How to swage bullets?

[Bama76]

At one time I use to cast my own bullets but became sick and tired of the mess and danger of it all. It never really dawned on me I could swage a bullet. Where can I find step by step instructions on the process of making a bulllet? Can you put a jacket on the bullet for higher velocity loadings? How? I'm interested, now sell me on it!

Mike

[Donna]

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 bullet’s point of balance. Swaging also allows for a more precise expansion at different ranges and/or velocities. This can be done by varying the jacket’s 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:

[Questor]

I gave up casting for the same reasons. It was  a lot of work for no savings.

I buy swaged bullets for my 45ACP, which I shoot the most. www.wideners.com sells STAR bullets. It's about $64 for 2,000 bullets, plus about $25 for shipping. That's pretty darned good. They are as consistent as jacketed bullets.

I would bet that you can buy finished bullets for not much more than you can buy the finished swaging wire.  

My opinion: Buy them already made. Don't make them yourself unless you need something special.

[bgjohn]

Getting set up for swaging is expensive. I can't justify it. Casting lead doesn't sound good either. For what I shoot I just buy Remington or Winchester bulk bullets.
JM

[talon]

I swage .45ACP bullets for myself @ $10/M in materials + $400 in tools. No postage (postage on lead is a real killer). And then there's the cost of my time, for whatever that is. While I hit the break even point at about 13M rounds, the bonus is that I can make different weight bullets whenever I want. But, using 130 boxes of bullets takes a long time, so it's beneficial to have a few friends around that can help take some of those bullets off your hands to help pay off those tools ( so that you can spend even more for more bullets!!). I hope to have a Type 6 FFL (ammo maker licence) in a few more weeks so that I can sell a few bullets here and there to get out of the swaging poor house. That's because swaging is addictive and I make about 20 other calibers in 100s of different weights. Once you have the basic equiptment, adding more calibers isn't all that expensive. I keep telling myself that as I open another can of beans and weenies.....