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Another noob question, do most the large manufactures swage their lead bullets instead of casting them? I take it this process is somewhat like a forging and the lead is formed into bullets by pressure instead of being poured. Making brass jackets from empty brass is also swaging. When I first read about it in a gun mag it sounded like the craziest thing forming jackets for .223 from empty .22lr.
Yes, the large ammo makers have been swaging their bullets for more than a century. Your understanding of the basics of the process is fairly accurate - it is something like a "cold" forging process (the lead is not molten at all).
All swaged booits i have seen are soft lead, so that rather restrics their usage to certain calibers or low pressure/velocity loads.
Wife got a deal years ago on few thousand .356" 95 grain swaged boolits and they work fine in her .380's.
Most swaged boolits are used in dedicated target pistols, paper punching bullzi's at a much lower velocity than a jacketed or hard cast boolit.
Swaged bullets are a lot more work but in my experience they are significantly more accurate.
The only swaged bullets I actually make and use are very soft BNH 8 +/- 148 grain .357 wad cutters lubed in a sizer lubricator to fill the lube grooves then swaged into hollowpoints.
I only actually use them when I want to show off.
They are very accurate but way too much trouble for normal use.
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