First Attempt at Bullet Swaging (TIS307)

The Idahoan experiments with making swaged lead bullets.

[@wolfmanrebel874]

I just recently discovered your channel, I absolutely love the content not only are you brilliant you are also wise and it is not common in today's time to find a brilliant man with a lick of wisdom.

[@stefanmolnapor910]

Very cool! Interesting, I do not reload (yet) and I did not know about this process. Thank you!

[@louislarose6613]

I would call this attempt at at swaging to be quite successful !

[@woodsman2433]

Brilliant solution to the problem of not having your specific caliber bullet mould available

[@nadieselgirl]

Nice machining! Never tried to make them wider just narrower. Cool!

[@DavidSpears-yf3vi]

I like your die design. Great video

[@HanstheTraffer]

I think it's interesting that a year later you have not replied to my previous question. I also show how to grind bullet point drill bits so you can make round nose bullets. Thanks for watching.

[@THESLlCK]

That's unusual but brilliant

[@DimaProk]

Cool! I came across your channel, I would recommend putting some lube on the bullet to help it exit better from the die. I had similar die concept to make a core swaging die plus a hole drilled in the side to size my 22 cores. Another simpler way but maybe not as elegant to achieve diameter increase is machine a flat shell holder and flat top that screws in and out and simply squeeze the bullet until it fattens to appropriate diameter and than run it through a lee sizer. I did similar experiment with bumping undersized .357 bullets turn into .360 and .309 bullets turn into .312

[@andyd2960]

Semiautomatic firearms perform best with a rounded ogive. Try to duplicate a fmj shape. Also keep in mind that cast lead bullets use a harder alloy. This makes swaging a bit more difficult.

[@jontee3437]

Depends on if you buy cast bullets or not. If you cast them yourself you can make them as hard or as soft as you want for your purposes

[@independentthinker8930]

My 1911 cycles swc's perfectly, I maitted the barrel feed rams with the frame. Even cycles empty brass

[@jeffjefferson2676]

I think your swaging of powdercoated bullets would really shine in rifle cartridges with slower speeds than 2000fps. If you make a cutter in the bullet shape you can make more ogive bullets. A swaged 300BLK subsonic would be great. Or a regular one. Ive read up to 2200fps powdercoat is good. So it should still make a decent hitter with the heavy bullets. Anything blackpowder is great with powdercoated bullets. Greetings, Jeff

[@nickeypipi5281]

very neat idea.

[@IvorMektin1701]

Neat experiment

[@johnnewman9436]

Very interesting topic.

[@airconditioner84]

so cool!

[@pilgrimm23]

I see you have a Rock Chucker. Been using one for over 40 years.

[@elburropeligroso4689]

I heard that our Idahoan friend was going to drop a mixtape of all his Psalters, called Wasteland Holy Man. Can we get confirmation?

[@billskinner623]

For the 1st bullet, could have it be a case of too short OAL? Most .45's work better with a certain set length that is pushing max length. However, that's in a 1911, no clue about anything else. And I agree with you about the light loads.

[@xxxlonewolf49]

Very interesting

[@ishnifusmeadle]

The was a guy btsniper i think, that made/sold dies similar to this. Essentially there was a chunk of flat stock that would be on the top and bottom of the press with a hole for the ram to go through and long bolts on either end. Then the top had a setup of a die and a top punch. You would put another punch in the shell holder and raise the ram with a cast bullet on it. Then add pressure to swage the shape after which you would hit a plunger that stuck out of the top and it would eject your swage bullet. I always wanted a set but never ended up purchasing or making one period very similar to the way you have yours

[@michaelcalabro2376]

So far as I know you can still get those, they are pretty spendy though. I have been gathering bits and pieces to make one myself.

[@ravener96]

could you try to swage solid copper wire into 223 bullets (say you get 5mm or so grounding wire)? im thinking a drop hammer could squish a small slug of annealed wire into shape if you made a steel mold it could be squished into. idk how you would get the bullet out, maybe two part mold, but seems possible. perhaps a hole in the bottom to press a punch through? idk, liberal use of lubricant seems nessecary either way. im just asssuming it requires too much pressure for the design used in the video, but might just work too.

[@TheIdahoanShow]

Copper is a lot harder than lead, and thus would be more difficult to swage, but maybe something like that would be possible.

[@pacman10182]

it has been done before, the 'balle d' lebel bullets were swaged 90-10 bronze

[@ravener96]

@@TheIdahoanShow im just imagining it as a pretty easy to set up home bullet making process. lead is getting harder and harder to get at. if you could even get it to work with a die and a sledgehammer the equipment really fits in your pocket

[@ravener96]

@krinkov545 seems like a lot bigger investment. i was thinking something you could make work if you got a hammer and some time.

[@ravener96]

@krinkov545 im literally talking single loading slugs and beating the dowel down with a big weight or a hammer.

[@Gibblegobblegoob]

It looks like a lego guys head God bless

[@karenrogers2385]

Thanks for sharing this idea with us. Your vids are always worth watching! I'm going to try this same idea in a different caliber. I cast bullets for my 9mm luger, but don't have a mold to cast bullets for my 9 x 18 Makarov. With new molds hard to come by these days, I think your swaging idea may be the perfect solution for me. Thanks so much for this idea! By the way, also concerning the ammo and componant shortage, have you experimented any with using black powder loads in autos? Specifically for a 1911 Colt .45 auto, the .380 Walther PPK, and for the Russian 9mm x 18 Makarov . i know there would be much more cleaning required afterward, but would they function as semi autos with BP loads? Would love to know your thoughts on this thanks for sharing your work with us... Karen

[@TheSquizzlet]

Other content creators have done experiments using black powder, and they do work! But as you said there's a lot more cleaning necessary. You lose a lot of power for obvious reasons, and because they're autoloading guns the filth will get deeper into your ejection and feeding components too, and the barrel gunk can even affect ballistic performance. Overall I wouldn't recommend it for anything but the most dire of emergencies, certainly not for typical target shooting. Under no circumstances would I ever suggest using a gas operated gun with black powder, that's a cleanup mess you don't want to handle the hard way! Inversely, manually operated guns (Pump, lever, bolt, revolving, etc) especially wide smooth bore guns like shotguns would lend themselves very well to black powder improvised loads, since the delay between action cycles means the powder will have had time to burn completely before the action opens up, so most or all of the filth will stay in the barrel. And obviously breech actions. Really I think a more refined homemade smokeless would be more of a worthy experiment, such as some form of guncotton cordite.

[@HanstheTraffer]

I show what you need to know on my channel.

[@cheeseymann]

Looks like he snarls after every shot

[@WaschyNumber1]

🖖 👍

[@wonderwulf]

Man your left hand looks 20 years older than the right, put some moisturizer on that bad boy!

[@primeseriesnik9368]

How to make bullet shells

[@david_4246]

Can you recast the bullet once it's been powder coated?

[@bendennis8773]

Yes. The lead can be remelted and the powder coat just floats on the top of the pot.

[@biggoldnugget]

looks like it would be best in a wheel gun Brother

[@gunguide9201]

Why not cast .45 ?

[@jameswitte5167]

Cost of casting moulds ...

[@jameswitte5167]

Why powder coated ??? ... Could you make gas checks and jackets ??? Swedge down rather then up ... Given time swedging can fine tune bullets to particular weapons given factory tolerances ...

[@jeffjefferson2676]

Jacketed bullets can get you hollowpoints. But you need to measure of the right amount of lead. Or leave a narrow hole an top the lead can flow to so you can cut off the excess lead. Or pour in your lead in the jacket. Or make molds with the right amount of lead and put that in the jacket and then swage your bullet/hollowpoint. That probably is the best. Greetings, Jeff P.s. If you draw your bullet in a CAD program, you can get your volume right for your casting, so you will get exacly the right amount of lead.

[@aaronmcgoldrick2439]

Powder coating is less messy than lubrication of cast bullets when sizing. Plus I've found powder coating slows down build up in the rifling and had an accuracy improvement akin to switching to jacketed projectiles. On top of all of this, I like having my 45 Colt(Dont ya dare say 45LC) with purle coated projectiles. 😉👍

[@Jesses001]

You answered a question no one asked, just to make sure you knew that answer in case someone did ask, ha. You and I are clearly wired to be engineers.

[@kospencer1]

I’m confused, why does the bullet look plastic? Is that the bullet lube?

[@TheIdahoanShow]

The bullets are powder-coated.

[@kospencer1]

@@TheIdahoanShow wow, that is pretty cool, I thought only people shooting precision rifles does that to preserve barrel life.

[@tomsrandomness]

just up the powder load they just seemed under powered and incapable of completely cycling the action.

[@pacman10182]

that's not a swaging die, that's a bumping die

[@GunFunZS]

Bumping is swaging.

[@roadsideprophet2012]

I'd like to have one of those swagers

[@CowboybubPercussion]

Me too

[@CowboybubPercussion]

Don’t look complicated to make either

[@CowboybubPercussion]

Probably could be made with a drill press if desprate

[@HanstheTraffer]

@@CowboybubPercussion I made several with a drill press before I got a mini lathe.

[@GunFunZS]

Yep. I want one to hollow point normal bullets.

[@tedgarrett9437]

3d a 44 cal bullet neat practice round at least up close

[@HanstheTraffer]

Have you watched any of my videos?

[@ravener96]

Why would i

[@arizona-4734]

@@ravener96 Because he and a few others have done a lot of the grunt work figuring this stuff out.

[@hhds4716]

Omg shut up and take my money. I need this. Can you make me one for a rcbs

[@PTcruser65]

Man, I'm so jealous, You get to play with guns and try new things, But up here in Canada, The current government is trying to pass a law to outlaw BB guns, air soft guns, paint ball guns and any gun that looks dangerous

[@ratroute8238]

*1A - 2A = - 1A*

[@ravener96]

Devide by A and its just -1