Anyone Making/Swaging Their Own Jacketed Bullets?

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Anyone Making/Swaging Their Own Jacketed Bullets?

Postby Shtf45acp » Fri Jan 11, 2019 10:06 pm

So my barrels showed up this week, a long with my Hornady die set, and three Lee factory crimp dies for my 450 Bushmaster builds.

I've been doing a lot of research the past week and came across a interesting process that kind of is unique. Swaging your own bullets with jackets! Now I know some people cast their own and others cast and coat them. I have no interest in either, well because I didn't buy a 450 Bushmaster to load it "down".

So there are companies that sell the dies to do this. Corbin Swaging, Walnut Hill (RCE), BT Sniper, C&H 4D, and a few others. Most of these die sets are $1000 up to what ever you are willing to pay. C&H 4D is the cheapest by far, BT Sniper is next up and just keeps going. I don't know about you guys but I'm not paying $1000 or more for a pair of dies. $288 from C&H 4D is a little steep for me even.

So I searched a bit further..... you can make jacketed bullets using .243 Winchester and 308 Winchester full length size dies. Some people even use 40 S&W brass for jackets although I have no interest in this either. I've ordered commercial available jackets from a online supplier. For the lead core there is a few different ways you can do it. You can cast your own core using blank molds or bullet molds. You can also use lead wire. The big thing to remember is to use pure lead (not alloyed lead) so the swaging goes easier. I'll be using cast bullets I already have that are just a hair harder then pure lead.

Lucky for me I already had spare 243 and 308 dies. So I'll be venturing down this path to make bullets in many different styles from soft points to hollow points, rounded to pointed. I'll also be either making my punches to form different points as the both rifle dies will only give a 20° truncated ojive. So I'm hoping to be able use those dies to produce SWC style bullets and also possibly making my own use smaller dies to have a round ojive like a rifle bullet. Possibly even calling hornady and have them make me some custom dies out of full length sizing dies.

Anyone else try this? Found some interesting stuff on the web. Here are some pictures.

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Re: Anyone Making/Swaging Their Own Jacketed Bullets?

Postby Al in Mi » Sat Jan 12, 2019 7:46 am

at one time eons ago I was seriously looking into making bullets for my 338-378, but once I added up the cost just to get into it, it was past my budget and still past my budget today. Saving grace for that gun was 240gr Northforks.

I've followed BT Sniper for awhile and almost jumped onto his creative system but never had the time to follow thru.
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Re: Anyone Making/Swaging Their Own Jacketed Bullets?

Postby Bmt85 » Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:30 am

I too looked thought about it, not so much 45 cal, but for other calibers. I also thought it was cost prohibited, and that was a few years back when things were a little harder to find and a lot less sales going on. Instead, I decided to constantly look around for any good sales and stock up on components. Nowadays, there are always sales going on, and sometimes a really good deal. On top of that, I didn't have the time for it. I barely had time to reload and go to the range, right now I have no time.

With that said, I still think impressive to make your own bullets, especially with what you did with the different nose/hollow point dies. Will be even more impressive if you make a bullet that performs well in the 450B and take game with it. 8-)
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Re: Anyone Making/Swaging Their Own Jacketed Bullets?

Postby Shtf45acp » Sat Jan 12, 2019 3:36 pm

I absolutely agree with both of you guys. The available equipment is crazy priced. Corbin Swaging and Walnut Hill are among the most expensive. A big heavy press can cost a $1000 or more by itself and swaging dies are even more expensive. There are definitely other alternatives.

C&H 4D sells only pistol caliber dies. They sell for $288 + s&h. Now BT sniper is a bit of a going on from what I understand. You can find old posts on cast boolits forum where he originally started with C&H 4D dies and then modified the guts to make more then round nose and flat nose bullets. Now I don't know how true this is and I can't verify it other then the gentlemen I talked to at C&H said he had no comment. But apparently BT sniper took C&H designs, modified them a bit and now sells them under his name for four times the price. Again I can't verify this but a few I have talked to say it's a sore subject. Also I've read many reviews from the past few years that it is very hard to get a hold of him now. I personally emailed him twice over the past two weeks and have called him every other day and I haven't gotten a single answered phone call or emailed returned. So I don't know about anyone else, but I personally have a hard time ordered more than $1000 in tools from someone who won't answer any correspondence.

So there for I'm going to venture down this path on my own. With some help from a buddy and his machine shop, and some home jerry rigged equipment, I plan on making dies myself using rifle full length sizing dies.

I also talked to two guys who I met through a facebook group, that told me to call hornady. If I make drawings they will custom make me dies to my specs. So I will be calling them tomorrow to find out more information on this.

I will be sure to keep updating this thread and try to let everyone know how I make out.
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Re: Anyone Making/Swaging Their Own Jacketed Bullets?

Postby Shtf45acp » Sun Jan 27, 2019 6:35 pm

Well I messed around today and finished a die using a 308 Winchester. First I lapped the inside to get the diameter to .453". I just used a 7/16" oak dowel and valve lapping compound. It didn't take long but with some patience and some measuring tools it came out perfect. Then I made the two bottom punches using 1/2-20 grade 8 bolts. One punch to swage the cores into the jackets and another to swage the entire bullet. Then I made a internal punch for inside the die. I took a 3/8" bolt and made a step from .330 to .250 to fit inside the adjustable stem. It only is a flat point but I think it turned out pretty good.

I used speer 4678 lead bullets that I found a great deal on at a local gun show. I bought a couple thousand of them ha. They weigh 200 grains. I just use Lee sizing dies to bring it down to .430" then .410". They fit perfect inside the jackets.

The bullets came out to 225 grains using a .45x.500 copper jacket.

Next I'll be messing around with different nose punches and then moving on to the 243 Winchester die. That too is already lapped out to .453" and ready to figure out how to do a nose punch for it.

As well a these turned out I'd really like to figure out how to do a nice rounded ojive, but I'll eventually get to that point I guess.

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