove at a time. you will find that one or two orientations will fit a little bit looser than the rest...I mark the bullet with a sharpie as it comes out of the die to a refference spot and mark the barrel at the land/groove where the fit is the best(loose) and load the same way every time. I have achieved very good accuracy this way. I assume you are doing this for muzzleloading with smokeless powder.

Good luck with the build, it really is not difficult.

Mike
 
One benefit of making it myself IMHO is that I can mark one groove on the Od of the barrel then using that mark it on the ID of the insert, say with sharpie, and not have to figure out later which one of 6 ways is the right index :-).

Ordering up a Lee classic cast press today, this was a good excuse to get one :-). Will probably do the mod to be able to use it to swage bullets, I am interested in that too :-).

Will probably make the the die 1-1/4"-12 to screw right in the larger thread of the press. I have a couple "JR" presses which have served me well, but have needed a bigger beefier press for years.

Bill
 








 
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