Lee Classic cast X Rcbs Rockchuker

[liseo]

  Hi fellas

  I recently ordered a set of dies from Larry Blackmon, and now my question is:  Wich of these presses is more suitable for swagging jacketed rifle bullets in .224 , 243 and .308 bullets? As one advantage over other or is simple preference question?

[John_M]

I’m sure Randy Robinett uses Lee Classic presses and there’s nothing wrong with his bullets.

I use RCBS Rockchucker presses because I believe they are better $ value. I’ve had to extend the handles on the 2 presses I use for swaging 308 bullets, only to make it easier on myself

Most of my presses have been brought second hand of EBay without any problems. I used a Larry Blackmon kit which needed a small amount of machining

John

[liseo]

     John
 
 I ordered a set of.224 dies from Blackmon, but he only does the conversion kit for Rockchucker.
 But I have a friend who is a machinist, so i believe he can adapt the Lee classic cast to do this job.
  I am totally new to this, so I have one question.  After deriming the the 22 LR cases, can I use the formed jacket from then in the same die who I use to make 224" bullets with J-4 jackets?

   Liseo

   Brasil

[John_M]

The simple answer is yes….

A few things to watch;
1/ make sure you’ve got the inside of the RF case clean. I now use a ultrasonic cleaner as I found nothing else really did the job. If you don’t get the case clean, punches don’t last and dies wear quite quickly

2/ I don’t anneal the cases before I swage into a jacket. I believe annealing softens the brass to much which can cause the cases to tear.

3/ After Swaging, then I anneal. I cover the container I’m using to anneal in with tinfoil that stops scale forming on the outside of the RF jackets.

4/ I use a tumbler to put a even film of swaging lube over the jackets. Be careful not to overdo the lube.

5/ After swaging I wash the formed bullets, then tumble. This leaves the bullets looking very good. I’ve also found after this stage coating them in molly or hBN gives great results, but this is up to the individual buyer.

I don’t recommend my bullets having a MV faster than 2850fps.   

I'm waitting on a soft nose pointing die, when this arrives I might post the results with photos...


John