Lee Hand Press for swaging .20cal bullets?
I used to own a Lee Hand Press, for reloading a 25-20 rifle, but I can not remember what kind of force it exerted. I’m planning to make a set of .20 cal swging dies (.204″) for shooting through the 1-16 twist Walther barrel. Does anyone here know, if I made the pieces to work in the Lee Hand Press, would it exert enough force for swaging these (probably) 25-35 grain bullets?
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What size is your material to begin with? Going for .25 to .20? What die are you using?
Lee hand presses are very durable. I have had one for 35 years, just lube the moving parts when I use it for maintenance. Neck resizing on rifles, pistol resizing is fairly easy. I never swaged bullets on it. I had a Corbin swager for copper jacketed bullets.
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I have 1.125″ drill rod (S7.) I’m familiar with the Corbin line of products, but if I can save a dollar, I will. I think that there might be a possibility of the Lee Hand Press working, in this particular situation, because of the small caliber. If I remember correctly, I remember reading somewhere over the years that the Lee Hand Press exerts 1/2 ton (1000 lbs.) of force. I read the entire 165 page swaged bullet thread on guns.ru (it could be bigger, now. I haven’t been there for maybe 6 mnths) and they were mainly using small 2-3 ton arbor presses, for calibers up to .357. All of this info makes me think that turning a set of dies for swaging bullets with the Lee Hand Press is a viable option. The simplest way of swaging these bullets is actually right in a machinists vice. Works perfectly. I thought that doing the operation in a Lee Hand Press would be kind of a neat option.