Again, I have another question. Lately I have been thinking about casting my own bullets, mainly for my .45 ACP. Then today, I also got to thinking about swaging my own bullets. I went to Corbin's website, and they have what are called their R Dies. These will fit into standard 7/8 x 14 threaded presses. They have a kit for one caliber for about $350. This even includes lead to use. But I am unsure of using pure lead by itself. I think it would be better to do a bullet that has a 3/4 jacket to prevent extreme leading of the bore.

Has anyone ever swaged their own bullets versus casting? Has anyone ever used the Corbin equipment? I have not heard any bad things about Corbin, and yet, I have not heard of any other companies that offer bullet swaging equipment.

Any info and thoughts would be great!!

Thanks!

Yes, i've cast and swaged bullets for many years now. I have 6 or more Corbin and SAS swage press' and everything to go with them. Also a lot of casting equipment.

You need to swage pure lead, so unless you going to keep the V quite low, cast bullets would be better as you can harden the lead a bit.

For one pistol like the 45acp. i'd cast the bullets, BUT one thing about swageing bullets, you can just make your own jacketed bullets to the weight and design of your chooseing. You can also make up your own "jacketed" rifle bullets later on if you want to too.

Std. reloading press' don't make very good swage press', because they don't have the mechanical advantage to develoupe the pressure needed to make bullets.

Haveing said that, it's true you CAN swage some smaller bullets on std. reloading press'.

Drilling Man

Thanks for the reply DM, it looks like I may have to toss the idea around for a little longer, and decide if I also want to do my own bullets for my .30-06, 8mm Mauser and my .223. Another question for you. Do you hunt big game with the bullets you build, or do you use them for target practice, and buy other bullets for hunting?

I designed and made bonded core bullets BEFORE every one else got into it, and then sold them at gun shows and in my shop, but mostly i sold them by mail order.

I did use them my self some, but mostly for testing purposes. I like NP's so well, that that's what i use on big game these days.

Hand makeing "quality" hunting bullets takes a lot of time, and once you do it for a liveing like anything else the funs over with!!!

These days i use my own bullets for guns i own that require a "spl. bullet", like my 25/20 WCF "K" frame S&W revolver. I make a spl. "Keith style" SWC bullet just for this revolver.

Hope this helps,

Drilling Man