Are my Bullets Contenders? | "Klowning" Around with .224" Swaged Bullets

As "cold bore" as you can get! - Trying my first few homemade jacketed bullets in a .223 Remington chambered Thompson/Center Contender. I had not fired this Super 14 barrel prior to these six shots.
Special thanks to ‪@psykoklown874‬ for his videos and inspiration!
Visit the Psyko Klown channel on KZbin: / @psykoklown874

[@psykoklown874]

Very cool. Thanks for the shout out. I learn and revise how I do things all the time. There's a learning curve to it, but you can get rather creative with weights and tips. I found that bullet length varies a bit, so I seat base to ogive for better consistency. I shoot for .005" under mag length max because occasionally there are slightly longer ones (usually due to a bit of lead protruding). Stinger brass will give you a much pointier 62 gn. Dima Prok and I came up with a way to trim jackets using a Forster trimmer with a custom collet (video coming soon)), and it makes heavier bullets from 17 HMR/22 WMR a lot easier and more consistent. Corbin stopped making their "R" dies, so new dies require one of their presses. Making a core shaker is a huge game changer if you want to make bulk, and makes sorting by headstamp a lot easier. I find that sorting gives better weight/length consistency.

[@WilliamCChapin]

You’re welcome! I look forward to seeing your new trimming setup. If I move beyond simple .224/6mm and .25 bullets I’ll potentially invest in more serious tooling. Thanks again for the information that you have shown in your videos - I enjoy the content and your humor. 🙂

[@michaeldunn150]

nice first grouping......cool. thanks for sharing

[@WilliamCChapin]

You’re welcome, Michael. It was exciting for sure!

[@ThecrazyScotsman]

Fun times nice group

[@WilliamCChapin]

Thanks! It’s been a fun experience. 🙂

[@HobbiesHobo]

Good start, really interesting project!

[@WilliamCChapin]

Thanks! It’s been fun learning about it. I was thrilled that they worked. 🙂

[@viejo2a]

Hiya Curtis. Good to see you back at it! 🤛🏻🔫🇺🇸

[@WilliamCChapin]

I'm always up to something, Walter - it just doesn't always make it onto KZbin! 🙂 Thanks for the note!

[@viejo2a]

@@WilliamCChapin 🤛🏻🔫🇺🇸

[@mckwilly]

Great 1st round, I'd say you got some contenders 🤭,looking forward to the next

[@WilliamCChapin]

It might go downhill from here! 🤠

[@ocean374]

Awesome not bad at all I always wanted to try that skill thanks for sharing

[@WilliamCChapin]

It’s intriguing, Julio. I’ve only made those seven so far - I need to get the core mold set up, and get a process figured out.

[@cw2a]

Good stuff Curtis. Shoot a few extra for me Im goin a bit stir crazy not able ta get out!

[@WilliamCChapin]

I’ve wanted to try making them for a long time. Plenty of experiments await!

[@harmungus]

Solid educated guess on the powder charge, on top of a nice job swaging apparently. Nice! Definitely warrants further testing.

[@WilliamCChapin]

We’ll see if I can get them to shoot moving forward! 🤭

[@harmungus]

I mean, currently, your *average* three-shot group with the swaged soft points is pretty excellent. There are only so many directions to go from there. 😅 I'd frame that target, myself

[@WilliamCChapin]

@@harmungus I was pretty darned excited that they worked!

[@SuburbanRifleman]

I’ve made the acquaintance of someone at my new club who’s a diehard believer in swaged bullets using the same technique. He’s going to show me how he goes about it. Very interesting to see how they fly. Thanks!

[@WilliamCChapin]

Yeah, it was a super big thrill to try them out! Thanks for the note. 👍

[@jamespollard1670]

Not too shabby for a first try at it .

[@WilliamCChapin]

Thanks Mr. Pollard! 🤠

[@luvtahandload7692]

Nice!!! You might be the next incarnation of Vernon Speer! Why don't you work up a gopher load for that thing using a cast bullet at about 1500-1700 fps? "Only 25 yds, let's not get too excited". "I'm ecstatic! " Haha. Thanks for the vid. 👍👍👍

[@WilliamCChapin]

That’s a fine idea. I think it might shoot cast pretty well. 🙂