7.62x39mm

Attachment 205761

these are the first bullets done with my new .311 swage die that i made today.. just got the die heat treated and polished about 3hr ago.. these are not as pretty as they could be as i used my arbor press to test everything out and they have not been polished yet. i just gotta make the cores a little shorter for 125gr (these are 130gr .308 cores and are a little long) and back the punch out a hair to prevent the little copper extrusion on the tips but other than that it works great..

i been meaning to make a .311 die and was really trying to make another .308 die but the metal grew a lot more than i expected during the heat treating so it ended up becoming a .311 die.. the stupid thing grew over 0.005in in the bore. it was a different bolt manufacturer than i usually use so i figured it would act different. but it not a total screw up, i got a nice .311 die that i needed for making bullets for my SKS..

They look pretty good to me.

What are you using for reamers and laps?

reamer was a home made 4 flute from a piece of drill rod that reamed the cavity to .306in. the cavity grew close to 0.005in during heat treating and after polishing it ended up being .311.. i don't lap the dies as i drill the cavity to within 0.001in and hand ream them and they come out pretty slick already, almost mirror finish after i polish them. i needed a .311 die anyway so ill just find another piece of material to make my other .308 die out of that doesn't grow as bad..

Certainly meets GONRA's High Standards! Keep up the good verk!
(Wot kinda drill rod did you use? Water Hardenng? Oil Hardening? Air Hardening? OR ......?)

just some i found at scrap dealer and i water quenched it from 1,400*F.. not sure exactly what kind it is.. it is hard enough to cut unannealed grade 8 bolt material but will flex a bit and not break..

Attachment 205933

loaded some with 26.5gr of H-322 today and tested one in a stack of wet newspaper.. makes the prettiest little disk and makes a hole the size of a softball in the newspaper and penetrated a good 8in-10in.. gonna test for accuracy tomorrow, kind of getting dark outside right now.. im really pleased with how they mushroom and still retain all their mass..

what did you use for jackets? those look like good hunting bullets, I am using my SKS for deer this year, also what kind of press do you use? I have thought of doing some simple swaging with my lee classic cast.

i used 0.025in thick copper flashing made for construction.. the press im using is a home built pneumatic press. http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...ic-Swage-Press