I have read this thread to investigate making .224 bullets.
My needs are reasonably accurate (1 MOA) bullets. I can purchase commercial bullets for $87.50/1000 delivered.
https://www.armorally.com/shop/horna...r-spire-point/
Looking at the Corbin site, I can buy dies and core cutter for under $1000. With spools of lead wire from Corbin at $200/40 lb, and free .22 cases, I can produce 18k bullets for about $600...$35/1000.
If I sell the Corbin dies after producing 18k bullets for say $500 my total investment would be $1100 vs buying 18k bulk Hornady bullets for $1575.
I would like some help/data is wrt the time to produce bullets using a Rock Chucker press. My guess is with cleaning cases, annealing, de-riming, cutting cores, seating and point forming, production rate is about 100 bullets an hour. Is that reasonable??? So about 180 hours to make 18k bullets and save $475.
If I go with a core mold from BT Sniper, that adds $275. Cost of pure lead is say $1.50/lb so the cost of making 18k (50 gr) cores would be $200 in lead. About 1/3 the cost of buying lead wire. If I sell the core mold for $125, my cost for cores would be $350 for a saving of $250 over using lead wire. I assume the time needed to cast cores will be about the same as cutting cores. Casting cores works out to a total saving of $725 for 180 hours of time.
Unless productivity is far greater than 100 bullets an hour, swaging is not going to be a good fit for me. I currently have about 10k .224 bullets and another 18k will give me a lifetime supply. Spending 180 hours to save less than $750 is not worth it. Being old (70) I will not shoot enough to use up 28k bullets.
Make my own???
I have a lathe and looked at "what if I made my own dies and mold". $125 of material and 80 hours of machining time...plan for lots of mistakes...LOL. Are those numbers reasonable?
That puts the economics at $125 for dies and mold. Time goes to 260 hours. Savings of $1400. Less than $5.50/hr...still does not make a lot of sense.
This is not like reloading or casting where there are substantial savings. There needs to be a lot of love for the craft to make .224 bullets. Unless I am missing something.