Another Bullet Making Thread (lots of photos & video)

[Lee Martin]

It has been a few years since the forum had a tutorial on bullet swaging. I thought one more couldn't hurt.

In January I decided to make my own 6mm bullets for our PPC, BR, and Wasp. After feedback from a few forum members I called George Ulrich. And was that ever a smart choice. George not only delivered everything I needed but he spent considerable time answering my countless questions. So what I'll show below are all the steps, theories I've collected, and general techniques on bullet making. Just note I'm new to this. Short of some bullets I made with my dad and Homer Culver in the 90's, I'm a complete novice.

This'll be old hat for many of you but hopefully informative for others.

Thanks,

-Lee
www.singleactions.com

 

[Lee Martin]

Step 1 - The Work Area

I wouldn't think of getting into this without a dedicated swaging bench. I took the DIY approach and got everything I needed at Home Deopt. Material cost ran $40 and it is fairly stout:



You’ll see the core cutter mounted to the right edge. This one is homebuilt and I’ll cover how it works later on.



Minus the presses and dies, here are the components needed to craft benchrest bullets (some of which I may or may not use).



-Lee
www.singleactions.com

 

[Lee Martin]

Step 2 - The Dies

After a long discussion with George, I landed on a 8.5 ogive pill from his carbide dies. Jackets have been sourced from Bart Sauter (ie, Hines Tactical, 0.820").

Here are the Ulrich dies. The first is the core swager (aka, “squirt die”) at it’s made from steel. The second is the core seater, the third is the point-up die. Those are carbide:



The punches. Top to bottom:

• Core swaging punch
• Core seating punches – 0.2110”, 0.2115”. 0.2120”, 0.2125”, and 0.2130”. These much be matched to the jacket. The appropriate size is 0.0005” under the jacket’s inner diameter.
• Point-up punches



At first I asked for two presses. I planned on using one for core swaging and core seating. The second would be dedicated to point forming. But I changed my mind and just ordered a third. That way I can set the dies and never worry about losing adjustment when swapped. It should arrive shortly.

Core squirting press mounted:



Auto-ejection top:



A view of the punch and converted ram:





-Lee
www.singleactions.com

 

[Lee Martin]

Step 3 - Cutting Cores

The first part to making bullets is core cutting. For 6mm we start with 0.185” pure lead wire that contains no more than 0.5% antimony. Higher amounts impede swaging and can be hard on the dies. Mine is 0.1%, which is pretty much plain lead.



The wire is measured and cut to 18” lengths:





You get 25 cores per so to make 1,000 bullets I’ll need forty. Before processing I wipe them with an acetone soaked rag. This just removes loose particles and surface contaminants.



The core cutter - I almost ordered this until my dad said to hold off. After rummaging through his shop he found one he built in the early 1980s. Like many of his contraptions it wasn’t pretty but was way over-engineered. The plates are half-inch steel tensioned by a small-block Chevy valve spring. Its cutting inserts are machined out of 4140 and honed 0.192”. This supports the rod and still gives it adequate room to drop.



Underneath is the stop. He used a plain bolt with the top ground smooth. This is moved up and down until the desired core weight is reached. Then the nut is locked in place (note the Chevy valve spring):



We want the core overweight prior to swaging. Excess is bled off under pressure, giving uniform height, weight, and diameter. Calculations are as follows. In this case I’m aiming for a 67 grain bullet:

Cut core weight = (total bullet weight) – (jacket weight) + 2 grains
My jackets average 22.40 +/- 0.01
Cut core weight = (67.0) – (22.40) + (2.0) = 46.60 grains

The stop is adjusted until they land around 46.60. Plus/minus variations of 0.10 are acceptable.



Top view of the cutter:



Always discard the first core off a rod. The hand snipped end is never flush. Here’s a brief video of me blanking cores:

It takes about an hour to make 1,000.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com

 

[nmkid]

continue

 

[Hengehold]

Step 3 - Cutting Cores

The first part to making bullets is core cutting. For 6mm we start with 0.185” pure lead wire that contains no more than 0.5% antimony. Higher amounts impede swaging and can be hard on the dies. Mine is 0.1%, which is pretty much plain lead.



The wire is measured and cut to 18” lengths:





You get 25 cores per so to make 1,000 bullets I’ll need forty. Before processing I wipe them with an acetone soaked rag. This just removes loose particles and surface contaminants.



The core cutter - I almost ordered this until my dad said to hold off. After rummaging through his shop he found one he built in the early 1980s. Like many of his contraptions it wasn’t pretty but was way over-engineered. The plates are half-inch steel tensioned by a small-block Chevy valve spring. Its cutting inserts are machined out of 4140 and honed 0.192”. This supports the rod and still gives it adequate room to drop.



Underneath is the stop. He used a plain bolt with the top ground smooth. This is moved up and down until the desired core weight is reached. Then the nut is locked in place (note the Chevy valve spring):



We want the core overweight prior to swaging. Excess is bled off under pressure, giving uniform height, weight, and diameter. Calculations are as follows. In this case I’m aiming for a 67 grain bullet:

Cut core weight = (total bullet weight) – (jacket weight) + 2 grains
My jackets average 22.40 +/- 0.01
Cut core weight = (67.0) – (22.40) + (2.0) = 46.60 grains

The stop is adjusted until they land around 46.60. Plus/minus variations of 0.10 are acceptable.



Top view of the cutter:



Always discard the first core off a rod. The hand snipped end is never flush. Here’s a brief video of me blanking cores:

It takes about an hour to make 1,000.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com

Great post and pics. Thanks for sharing.
Trevor

 

[Lee Martin]

The third press arrived this week and it’s now installed. Left to right – core swaging, core seating, point forming:

-Lee
www.singleactions.com

 

[Lee Martin]

Step 4 - Core Swaging

The cut core now has to be sized to the proper dimensions. Using a swage die, the lead cylinder is compressed causing excess to bleed off. The result is a core which has expanded to the correct diameter for seating. In the process it is shortened and the ends are flushed smooth.

Before you swage cores they must be lubricated. There’s no one way to do this. A lot of guys use anhydrous lanolin mixed with Vaseline, neatsfoot oil, or castor oil. This is lightly applied to the walls of a glass jar and tumbled for 5 minutes. I went petroleum based and chose Marvel Mystery oil. Automatic transmission fluid works equally well. The carrier is acetone and the cores are simply dunked into the mix.

One gallon of acetone is poured into a 5 gallon bucket.



A second 1 gallon bucket is drilled dozens of times. Make sure the holes are less than the diameter of the core. I went with 11/64”.



1,000 cores are placed in the small bucket:



6 ounces of Marvel Mystery Oil is added to the acetone and stirred.





The 1 gallon bucket is submerged, pulled, and dunked a few times.



Cores are then laid out to dry. The acetone evaporates in 10 – 15 minutes.



Next the lubricated cores are swaged. The second photo shows the extruded amount of excess lead (note – I cut one core long to better capture the squirt. My cores bleed about half this much).





A few processed cores are weighed to ensure I’m hitting the desired weight. Ulrich’s die does a fantastic job of making these uniform. The goal was 44.60 grains and mine land between 44.57 and 44.62 grains.



Here is a short video of me swaging a couple. The best way to achieve consistency is to run the ram into the die, hold for 2 seconds, lower it, and repress and hold for another 2 seconds. You want to apply the same amount of pressure and dwell time core to core.

Left – rough core, Right – after swaging.



2,000 swaged cores. It took about 9 hours to run these, and that includes cutting time.



-Lee
www.singleactions.com

 

[Eric Leonard]

thanx for the time you took to post this,very interesting

 

[hunter243sgk]

Yes thanks I really like this please keep going.

 

[rpeacock]

Very informative post and very well done. Please keep it up! Russ

 

[Lee Martin]

Step 5 - Core Degreasing

The cores must be thoroughly degreased before jacket seating. I use Coleman camp fuel to do this and with good results. 1,000 cores are placed in a mason jar and filled with the solvent. After 2 minutes of gently rolling by hand, the wash is drained through the punctured lid.



Fuel is poured to the top of the core line:



Draining.



After this is done three times the cores are placed in a strainer. Clean Coleman is poured over them for their final rinse.



They’re then laid out to dry.



Some take this a step further and etch the cores. This roughens the surface a bit and in theory gives better jacket adhesion. After talking to a few folks, including Ulrich, I’m not convinced this does anything to improve accuracy. George recommended I just degrease them and move right to seating. Maybe in time I’ll etch and see if it makes a difference on paper. The steps involved go as follows:

Get a colander and some tri-sodium phosphate (TSP). Put the colander in a large metal pot and pour the cores into it. Make sure the colander has feet that raise it an inch or so off the bottom of the pot. Add a half gallon of water and one tablespoon of TSP and place it on a stove. Bring the water to a boil and allow it to cook for ten minutes. Then rinse them in a strainer with hot running water. When dry they’ll be dull in color and look frosted.





-Lee
www.singleactions.com

 

[6MMsteve]

Amazing

 

[mac86951]

Hooked.

 

[Lee Martin]

Step 6 - Lubing the Jackets

The jackets are first cleaned with acetone. For the record, I’m using Hines Tactical 0.820”s from Bart Sauter. They’re very high quality with respect to concentricity and composition. I’m told the gilding metal’s properties are as critical, if not more important than wall uniformity. Of course the latter is still needed for top precision. To date I’ve been shooting Bart’s 68 gr Ultra FB and they’re killer. No surprise I’m buying jackets from him for my home spun 67’s.

I decided to run my bullets in batches of 500. Two jars are filled with that quantity and acetone is poured to the top of the jacket line. The jar is gently rolled by hand for two minutes and drained. All 1,000 are spread out to dry.





Prior to core seating the jackets are lubed. Many concoctions will do such as anhydrous lanolin mixed with vasoline, neatsfoot oil, or castor oil. A 5:1 ratio seems common. However George Ulrich prefers straight anhyrdrous lanolin and he sent me a few ounces to try.



If you’re wondering about the source of lanolin it’s natural. Sebaceous glands of wool-bearing animals like sheep secrete it.

The lanolin is carefully weighed and smeared on the walls of a mason jar. Consistency is a must here. Not only do you want to use a minimal amount for the job, the weights should be identical batch-to-batch. First we tare the electronic scale with a piece of wax paper.



A small, and I repeat small dab of lanolin is added with a knife. I’m aiming for 2.0 grs so this is heavy by a ½ grain.



With a knife I’ll cut a little off the top until I hit 2.0 grs. The lanolin is then smeared inside the jar by hand. Be certain there are no visible globs on the glass. A jacket’s edge could grab this solid mass and get inside. We only want it on the outside of the jacket. Once applied, the jar looks hazy with no signs of yellow. 500 jackets are poured into the two and separately placed in my rock tumbler.





The jars are tumbled for 30 minutes a piece. Here’s some video of that step:

Using plastic tweezers I place them in my trays. Dedicated bullet boards are faster and save a lot of time when dropping cores. I almost made one from Delrin on my Bridgeport but these .22 ammo boxes work well. Each holds 100 and they’re only $35 for ten.





-Lee
www.singleactions.com

 

[Lee Martin]

Step 7 - Core Seating

With a different set of plastic tweezers I drop the cores into the jackets one at a time. Be sure not to use the same set that pulled the jackets from the jars. Those likely still have residual lube on them. We don’t want any oil to get on the cores. That’s why I don’t insert these by hand.

1,000 jackets ready to get cores



Left – blank jackets. Right – jackets with cores dropped in.



We’re now ready to core seat. This is probably the most vital step in making precision bullets. First the punch must be matched to the jacket. The optimal size is 0.0005” under the inner diameter of the jacket to the final lead line. Mine took a 0.2120” punch.

Core seating accomplishes a few things. One it firmly attaches the lead core to the copper jacket. This is done through ram pressure. And we want a hair line of bleed around the punch. It’s tough to get a picture of this but under magnification you’ll see a tiny amount raised off the top of the core. The second thing at play is the principle of expanding up. The cored jacket is undersized until seated. This die swells the outer diameter to the final o.d. As the jacket widens it shrinks in length by a few thousandths. Ulrich told me how to adjust the die to get there and even sent samples. The die is backed-out and then screwed down until it contacts the jacket. Now the jacket won’t transfer off the punch until it’s expanded. So keep going down until it stays in the die on upstroke. George said to shorten it by around 0.005” and match the diameter of his cored samples. My jackets measure 0.820” in length so I tinkered with the die until I got 0.815”. If you go too far you’ll pop the cup. I’ve yet to do this but I’m told they make a loud crack when ruptured. At 0.815” my bases mic 0.2432”. Dead on to the ones George provided. The die is locked.

The cored jacket is placed on the punch and processed.



The cored jacket as it ejects.



Just like core swaging, stroke pressure and dwell time must be the same throughout. Here’s a short video of me seating cores.

The cored jackets are left to sit for 48 hours before pointing-up.

-Lee
www.singleactions.com

 

[BOBC]

It has been a few years since the forum had a tutorial on bullet swaging. I thought one more couldn't hurt.

In January I decided to make my own 6mm bullets for our PPC, BR, and Wasp. After feedback from a few forum members I called George Ulrich. And was that ever a smart choice. George not only delivered everything I needed but he spent considerable time answering my countless questions. So what I'll show below are all the steps, theories I've collected, and general techniques on bullet making. Just note I'm new to this. Short of some bullets I made with my dad and Homer Culver in the 90's, I'm a complete novice.

This'll be old hat for many of you but hopefully informative for others.

Thanks,

-Lee
www.singleactions.com

Well done Lee. You've covered very thoroughly, all of the steps involved in hand bullet making. Your finished bullets should produce nice little one hole groups.

The bullet dies you are using show me outstanding craftsmanship and quality.
Now enjoy the fruits of your dedicated labor and shoot numerous micro groups.
If you don't, you can't blame you bullets.

I bet your 2nd's will most likely out shoot the factory production type match bullets.

Thanks for taking the time to produce this thread.

GOOD SHOOTING.

Bob Cauterucio

 

[mac86951]

Well done Lee. You've covered very thoroughly, all of the steps involved in hand bullet making. Your finished bullets should produce nice little one hole groups.

The bullet dies you are using show me outstanding craftsmanship and quality.
Now enjoy the fruits of your dedicated labor and shoot numerous micro groups.
If you don't, you can't blame you bullets.

I bet your 2nd's will most likely out shoot the factory production type match bullets.

Thanks for taking the time to produce this thread.

GOOD SHOOTING.

Bob Cauterucio

Well, I guess that puts the endorsement on which thread to review for hand bullet making.

 

[Grimstod]

This would make a great permanent article in the website.

 

[Hengehold]

This would make a great permanent article in the website.

+1. This would fit nicely under the technical article section.

-Trevor