Hello Mike,
Welcome to our forum. Dave Corbin of Corbin Manufacturing, at
www.Corbins.com, has a set of 7 book on swaging, great information. You can also get information from his brother Richard Corbin at
www.rceco.com. With swaging you can make straight lead bullets or jacketed bullets including jackets from copper tubing. Swaging gives you the advantage of using a jacket around the core material thus making it possible to use a core other than lead or lead alloys, I have had good success with powdered metals. You can also use a core inside of a core to adjust the bullets point of balance. Swaging also allows for a more precise expansion at different ranges and/or velocities. This can be done by varying the jackets thickness, using a jacket serrator die varying the length and depth of serration, and core material, make a partition bullet, or a bonded core bullet, just to name a few. It is also possible to make what is called frangible bullets; bullets that will perform on a target but will also break apart on impact with a solid object to reduce collateral damage. If you add hydraulics to the swaging you can make a solid copper bullet or a partition bullet without any pinholes, in other words it can do anything a hand press can do just better plus more.
The difference to me, and I tried casting too but was not any good at it, is in comparing snorkeling to Scuba Diving. A Scuba Diver can do anything a snorkeler can do just better and more.
Donna :wink: