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.