Made my own jackets - drawn

[cris]

Finally, after almost six month spent on this project I am reaching the end.
Finding jackets when you are not in the US is neither cheap nor really easy. You cannot simply order a bucket of J4 or Sierra and sit and wait for them, so one day I decided to attempt to produce my own.
Defining the benchmark was easy… J4 (anyone agrees??) --- this was the only easy part.
Then…
Find a buddy with a transfer press, find a diemaker that is also a passionate shooter, find a supplier willing to sell high grade drawing copper by the kg and not the ton, find another dozen of things and guys willing to help and, most of all, keep quality high and costs below the import price of a J4 jacket.
This was almost five months ago.
These days I am fine tuning the final annealing step. This morning I received a few annealed wannabe jackets from a newly acquired friend (the heat treater), and washed them in my tumbler.

The jackets are not perfect yet; the temperature was a little too high. When ejecting the bullet out of the point forming die the jacket does not stretch as the J4 does (I am looking for needle sharp points), it is a little too soft and the ejection pin flattens the tip. I am not that far from the end, hope that 30-50° less will make it.
But weight tolerance and dimensions are good. Some night this week the professional furnace will be available again, and we will sit in front of it, waiting for the final response.
We will test fire the first final jackets this week end, if the range won’t be too wet.

If accuracy will be as we hope, we will have our own source of jackets to play with, with no limitation about quantity.

Oh, I forgot…the jacket is .308 , 1150” long.

Here a pic of the last run in the tumbler

[Hickory]

Beautiful

[tbj555]

Nice job , Where there is a will there is a way.

[PbHurler]

Those look great Cris. You're not in the U.S.?

What alloy & initial temper of copper are you using?

I ask because I've also begun the venture into jacket making (only drawing to .44 cal as of yet) I'm using Corbin dies on a Series 2 press. I'm currently using .030" pure copper strip (from Corbin) temper unknown. I am curious as to the availability, cost (Yeah, less than a ton quantities), and preferred initial temper of say 95/5 gilding metal strip.

Also, are you needing to anneal along the way during your draws?

[taminsong]

Cris,

Can I buy some jackets from you?

Please let me know.

[kd185]

nice work
where in the world are you?
just curious

[cris]

I am German, but am working in Italy for some time, so I made this in Italy.
We bought 95/5 copper form an italian company, temper and thickness unknow to me (thickes should be 0,8mm) because the guy who owns the transfer press ordered it, but I will find it out next time I'll visit him. In fact we used two different brands of strip. First time we bought 5kg just to test the dies. They worked, but the seller told us we had to wait at least 2 months for the next strip delivery, so we found another source and it worked too.
We use a linear transfer press, so we are able to make big runs if needed, and industrial machines are, in my opinion, better than a home workshop. Annealing is not needed during the draws, it is a question of speed of operation and tools geometry. With speed I mean the speed of the ram and the time elapsed between one operation and the other. With a transfer press, good strip and proper tool design you do not need annealing in between.
I anneal at the end because I make 7,5 ogive and want a very sharp meplat, closed to the maximum. Some jackets cracked, so annealing is necessary.
We just made one run, and produced 30.000 jackets. Enough material to define annealing, washing etc. in industrial equipment.
It will take some more runs to be sure of material quality and overall quality, but for a start we have enough jackets to supply a few guys aroud here.

I will sell a few, If someone is interested, just to cover the cost but not before I am sure that the jacket is good.

I calculated a final price of abou 0,15 each, Euros, not Dollars. Slightly higher than J4 in the US (what is the current price for .308 1,150?), but consider that in EU we have to import them and add 20% taxes.
And most of all, I made 30.000!!! J4 sells millions. I made a calculation of a lot of 2 million pieces and price would fall to 0,125. Another thing...I buy the machine hours, these are not free (the asistance and the first test was).

[PbHurler]

Thanks for the information. I'm only, for the time, looking for self-sufficiency. Your transfer press usage is an entirely different realm of operation! It looks like you're well on your way to producing some fine jackets. 30,000 initial run, wow.
I wish you all the best.

[BT Sniper]

Nice work. Great pics! Thanks for sharing. Look forward to hearing more about how they perfrom.

Good shooting and Swage on!

BT

[Thetraveler]

Nice work indeed. Do you have any pictures of your project and machinery used as you progressed? If you do I would love to see them.

[Smokin7mm]

I just got the latest price list from Berger on their J4's. They have skyrocketed this past year. The 30cal 1.150 length has a unit cost of .3044 USD. A bucket of 800 now runs 243.52 USD. The 7mm & 6.5mm that I use are even more!!

Bret

[BT Sniper]

That's the same price as buying Berger or Sierra Match bullets isn't it! Another form of CONTROL!!

Sad but true.

BT

[Smokin7mm]

That's the same price as buying Berger or Sierra Match bullets isn't it! Another form of CONTROL!!

Sad but true.

BT

Pretty close to Sierra MK but the berger bullets are in the 40.00/100 range. Yes it is sad but true.

Bret

[cris]

What?? 30cal 1.150 length at a unit cost of .3044 USD? Are you serious? But why? Copper didn't rise that much.
Well, good that I have my own now, at half that price

Anyway,
today I found the correct temperature to have the same feeling and reaction I have using J4s and with no problems or deformation when forming and ejecting.

Here a pic of the last run in the furnace and some formed 168 grainers.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/528/009xy.jpg/

The color of the jackets in not bright as the last ones, I had no access to controlled atmosphere and had to polish the jackets. Sadly I had no pickling solution, but the result is good (despite the color). Next wednesday the c.a. furnace will be available again and we will process a few thousand.
The jackets look duller, but it is because of the fluorescent light.

Now it's shooting time!!!

[fredj338]

Everything goes up as the US $$ goes down. Being in the EU, you know how all this works. Your jackets look Sehr Gut! Good luck w/ the project.

[Thetraveler]

Nice finished rounds Cris. Still love to see some pictures of your jacket production.

[Thetraveler]

Who's dies are those? nice boat tale

[BT Sniper]

YEP! AWESOME!

Keep it up.

BT

[cris]

Dies are made by Niemi

[rasto]

The best looking bullets I have ever seen.
Are the dies still avaiable?