What about the carbide listed in the next post?

Crack!...goes an expensive piece of carbide. It's not tough enough for
futzing around with a small-shop press.

Again, good luck. You shouldn't have trouble finding a piece of steel
that's strong enough, although ordinary mild steel might turn to mush
under that much compression. Go for a good, common alloy steel, or
maybe a hardened piece of 1070 or1090 carbon steel, and you should be
able to do it. At that small diameter, even cold-rolled high-carbon
should do it. Cold-rolling hardens small diameters much more than
larger ones.

(I always thought they pulled, rather than pushed, rifling buttons,
but maybe that's just the gun manufacturers.)

Thanks, not bad advice for a flaming liberal from KCB.
ducking and running

Push type buttons are cheaper, fits my lifestyle. Also, from what I've
read, pull type actually fail more easily. The pull rod breaks right
where the threads end.

Karl