Punch-S PF External FMJ base turning
	Quantity in Basket: None Catalog No.: PUNCH-SM Price: $70.00 Shipping Weight: 0.25 pounds
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This punch is used to help make the rolled-over base for a FMJ millitary style bullet (open base, solid nose). The process uses the point forming die for both seating the core and for forming the ogive and the base. Here are the steps: Swage the core so that the length will leave about 3/16 inch of space in the jacket used. Put the core into the jacket, and insert them into the point form die closed end first. Use the standard open tip core seating punch to seat the core and form the ogive on the closed end of the jacket. Eject and reverse the bullet (put the open end first into the point form die). Gently push on the nose to start a curve on the open jacket edges. You can change to the FMJ punch and use it to push on the nose, if you like. It is better centered in the die than the core seat punch would be. Eject the bullet and reverse it again (put the closed end back into the point form die first). Use the FMJ base turning punch to press on the open end. This puts a sharp fold line on the jacket. Change to the standard flat base point form punch (PF EXT FB) and press firmly on the open base to flatten it. The finished bullet is now ejected with the open end of the jacket turned and folded over the open base. If the length of lead core is correct for the jacket length, the base will have not have folds or wrinkles (caused by using too short a core, or too long a jacket). It will also not have lead extruded over the jacket (caused by having too much core for the length of jacket). Experiment to discover the right amount of lead core. To vary the weight and still have the correct ratio of core to jacket, you can use a different jacket length or put a polymer ball in the jacket first (to take up space, and move the core toward the jacket mouth). The PUNCH-SM PF EXT. FMJ (base turning) punch has a shallow dish cavity in the end with relatively sharp edges. Since the same die is used with three different punches (core seat, base turning, and flat base) you can expedite the operation by using a FPH-QC-S quick change punch holder. This lets you rapidly slide the punch in and out of the holder, so that you can fold the base and flatten it without ejecting the bullet between steps. The alternative is to process a number of bullets with one step at a time, change punches, and run the bullets through again with that punch, change punches, and run them through a final time with the flat base punch. The reason that you should not try to fire the bullets after seating the core, with the base not folded over, is that as soon as the bullet begins to leave the barrel with gas pressure behind it, the open base is not supported by the barrel. Gas pressure at that moment can peel the jacket away from the core, flaring it as it emerges from the muzzle. Accuracy usually is destroyed when the bullet has a pre-expanded base! When the jacket edge is neatly folded over the core, the gas pressure always tries to hold the jacket firmly against the core. That is exactly where you want it. There is no place for the gas to act in a way that would open the base or flare out the jacket when the base is made this way. It is not necessary to have more than a very small amount of the base covered, in order for the gas to help secure the jacket and core. You do NOT need to cover the entire core (and most military bullets are not made with a fully covered core, even though they are sometimes fired in very hot running machine guns -- if the core was going to melt out as some "urban myths" suggest, it would certainly be melted out in those applications, and of course it isn't or the machine gun would quickly foul and cease operating.) Notes on Terminology... The FMJ in bullet swaging means solid tip with open base, military style. It does not mean the jacket covers the core and the tip is open. A solid base, open tip bullet is just called an open tip or OT style. Some people call this a "hollow point" but that term is reserved, in bullet swaging, for a bullet with a hole formed in the core at the nose end. A hollow point bullet can be either a lead tip or an open tip. But an open tip cannot also be a lead tip. Hollow points are made during core seating by using a core seating punch with a conical projection on the tip. This forms a hole in the core. The core can be seated inside the jacket so that the bullet is also an open tip (now an OT-HP). Or it can be formed in a core longer than the jacket, so the bullet is a lead tip hollow point or LT-HP. These are two different diameters of core seat punch! One fits the jacket ID. The other fits the die ID to seal pressure there. So you would order a hollow point punch designated either as a PUNCH-S CS EXT HP-OT or as a PUNCH-S CS EXT HP LT. The one thing impossible to order or make would be a PUNCH-S CS EXT OT-LT. That is a contradiction.