Hi all,
Although I don't cast at home, I have had experience casting 45-70 bullets for black powder shooting. Cast the bullet, put it into a lubrisizer and ready to load. As far as swaging the bullet, if I use a groove tool, I realize that the displaced lead will malform the bullet. The groove tool I'm referencing is the HCT-3. It has two groove wheels that can impart grooves that are .080" wide and .020" deep. Although there's only two wheels, you can move the bullet so that one wheel follows a groove already made and the other makes a new groove. Repeat for as many grooves you'd like. Corbins site does reference the fact that displaced lead will increase the diameter so his recommendation is to buy two die sets. A smaller diameter die to form the bullet, then after grooving and lubing reswage in the final diameter die. A bit severe(not to mention expensive) solution indeed.
My question is: Rather than two swaging dies as mentioned, could I just purchase the core swage and point forming dies in the final diameter needed then swage the core and form the bullet and add 4 grease grooves using the HCT-3 grooving tool? This will displace some lead on either side of the grooves increasing the diameter in these areas. I can then run the bullet through a lubersizer with a die in the same or slightly smaller diameter than the swage die set(depending on the die sizes available for the lubersizer). Lube will be deposited in the grooves once completed. The bullet will then be placed in the swaging die once more and 'reformed' to ensure all surfaces are round and true.
Does this sound like a workable solution, or stick with the two die setup or any other thoughts?
Thanks,
SunUp