Canadian Airgun Forum

Thanks Mac!

I am waiting for the Hornady dealer in Harrowsmith to tell me if he can have the lead balls.

I need to know that first before proceeding with the swaging option.

R-Gun Pete

Suprmatic has a similar set-up to Mike's that he made 25 years ago and it is still going strong. He said the ammo created was quite accurate.

_________________
Tim
CAFTA Governor
Talking and shooting is more fun than typing.

I am still waiting for an answer on the Hornady lead balls availability so in the meantime I decided to do a quick experiment in swaging 9mm bullets for the RSterne rifle. I had a look at Mike's swaging tools but I wouldn't know what specs to give him. By trying it myself I could see what kind of fit would be needed and adjust accordingly.

The simplest thing for me would be to reshape pellets by swaging used EunJin 9mm (77.8 grains pellets). Using a CAD software I made a model of my components to find the drilling depth that will leave me with a volume of lead of exactly 77.8 grains.

I found a piece of aluminum scrap in which I drilled a small 1/8 inch hole through. I enlarged it to 9mm and enlarged it even more to 3/8 of an inch. I also made a pushing rod from a steel tube (3/8 o.d.). The inside diameter was close enough to the root diameter of a 8mm screw. After threading the tube I installed a setcrew and grinded the exposed end to remove the thread and form a nipple for the skirt of the pellet.

The picture shows the drawing and the swaging components.


On the left are 2 used EunJin 9mm – 77.8 grains pellets. One of them is just collapsed a bit, the other is more deformed. In the middle, there are samples of swaged pellets and on the right the result after being shot.


This one is a closeup of the swaged pellets.


The results are interesting. I shot them in the garage at close range (16 feet) and it seems that it can work. Pellets swaged from lopsided used pellets are not as good looking as the others but they seems to shoot not too bad. More experiments will be needed to confirm that.

I will have to machine a new rod in a single piece of steel because the one I used is not robust enough. After a few pellets the screw got pushed in the tube and I had to cut the tube to reshape another nipple. Anyway I was able to make enough of them to be able to appreciate that it is a valid option.

Similar to the wax and the plastic bullets, swaging is not a speedy process.

R-Gun Pete