I've made my own bullets

[kawalekm]

I've been casting my own bullet for years now, but have always been interested in making my own jacketed bullets. The method is called swaging, and I've finally gotten around to doing it myself. I've started at two extremes. the .22 and the .44. I wanted to try using spent cartidge cases for jackets and that's working very well. Here's a pic of my .22 bullet making process.
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/kawalekm/Swaged22bullet.jpg
You take a spent .22 shell, (first from the left) which you draw into a jacket (second from left), add a length of lead wire (third), then swage into a hollowpoint bullet(fourth). The right hand bullet is a store-bought Sierra softpoint.

I did the same thing to make a .44 MAG bullet.
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/kawalekm/Swaged44bullet.jpg
I took a 40S&W case (first on left) and added a 40 caliber cast lead bullet as the core (not shown) The swaged bullet is second from the left. The third shows the depth of the hollow point, and the right hand bullet is a store-bought Sierra 240 grain hollowpoint.

The .22 bullet is .224" in diameter and weighs 55 grains. The .44MAG bullet is .429" in diameter and weighs 245 grains. I'll add a crimping grove to the bullets, then I'll start working up some test loads. After that, I'll be conducting real-world testing during deer season.
Michael

[Bill_in_FL]

What dies do you use ? Press ? I have a RCBS Big Max that I picked up a month ago and have been itchin to crush something into submission with it . I shoot lots of 44 cal and like the 40S&W jacket idea .

Bill

[DM]

Hi Michael,

Looks like you found a new addition to your hobby... :D

I started swaging in the late 70's and still have numerous swage press', and dies, including the dies to turn RF cases into jackets...

It was a lot of fun, untill i decided to make the ultimate "bonded core" hunting bullets, and had to start selling them to fund the project... There was only two of us doing it back then...

After a few years, it all turned into work and a job, and i got sick of it... I did keep supplying loyal customers untill "everyone" else got onto the bonded bullet band wagon! At that point i was glad to move on and let someone else supply bonded core bullets... ha ha ha

Anyway, i still have everything to get back into it, and someday i'm going to drag it out and make a few bullets...

Bill,

Because of the kinds of pressures and length of stroke it takes to make bigger jacketed bullets, your Big Max (nor any other common loading press) will only do for the smallest bullets... You also can make short handgun, and of course .224 jacketed bullets on it.

I use my Big Max to form copper jackets, and it's still a lot of work that can give you blisters...

Also, swageing is expensive to get into... so if you buy factory bullets in bulk packs, it's cheaper to just do that.

DM 8)

[kawalekm]

Here's a pic of my swaging setup. I'm using a standard RCBS Rockchucker press and CH101 dies to make my .44MAG bullets. I used SportFlite dies (company out of business) to make the .22 bullets. They also fit in the Rockchucker press, but they have their own dedicated ram which holds the bullet dies.
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/kawalekm/swagingstation.jpg
You can get info on the CH dies at
www.CH4D.com

The orange press on the left is an old CH Swagomatic, a first generation half-jacket bullet swaging press. I've carefully manipulated the core weight though to make a bullet that is jacketed right up to the begining of the lead's truncation. In this next picture, my fully jacketed half-jacket bullet is in the center of my bullet examples. I made it with a lead core that I cast with a core caster. The right-most bullet of the center group is a Remington 158gr hollowpoint.
http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/kawalekm/SwagedBullets.jpg

My next project is to make a cheap draw die to convert .380 auto cases into .357 jackets. I'll be making the draw die out of a .223 sizing die, modified to draw jackets instead.
Michael

[DM]

Loading press' work fairly good for those types of bullets... All of my swage press' are horzontal SAS and Corbin press'...

Be carefull useing pistol cases for jackets... They are hard on the gun you shoot them in...

DM

[kawalekm]

DM
Is it more the hardness, or the metal composition? Since I'm annealing the cases red-hot, they are dead soft. After heating I can squish them between my fingertips.

One issue I've not addressed yet is the amount of fouling the heat scale on the brass will produce. I've read that the surface scale on pure copper tubing bullets is more "fouly" then tubing that was burnished first. If I polish the cases after annealing, will clean brass give less fouling that scaly brass. I've avoided polishing so far because I'm afraid of getting polishing grit anywhere near my dies.

I've tried tumbling with things like grit-free wheat berries, and rice grains, but those things didn't remove any scale at all. What would you suggest for jacket material destined to pass through swaging dies?
Michael

[TaylorC]

I'd say annealing them to death mitigates any problems of brass vs copper.
I've swaged bullets a bit for my big 35 cal, but not enough to be any kind of help to someone else.
Sure is fun though. 310g at 2650 is a chunk. Not so easy to find 310g jacketed bullets around here.... Need to buy a spitzer point form one of these days though, and get down in to the 270g range at 2950fps for something a bit more sane. (?)

[DM]

DM
Is it more the hardness, or the metal composition? Since I'm annealing the cases red-hot, they are dead soft. After heating I can squish them between my fingertips.

That's only part of it... You just can't get all of the dirt out of the pores of the metal, and that is hard on bbls too...

Personally, i would not shoot any of them in one of my good guns...and never have.

DM

[iammarkjones]

Well CRAP now I am all tingly and feel the need to expand my reloading operation. muhamuhaaaaa! What can I use that is not hard on the barrel?

[kawalekm]

Hi Mark
There are two additional avenues if you don't want to buy commercial jackets. Corbin makes a die set to swage copper tubing into jackets. Check it out at http://www.corbins.com/corbin.htm.

Another method is to electroplate copper onto a lead core and then swage the finished bullet. That's basicly how Speer's gold dot bullets are made. I've already bought a book on electroplating and have mixed up a batch of copper sulfate plating solution, but just don't have the time to get to it. Give me 5-10 years and I'll get back to you.

Just a few more ideas from a guy that's years behind already. By the way, one reason I've gotten into this is because California has just made it illegal this year in most of the state to hunt with bullets containing lead. Anywhere that is considered the Condor's native range. Some can argue that this is bullstuff and is just backdoor gun control. I see an added advantage to be able to make my own.
Michael