Swage .30cal Pellets — Anyone who has tried this?

[JungleShooter]

Swage .30cal Pellets​

Has anyone tried this?
What gear did you use?

What suggestions can you give me?



After the Peruvian customs have confiscated my latest pellet supply coming in a suitcase with a visitor from the US.... — pellet swaging does not seem such an expensive and labor-intensive option.....


Thank you for any help you can give me.

Matthias

 

[Airgun-hobbyist]

Sounds like you need help "importing" them! I would start out with sourcing a press, then order dies and possibly lead wire (if you are not going to go through the process of casting cores to swage). It might be better to have the stuff shipped separately too. Depending on the use, why not swage slugs instead of pellets?

Here's a good source for swaging different types of metal:

Swaging

If You Mash Lead into Cylinders ! This area dedicated to "Swagerman" James E. Evitts for his tireless pursuits in the craft. RIP Jim.

castboolits.gunloads.com

 

[JungleShooter]

AG-H,

thanks for the link to the CastBoolits forum — yeah, I think I will spend some time there....!


I have been looking at the Corbin swage presses — wow, a LOT of money to get started. But hey, this airgun bug has bitten me pretty bad, so it seems like I would be shooting a lot to make this not just an "expense" but an "investment."

And LongShot has really worked overtime to convince me this is the way to go.....! — What a ruthlessly effective pack of enablers you AGN'ers are!


I have to take the long view of this — as I heard the Corbin dies have waiting periods as long as a year.

But that's OK. It gives me time to find a gun on the classifieds. Maybe get it modified. Figure out what projectiles I really want to make myself (and which projectiles I will try to buy from dealers in the US and Peru).


You asked about slugs — yes, I'm thinking of possibly making both:
▪ Slugs for my extreme long range gun (existing in my dreams, however, the scope for the gun is arriving on Saturday — one piece at a time).

▪ Pellets for angled shots, where I don't want a high BC slug travel for a mile or more downrange.
➔ And they must have a huge hollow point for maximum expansion.
➔ For these I want a BC of around 0.040 maximum.


I still do like some advice on what dies exactly I would need to buy — and what kind of pellet shapes are possible with those dies.



Or what dies exactly do I need to make a WC HP (wadcutter hollow point)?

Or should I rather go with a SWC HP (semi-wadcutter hollow point slug)?

Or simply a slug with a hugely gaping HP?

This is all very new to me.... — but another exciting rabbit hole of our airgunning hobby to fall into....!!

Matthias

 

[Airgun-hobbyist]

When buying swaging dies, getting a versetile set of dies is beneficial to tuning and use. Swaging the semi-wadcutter style slug is an all inclusive design. It will punch clean holes in paper and also on animals. It will work for long range paper targets with higher BC by making it longer and without the hollow point pin. And for animals it will make big hollow point expansion using a deep hollow point pin forming the front. Many sizes, many designs, many uses with the semi-wadcutter swage set.

When buying the die set (with multiple gun's of the same caliber.)... Order the swaging die set slightly larger than the barrel bore sizes. This way you can use a bullet sizing die set to squeeze them down to the proper size that each gun's bore likes. You will find that each barrel likes a different diameter (or length of slug). So an inexpensive set sizing die is made for each gun barrel by sanding and polishing the inside of the sizing die to proper bore diameter (using the hand drill at the bench).

 

[JungleShooter]

Very helpful — thank you! I have read quite a bit about swaging, but since I'm bloody new at this, it's nice when a person who KNOWS summarizes the essential in two paragraphs!
THANKS!



So, these sizing dies you talk about, does Corbin sell those as well?
What exactly am I looking for?
Links?

Your advice to buy swaging dies a bit too large, and then size my slugs down to the perfect size of each barrel that I want to use — genius!
Sure, it's one more step of work — but it opens up a whole range of options....


This is exciting!

Matthias