Swaging 9mm brass to make 357 full jacket 158-160/gr tc nose bullets 1000-piece lot
SWAGING 9MM BRASS TO MAKE 357 FULL JACKET 158-160/GR TC NOSE BULLETS, 1000-PIECE TEST LOT
Posting this information to show those who never swaged bullets before and those who have what can be made. My goal was to do a 1000-piece lot to give me an actual idea of how much time it would take. Making any other calibers would be very similar because most of the operations are the same. I also ran the statistical data to see what the overall results showed.
First of all, this was done on an automated hydraulic press. I couldn’t imagine doing this on a manual swage press due to the thousands of cycles needed to complete a 1000-piece lot.
All the dies I use are from Dave Corbin and they are the H-Type dies, 1-1/2” in diameter vs the standard 7/8” diameter dies sold. I don’t ever see breaking one from over pressure.
The pictures below will show the lead billet turned into lead wire. From the 0.310” diameter wire 28” long, sixty 96/gr cores could be cut on the homemade core cutter I built. If you could see the red speck in front of the cores that's what 5/grains of lead would represent.
The second picture shows a 9/mm case induction heated. The case would then be drawn into the 357 jacket 0.800” long. Next the core would be inserted and fully seated. With my press it took 1200/psi which equals over 9500 pounds of pressure. Using any lower pressure would not fully seat some of the cores. Usually for the larger calibers it takes about half this pressure, probably because of the larger diameter punches. For this operation alone doing it on a manual press would take quite a while to do 1000 pieces besides the effort and time to do so.
The third picture just shows the finished 1000-piece lot. The total cost for 1000 bullets $35, that’s why I would make my own and have an unlimited supply considering buying in today’s market. Just making these bullets it would only take around three to four thousand rounds to pay for the dies. I also use the die set to make 9/mm and 357/sig bullets using standard copper jackets. Need to run them through a star sizing die which adds around one hour. I like statistics and ran a 100-piece random test to see how close the bullet weight was held. For shooting 357 Magnum I don’t think a plus or minus of two grains or a little more would make very much difference in accuracy. These will vary more due to two reasons. The cores were just cut and not swaged to within several tenths of a grain. The 9/mm cases were a mixed lot and they could easily deviate plus or minus five grains. The test was to see what the actual results were and how long it would take. Swaging the cores would add three hours to the total time. Sorting thousands of cases wasn’t even a consideration. If I were making match grade rifle bullets all the operations would be done precisely and copper jackets would be used which all weigh the same. For what little rifle I do shoot it’s hard to justify a $1500 die set and the jackets are not cheap. BT dies have jumped in price to over $1200 for a three-die set. All my Corbin H-dies were around $850 for a three-die set or less if I didn’t need the swage core die, usually could use one from another set if the calibers are close.
Steps and time to complete the operations for a 1000-piece lot. This is all based on the press cycle time of 6.0/sec and 4.0/sec to load and unload the next round. Very repetitious. Usually, I would work for two hours straight at one time, no rush.
Step 1, swage the lead billets into 17 lengths 28” long and cut into 1020 96/gr. cores on a handmade core cutter, pretty accurate to within one grain time ½-hour
Step 2, Induction heat and draw 9/mm cases into 357 jackets. Because I built a fully automated induction annealer the two operations can be done at the same time which overall will save three hours if the cases were done separately. Combined time for doing both, time 3.0-hours
Step 3, Fully seat the lead cores, time 3.0-hours
Step 4, Point form the bullet, time 3.0-hours
Step 5, Last step add cannelure, power Corbin cannelure tool, time ½-hour
Total time to complete the 1000-piece lot ten hours for a total cost of $35 vs several hundred dollars for factory bullets.
In total you then have five thousand cycles to do most calibers. So, the question is if you had a choice would you do them manually and how long would it take? How would the consistency be? Or using a hydraulic press, bullet number one is the same as bullet number 1000 with no real effort involved. Just gets tedious the longer you stay with it so it needs to be spread out for three to four days, or more.
The statistical data is as follows. Overall, not to bad using cut cores and mixed cases. I’ve made 357 bullets with swaged cores and copper jackets and they are all within several tenths of a grain, as good or better looking than factory bullets. The initial weight goal was 158-160-grains. Some fliers but overall due to the mixed cases, the results were actually better than expected.
FUNCTION GRAINS FUNCTION GRAINS
AVERAGE BULLET WEIGHT 157.63 AVERAGE BULLET WEIGHT 157.63
LOW BULLET WEIGHT 153.90 LOW BULLET WEIGHT VALUE FROM AVERAGE VALUE -3.73
MEDIUM BULLET WEIGHT 157.60 MEDIUM BULLET WEIGHT VALUE FROM AVERAGE VALUE -0.03
HIGH BULLET WEIGHT 160.70 HIGH BULLET WEIGHT VALUE FROM AVERAGE VALUE 3.07
MAXIMUM WEIGHT DIFFERENCE 6.80 STANDARD DEVIATION 1.49
I put a lot of information out there for anyone to review or ask questions. It took about five years to get to this point after first building the hydraulic press. Second integrated an induction annealer into my design to make a fully automated annealer. It will process 9/mm, 40/S&W and 45/ACP cases at a rate of around 1000 per 3.0 hours, again very consistent.
Hope this helps for anyone wanting to start getting into swaging. At a younger age it will pay for itself in several years if done right. Factory components will always be going up or not even being obtainable like right now. This is going to go on for several more years and doubt if prices will come down to 2018 prices. You at least need powder and primers to reload and some of the pricing is just not realistic right now to reload unless you have a good supply, fortunately I do for many years into the future.
Good luck and hope to hear some questions and positive feedback only. This is meant to help individuals of what is actually involved in swaging a particular bullet using drawn cases for jackets.
Thank You
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