Premium style bullets possible?

[sideironjohn]

Hey, folks.
I'm not a swager, but the subject interests me, and I've been tempted a time or two. I have a question. It looks like you'd have to be a pretty prolific shooter, as well as a fast bullet maker, to get your money back out of the equipment; I understand most folks do it for joy.
But when you look at the $30-$45/50pc bullets out there, e.g., Barnes X, Partition, A-Frame, etc., it seems a fellow actually could make out in the black after a short time.
It seems easy to make a copper bullet, like the X, with some custom die to chape the bulelt as a four-leafed cylinder, then anneal, point form and go, or whatever intricacies might be involved.
But what about a partition-style bullet?
Can you make a FMJ cylinder pill, and another open-point, then swage the two together successfully? Not sure copper works the same way; woudl the two pieces fuse?
I am certain if it can be done, someone is doing it, and I imagine it's just a matter of most swagers being uninterested in high-test, time-consuming bullets when simpler designs work well for them.

Anyone here work on anything like this before?

Cheers.
Taylor

[Smokin7mm]

I would have to say most of us do it for the joy of making our own.  I also make a few for friends that I shoot silhouette competition with.  As far as the all copper bullets you would need the hydraulic equipments for this.  This of course is more expensive than a hand press as in thousands more.  I have been to the nosler plant to see their process.  They make their own jacket for their partition bullets.  They are made from a solid billet of copper.  The form the cavities at both ends through a impact forming process.  This leaves the partition section in the middle.  Copper does not flow together like lead so forming two seperate sections and then swaging them together would not work well.  All in all I enjoy swaging my own and being able to custom taylor the weights to my needs and it can save in the long run.

[talon]

There are at least 2 methods for the hobbyest to make their own partition bullets: as mentioned, one requires a hydralic press. It is an add-on option to a tube jacket maker kit: it takes the cut tube and compresses it to form a closed 'shelf' in the center of the tube. Then, each section of the tube is loaded with a lead core and one end is formed as a base and the other end as the point. The second method invilves two closely fitting jackets, one about 1/2 as long as the other. The smaller jacket fits inside the other. What you do is take the short jacket, load a core into it, push it into the larger jacket core end first, swage it to seat the core-jackets, then drop a core into the larger jacket on top of the swaged core-jacket just performed, and seat and point form the bullet. there's several size seating  punches involved, and you'll need at least one Jacket reducing die to make that interior jacket, but you can do the job on a manual swaging press. The best method, in my opinion, for all game found in this country( where you would consider a partition) is to bond your core and forget about partition bullets. It's inexpensive, no additional dies/punches are needed (you do need a small propane torch, and bonding chemical), and can be used on any bullet where the final product is an open tip design.  I can make all 3 types. I really prefer the bonded bullet.