Anyone making Jacketed bullets

[Alvin]

I've cast bullets for many years to shoot IHMSA matches. Had great results also. But about 20 years ago I started to make my own jacketed bullets for my .30 calibers and 7mm silhouette guns(also used them in my rifles for reduced distance rifle silhouettes). They shoot great, no problems. But I was curious if any others ever took the next step and started making their own jacketed bullets after having made cast bullets.

[Boomer]

I would be curious how you are making them?

I looked at doing that as well some time ago & didnt see (what I thought was) a cost effective way of doing it. The way I saw it was by swaging pure lead into a piece of copper pipe & then cannerleing <sp> it.

By the time you got done paying for the swaging machine & cannerleing machine you had to make a helluvabunch of bullets before you got close to seeing a return on investment.

If you got a better way of doing it I for one would love to hear about it (picutres would be good too! :mrgreen: )

Bob

PS: Welcome to the site! 8-)

[35isit]

I think Smoking7mm swages his own. In 25 years of shooting silhouette I could probabaly have paid for a swaging outfit. Just think about the times you didn't shoot a match or practice as much as you wanted to because of the cost or unavailability of bullets. That's why I shoot more .22 now than anything. Eley Target is $12.00 a hundred compared to just about any centerfire bullet other than .22 being more than $20.00 per hundred. That doesn't count primers, powder and cases. I only shoot enough bigbore to stay eligible for championship matches and to practice a little before them. My lack of results shows. I shoot cast in field pistol so it's not too bad.

Welcom to the forum alvin

[Alvin]

Well, the first step is casting the cores, or you can buy the correct diameter lead wire and just snip off a certain length. I use an adjustable die for casting the core. This is simply four sleeves that have a threaded rod running up from the bottom of the sleeves. I use this for 7mm and 30 caliber cores. adjust the threaded rod so that you wind up with a lead core that weighs a little more than what you need. Example...if you're making a 150 grain bullet take the figure 150, minus the weight of the jacket(just to keep things simple we'll say the jacket weighs 50 grains) so the core will need to be 100 grains. So, you'll need to cast your cores around 105 grains or more. These cores are not perfect, BTW, they don't need to be. Next step is swaging the core down to the correct weight. This goes into the swaging die, excess lead is bled off(three holes in the die) and you adjust the die so that the core is compacted and weighs exactly what you need(in this case 100 grains). We have used lube to swag the cores so now we wash the cores and dry them. Next step is to swag the core into a jacket. Since J-4 jackets are just about the only ones left to use we'll use them(buy them from Burger Bullets....that's what Burger Bullets use, so you know that they're good jackets). Now you insert the core into the jacket(the jackets are straight walled at this time with one end closed, looks like a tube with one end on it). We then swag the core into the jacket. Jackets are made slightly undersized so that we bump up the size a little as we swag the core into the jacket. Next step is the simple one. It the final die that shapes the bullet's nose and closes up the nose. This also bumps up the bullet to the correct diameter. The lead will not be all the way out to the end of the jacket. This look like hollowpoints but are really correctly call "open tip" bullets, meaning that there is no exposed lead at the nose of the bullet. You can adjust things so that this happens, but there is another step to clean up the excess lead at the tip of the bullet...not neccessary to do this if you keep the level of lead below the tip. Costs?? Can't tell you that one. The dies and press were probably around $200-300 maybe. Jackets prices I can't remember....you can check Burger Bullets web site and they will have a price. Cost for the cores?? I have a supply of pure lead for nothing...and friends that find it for me. Old flashing from houses.....lead from old pipes that were put in years ago.....Just clean it up in a pot(that I made). And then perhaps an inexpensive bottom pour lead pot. You do want to use pure lead, as opposed to wheel weights or anything hard. Softest lead that you can get your hands on. The jackets come in different lengths so you need to figure out what weight bullet you want and then adjust the core to match. The lead in the bullet might just be at the tip, or further down into the jacket.....you can actually go down into the jacket quite a ways and still have a bullet that will be very accurate. A little R&D here...lighter bullets...use shorter jackets....heavy bullets will require longer jackets. After casting bullets for handgun silhouette for many years(I used to write the cast bullet column for The Silhouette back in the '80's)I thought that making jacketed bullets would be the next logical step in making bullets for competition. I enjoy the challege of making my own bullets and it's kind of funny to watch people's faces when they ask which brand of jacketed bullets I use and I tell them "mine".

[Smokin7mm]

Ok, since I have been ID'd I guess I should reply. Yes I do swage my own jacketed bullets. I currently do 22cal, 6mm, 6.5mm, 7mm and am in the process of getting 270cal dies. It is relatively expensive for a set of dies. (in the neighborhood of 500.00 for as set to make a flat base open tip bullet. Boattail and lead tip require extra dies which equals more $$. A swaging press is another 300.00 or so. My equipment is RCE and I have been very happy with it. You can get jackets from Berger (J-4). The cost is about 1/2 of the cost of a bought bullet. I make my 22's from 22lr cases. I make my 6mm, 6.5mm & even 7mm from 17hmr & 22mag cases. I also buy Berger jackets for the 6.5mm & 7mm. It is a hobby just like casting of which I also do. I purchased my equipment about 10-11 years ago and aquired over a few years when prices were less. Like everything else it is a time consumming process. But it does allow you to just make some more if you run out and or make any weight you want

Bret

[35isit]

Bret, Didn't mean to throw you under a bus. I see where if i had invested in the equipment 25 years ago I could have made more than enough bullets to pay for a outfit. I could have practiced more and shot more entries.

[Smokin7mm]

Bret, Didn't mean to throw you under a bus. I see where if i had invested in the equipment 25 years ago I could have made more than enough bullets to pay for a outfit. I could have practiced more and shot more entries.

Greg,
Just kidding. Always willing to answer questions or help anyone else out. If I were to start out now it would be a consideral investment with a long time to make it pay for itself. A buddy of mine and I went in on the equipment so that helped a little. I just do all the swaging for the both of us. Good deal for him
The very reason I started experimenting with 17HMR & 22mags was the rising cost of jackets. When I started with 6.5mm I was getting berger jackets for around 8¢ each. Now they are almost 17¢ each.

Bret

[Knife Handler]

And for all you guys that shoot 22 CF, Bret makes some 100 grainers, if your barrel can handle them. I have a 1-7 twist on my 22 BR and they work well on the rams. They are flat based with a lot of bearing service. 24.5 gr of Benchmark and the 100 gr bullets take full size rams with no problem. Hits like a 6mm, but with a longer bullet, for more time on target.
Thanks Bret

[Alvin]

Thanks for the reply(sorry I'm so late on getting this out....always busy it seems). I kind of feel like the lone ranger whenever the topic of making jacketed bullets comes up. It's good to know that others are doing it. Interesting story....I feel the pain on the cost of jackets in the past five years....almost gave it up, but just decided that the guns were shooting too good to let it go.

Thanks again

Al