It took awhile to get out to the range after having that knee surgery. Nor my dominant shoulder is acting up again. I remounted my scope and started wearing my glasses and groups have tightened up. 🤯 Getting old sure has its downsides. 😥 The upside is that it won't be all that long before I start getting that sweet senior discount. That trimmer collet Dima made sure makes things easier. Enough whining. Seating depth and powder choices/charges can make a pretty big difference. I wish I had a slower twist rate than 1:8, because I've been told it makes a big differen, though that's much easier to find in bolt action than AR. I think Dima is using a 1:12 bolt action. I was told 1:14 when I bought the dies. Like I've said, seating base to ogive gives better consistency, and my jump is HUGE (somewhere around .080") because swaged bullets are short and I seat to the base of the neck for max tension. I've started dabbling in zinc a little for 300 BO & 300 HAM'R, but haven't spent a lot of time on it yet. HAM'R is picky about what bullets fit, so mostly factory there. Steel molds with the right profile are limited. With Hodgdon buying up everyone and raising prices Vihtavuori finally made sense, so I've been playing with that too. Now I get all the hype over it. I've filmed some vids, but just never got around to editing and/or uploading. Either life, laziness or dissatisfaction with the footage got in the way. That and some misplaced/deleted(?) files (organization just isn't my strong suit).🙁 Hope all is well on your end. Happy shooting

It was a brush wad. The thing is that they don't actually fit properly since the rim is too tall. The green wads are what's shown on all the Russian slug mold manufacturer's sites. BPI sells them as BRP-12.

I'm in the same boat with SOCOM and AR-Plus. SW is still cheaper than others, but hard to find in stock now.

Thanks for the tip.

I got excited and a but ahead of myself here. I hadn't quite gfigured out the leaning curve of these molds just yet. You have to run at ~900F and the core pin needs to be heat soaked for good fill out of the driving bands and easy pin extraction (any burrs on the core pin will make for a bad day). Using the right wad makes a big difference BPI BRP-12 (Gualandi BRP 20). I have videos on them and Taofledermaus has some videos with the 6 petal and 3 petal versions. Look for the ones attached to the proper green wad.

I've jumped up to 3/4 inch x #4. They're easier to find and the extra threads give them a little more holding power.

It's all measured in grains here.

I eventually learned to run lead around 900F to get the driving bands to fill out reliably, and the sprues cut my hand. I did snap the pin off the tip of the core pin of my Svarog mold. I haven't had any screw strip out though. There's definitely a bit of a learning curve to these molds but it's worth it. I prefer the AS molds over Svarog. It was hard to get the BRP12 wads, so I had to buy 5k. It sure would be nice if Gualandi had another distributor besides BPI.

For bullet swaging?

Your brass will stay shiny longer too.

It's camouflage so the deer don't see them coming.😆 They're powder coated to reduce leading. Probably not as necessary for slugs.

Mine are from as-molds.com/ They have you fill out your order on the product page and then they email you a PayPal link, but I'm pretty sure they had to change that with the Ukraine situation. It's an odd system, but it works.

Thank you very much for your speedy reply! Do you have any knowledge of the website I’m referring to? It’s CBAROT or something like that. Once again thank you very much for your help Sir!

@@albertangel3839 www.svaroghunt.ru/ ?If so it's Svarog.

@@psykoklown874 Thank you for the reply. A lady at AS molds emailed me to verify I understood the delivery situation that they will make and ship the mold but do not guarantee delivery. I told her I didn’t think I wanted to invest $230 with no delivery guarantee. I truly appreciate your help.

Do you think we can still get these shipped is there any kind of ban for the USA?

Pretty good other than mean old Arthur Itis eating away at me. Can make it difficult to take advantage of the few nice days we get here. This vid shows that I had at least one pretty productive day. 😆

Even Speer lists it as out of stock. At least they have newer data available for download.

@@psykoklown874 do you know where could I download it.

The price of admission is definitely prohibitive. It's good that reloading costs have finally started to come back down.

@psykoklown874 definitely. My main issue recently has been lrp and lpp. I'm very stocked on the other 2 I use (don't need magnums for my loads) but recently finally found em, albiet more than I want to pay but had to splurge with hunting season coming up.

Dima's collet makes it work. Then it's all about finding the right jacket length for the bullet weight you want to make. That takes some trial and error.

😆I hear ya. Things spiraled out of control, but it sure is nice not to have to adjust every time I change cartridges. I managed to score the trimmers for around $50 each.

You have to shorten the jackets for them to work for each bullet weight, and the tail style and point profile affect the length. After chopping the necks I have to shorten them another .050" or so for 77gn, so unless you're trying to recreate Atomic Ammo 112gn .223/5.56 rounds... I recently got a much better semi-custom setup for trimming jackets that isn't a pinch trim die. I recently learned about 6x45, and wasn't happy that I'd drawn my supply down for .224. Now I wish I could easily re-expand them to 6mm. There are dies to expand 22lr to 6mm, but they aren't designed for longer brass. Getting the jacket off the base punch is the problem. If I had a lathe/mill I'd try some ideas I have to make something, but I can't afford to pay a machine shop to make something that might not work. It would require a stripper bar under the brass to be able to extract the base punch. I'm wondering if an expansion "ball" with a small bearing surface would help with friction, or if it would just allow the brass to buckle during extraction.

I draw down 17 hmr & 22 wmr to 6mm and then to .224.

It sure is nice to find some good powders at reasonable prices, and you're right, it would be an even sweeter deal to find them locally. I stocked up on Clean Shot for 9mm and AR-Plus for .223. I've been waiting to get my 300 HAM'R barrel back from Wilson. They list SOCOM in their load data. Today I went to find the last lb of Tactical that I thought I had only to find that I must've already used it. I thought I had a little Precision left as well, but it's gone too. At least I have another lb of Match. I thought I was out of that. Here is their dealer locator map: www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1xmfQ4OfNF-rQVeeuJpuH-GPEOyB3RwcV&ll=40.4097298049114%2C-99.21793160000001&z=5 They list one 50 miles from me.

It's another one I made at the same time. I've been wondering what happened to him too.

I've had quite a few times when Dawn just didn't do the job, but Woolite has always worked. Also, swage lube is harder to remove than sizing lube.

The molds are very similarly constructed, and both have their pros & cons. Svarog handles are more comfortable in the hand (think Lee vs RBS handles), but the AS core pin handle is larger and easier to grip. I think AS may have the edge in quality, but I'd say it's really more down to the slug design you want since they both have offerings the other doesn't. I have the Svarog Zveroboy, but I think the Twister verion is a better design since thins at the separation point, and has a bit more of a diabolo shape. In theory it should fragment more consistently at lower velocities (TFM had them fragmenting subsonic).

@@psykoklown874 Cheers man for your reply. I've been speaking with Elizabeth today over at AS via email. She too mentioned AS were of better quality :) The twister 6 and 4 slits look very nice I was after an Oz fragmenting slug. And I think the botfly matches that criteria?!

@@ClarkesonTheMarksman From what I can find the Botfly is closer to 1 oz than even the 6 petal Twister. I suggest ordering extra core pins for segmented slugs if possible since the fins can be easily damaged if dropped. You can file them smooth, but they'll be misshapen after awhile. AS won't sell replacements (claim hand fitted), but they might if ordered at the same time as the mold.

@@psykoklown874 sweet man. Thank you

The molds are very similarly constructed, and both have their pros & cons. Svarog handles are more comfortable in the hand (think Lee vs RBS handles), but the AS core pin handle is larger and easier to grip. I think AS may have the edge in quality, but I'd say it's really more down to the slug design you want since they both have offerings the other doesn't. I have the Svarog Zveroboy, but I think the Twister verion is a better design since thins at the separation point, and has a bit more of a diabolo shape. In theory it should fragment more consistently at lower velocities (TFM had them fragmenting subsonic).

I've never heard of the ceramic polishing media. Thanks for the info. Bear in mind that swage lube isn't the same as sizing lube, it's thicker and harder to remove. Woolite removes lanolin from clothing, so it pulls double duty for me.

@@psykoklown874 ceramic media works good. Its a bit expensive, about 45 bucks for 5 pounds but lasts forever. Just make sure you get the media that says polishing. The other stuff is to abrasive My case lube is much closer to a 60/40 mix of lanolin and caster oil. Not as thick as yours so probanly easier to get off. I have also used boiling water over the cases and bullets to remove the lanoline prior to tumbling them. If you can get rubbing alcohol cheap enough in bulk you can soak your bullets in that to desolve the lube.

@@jonleone777 That price actually isn't much different than SS media. Thanks for the tips.

Really, thank you! 👍 For initial dirty brass cleaning I use Armor all car wash 2 tablespoons and 1/4 teaspoon lemishine. To get the lanolin lube off after resizing I just use maybe 1 tablespoon of the car wash and hot water. Don’t even need to tumble it with pins, just without pins for a while, or rinsed off in the sink. Doesn’t take much.