mashburn
posted this
11 September 2023
Hello Ken.
I have a setup, including the old horizontal press, to swage .22 bullets and jackets from fired .22 cases. Included with that bunch of stuff that I purchased there was a couple of die parts to swage 6MM. As I see it, the biggest problem in making swaging dies is the amount of lapping required to polish the insides to a point where the bullets won't stick in the die. Making cast iron lapping spuds is something with which, I have no experience. Due to those problems, and the fact that, I don't know how much time that I will be allowed to stay on the top of the ground, I think, I will go the cast route. Swaging bullets is fun though. You and I have the same urges to make things ourselves, and to me that is as much fun as the actual shooting. You and I would fit in with the Schutzenfest guys, ,for they are mostly a bunch of the old machinist's type. The last time I swaged any .22 bullets, I stuck a bullet in one of my pointing dies and wasn't able to remove it, but I have more pointing dies.
All of this brings me to this question. Didn't you advertise some bare Lee mold blocks a while back? Like you said a powder coated bullet doesn't need lube grooves, so a cherry wouldn't be very hard to make for such a bullet.
Mashburn