I am afraid I am inclined to the Corbin word usage and they say "ring" die for a die which reduces. Jacketed bullets must by in very small steps and limited. Empty jackets and lead bullets are much more ductile... Regardless, you shove the larger bullet thru and it comes out smaller... Reduced. You can email them about exactly the amounts possible and costs for their products.
#2). Casting is great and I think it is fun, BUT... where will you get lead:? I visited a scrap yard with several 55 gallon drums of wheel weights in plain sight. This is not pure lead. [FINE for cast bullets, but not for swaging cores.] It is alloyed and exactly what the alloy is is pretty uncertain. Man told me he didn't have much pure lead. Wasn't sure when he would have pure lead. I would have to keep checking... Lead pipe from old homes, really old, is pure lead. Lead sheathing from telephone pole wire cable is pure lead, except the joints where it is soldered... Now they are burying the telephone/cable lines... Then you figure the price of fuel. That ain't hay. Lead is traded as a commodity, just like gasoline, orange juice, potatos, etc. You get a lead wire price... Corbins? the phone book? a plumbing supply house... ["plumbing" is from the Latin word "plumbum" which means "lead." Romans used it in paving on the roads too...] I guess some boat shops stock it for weighting ropes on sailing ships. And you figure your costs for working the scrap into cores... (if you are real serious, you include what you save on beer and recreation staying home melting lead and casting...
;) Then you decide. I think both the Corbins have summarized, for large bullets, .35 and up, USUALLY it is cheaper to cast. For little bullets, .224? .244? etc. Purchase and cut cores from wire... luck (this is discussed in their books, free for download on the web site. ii). Expecting commodity prices to rise, I purchased several spools of wire couple years ago. Seldom does it goe down. But you have to be willing to put the money into the commodity.]
