JHP or FMJ. Make your own??

calrugerfan

April 23, 2010 05:55

Ok, I've barely started reloading. I haven't even started casting my own bullets yet. But I was wondering if anybody makes their own JHPs or FMJs.

It seems like the tools would be pretty simple.

1 hydraulic press that you could change the dies on
1 set of dies for cutting the initial shape from flat copper
1 set of dies to form the bottom of the bullet
(fill with molten lead)
1 set of dies to crimp the top in.

Full metal jacket might be a little harder, but it seems like jacketed hollow point would be pretty easy.

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  jonk

  April 23, 2010 06:57

  It isn't filled with molten lead, you use a piece of lead wire to swage the jacket material around.
  
  It's not a difficult process but it uses a lot of fairly expensive equipment.
  
  Thing with molten lead is, as it cools it shrinks, pulling the core loose from the jacket. I suppose you could cast it and then swage it from there, but why add another step? Plus you'd have difficulty controling uniform weight by this method. Much easier to chop a piece of wire off uniformly. So the core and jacket need to be cold swaged together.
  
  If you search for 'bullet swaging' some options will come up- Corbin, CH4d, etc.

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  calrugerfan

  April 23, 2010 07:25

  quote:Originally posted by jonk
  It isn't filled with molten lead, you use a piece of lead wire to swage the jacket material around.
  
  It's not a difficult process but it uses a lot of fairly expensive equipment.
  
  Thing with molten lead is, as it cools it shrinks, pulling the core loose from the jacket. I suppose you could cast it and then swage it from there, but why add another step? Plus you'd have difficulty controling uniform weight by this method. Much easier to chop a piece of wire off uniformly. So the core and jacket need to be cold swaged together.
  
  If you search for 'bullet swaging' some options will come up- Corbin, CH4d, etc.
  
  
  Thanks for the info.

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