Interested in Jacket Making equipment for home shop

Other then Corbin’s equipment , the CHP-1 hydraulic press or his manual presses , does anyone else own equipment to make their own jackets with , any other type of press and dies ?
I’ve got a older model chp-1 I’ve been using to make my own bullets and a flat strip jacket maker set up . It does make great stuff but I’ve wondered what the next step up in production is , if there was anything a little more automated in the process that anyone has come up with or engineered themselves short of trying to compete against the big guys with huge automated multi-operational presses that run by computers .
I know from my own experience even when times were great in the last few years there are limited sources for jackets that aren’t always available when you want them , that’s why I got into it anyway , that and the cool factor , plus I was buying them anyway .
I wondered what everyone else did for a source .. do you make your own jackets or just shoot cast or started powder coating them ... even if there was enough need for more sources but with the price of raw materials then labor involved I’m not sure they could be made cheaper even made by the 10,000s as it just costs so much even with automation , then the investment becomes unreasonable for the return ?
I know that from the stand point of making them myself ,with the amount of labor involved going from multiple operations drawing them , that’s there is a fair amount of handling that goes into just one jacket doing it how I am currently .
Guess I was wondering how the rest of you are going at it and if there’s any type of equipment that I hadn’t discovered yet ? If you had had problems finding jackets when you’ve needed them and how you feel about the going costs of those copper jackets and if availability has been a unwelcome factor now making Swaging a limited undertaking , like assembled ammo wasn’t bad enough .

Do you have the JMK-1 or JMK-2?
I made something like the JMK-1 from the pics on the Corbin site.
Wish Richard was still selling jackets but I can understand having a boat load of cash tied up on the shelf.

Just ordered some Hi-Tek to try on some swaged 355 lead bullets. Thinking they will be too soft but cheap so why not try it.

I have the less automated jacket system where I use flat strips of copper in aprox. 3 foot lengths 1.25 inches wide .Wishing I had the automated step up as I understand that it also cups the coins being punched as that's one less step into the process . It makes fine jackets after trimming them a time or two going through the reductions ,each time drawing smaller in diameter and longer in length .
The system I'm using can provide all or atleast most that I shoot as I am thinking of adding more dies to it to cover a few more calibers that I have .
I've been asked to sell jackets several times but can't see me sitting there doing all the steps then realize a profit from it atleast doing it how I currently am . I have looked for sources for copper as how I'm currently purchasing in small bundles doesn't allow much room for profit especially if you figure anything for your time and there is some waste , sometimes a lot of it being trimmed from the length. not so bad for say .50 ae but terrible going to .223 . So it would help to have a couple different starting points for your coins that start the drawing process -less waste but more money invested in dies .. I also have another drawing kit designed from another fellow ..it works but Corbin has always got stock on hand when you need something . I will say I have dealt with both Corbin brothers over the 10 years or so of this hobby and liked them both ,, tried to get one of them to adopt me so I could learn to make the dies ,,but no luck so far there either .
I have really thought hard about investing in a new chp-1 that has a automated coil feeder but still alot of steps involved and not sure the profit will justify the outlay plus my time getting into sales of jackets , though every time I look most sources are sold out . After having made them I can say they seem to be a good value for what the going rate is , so not entirely sure I want to throw my hat in that ring with $20,000 invested just to start .
I understand from reading they can be made with a regular punch press but that it can be hard on the fingers if you don't have a good rythm down you will need to find another way to clean your noise ...though I would like to see someone else's setup of one making the jackets .
Does anyone on here currently sale jackets ? There was a fellow here offering cups which if they would have fit my dies -I would also have been interested in just to do it a little quicker , if still cost competitive enough to justify it of course .
Like most fellows I am always looking for a sideline as I don't like sitting around but also don't want to be married to my hobbies either as there are alot of interesting things one can do with their time and seems you can grow tired of any of them atleast temporarily and need a break .

For 30cal, how about this:

Lob off a length of 5/16" copper tubing. Copper gas check. Run through a custom Lee bullet sizer. I have a 0.305" job I had them make for me. Draw the tubing down AND get the gas check on tight. Now add swaged core. Seat the core, swelling out the tubing. Point form. Done.

I am done with paying an exorbitant price for drawn jackets. It's silly to pay as much for the jacket as the finished bullet just due to someone's greed. Oh, how I wish Richard would make jackets again. I got 10K 30cal 0.8" and 20K 45cal 0.58" back when he was making them. Rant off...

So you are making tubing jackets basically -how do they preform in a handgun ? Do you get good expansion from these jackets without pre-scoring them to expand ? Though for target shooting it wouldn't really matter , I don't guess , just depends on what your going for or using them for.
So you are just gas checking the tubing to seal the bottom then form them in the dies..that would work for shootable jacketed bullets if your not too concerned about how it preforms . Heck just gas checks would work on the lead . I've even thought about swaging just the lead and shooting it as if the barrels were close enough to die size even with pure lead it ought to seal with obutration .
Prices on copper tubing aren't too cheap either , guessing you are using type L tubing vs the thinner type M ? I've been piecing together tooling for several years and already have a tubing saw from corbin planned for that someday . Also have a 1/2 tubing jacket maker but don't have reducers yet to get it to useable sizes for my handguns but thought about this route too already . Wondered how proper tubing jackets would preform with handguns where there is not alot of energy . I know they work well in rifle calibers with more fps and partition bullets could also be made .
Also thought about using the discarded cases recycled into jackets as popular on this forum . That almost makes the most sense as a substitute for formed jackets but the added length makes some loads concerning for overall length like for the .40 s&w but it works with the right loads and if nothing else can be found .

If you are trying to make jackets for a .40 S&W, 9MM brass will work as a jacket. .32 acp works for 9mm and .38/.357 bullets and .40 S&W works for 44 and 45. A friend made a die to draw .380 acp to work in 9mm and 38/357.

Read the threads concerning using brass cases for jacket. there are several good videos on You Tube about it also.

It's not an ideal solution. Drawing down fired brass yields an inconsistent product. Most noticeably around what was the case rim. Roll it across a table and look closely at it. Part of the rim will be thicker and part will be thinner.

I do like 380 brass to make 147gr 9mm out of. The excess brass at the top just gets folded towards the center making a sort of shallow hollow point. I have done the same using 9mm brass for 158gr, but drawing down 9mm brass requires a lot more effort.

I can post pictures for anyone who would like to see.

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Originally Posted by baddoglowder

Also thought about using the discarded cases recycled into jackets as popular on this forum . That almost makes the most sense as a substitute for formed jackets but the added length makes some loads concerning for overall length like for the .40 s&w but it works with the right loads and if nothing else can be found .

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Also, even type M tubing would be overkill for pistol jackets. I just took some measurements on jackets I have on hand to measure the thickness at the mouth:

45cal 0.58" 0.012"
38cal 0.65" 0.013"
30cal 0.8" 0.020"
30cal 1.15" 0.020"

Type M has around 0.025" wall thickness but that is before it gets drawn down. So it would be thicker than commercial RCECO jackets. For 30cal, I think it would be fine. May need a new internal punch or you might get lucky and have one on hand.

Also, jackets are gilding metal (10% zinc) instead of pure copper.

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Originally Posted by tiger762

For 30cal, how about this:

Lob off a length of 5/16" copper tubing. Copper gas check. Run through a custom Lee bullet sizer. I have a 0.305" job I had them make for me. Draw the tubing down AND get the gas check on tight. Now add swaged core. Seat the core, swelling out the tubing. Point form. Done.

I am done with paying an exorbitant price for drawn jackets. It's silly to pay as much for the jacket as the finished bullet just due to someone's greed. Oh, how I wish Richard would make jackets again. I got 10K 30cal 0.8" and 20K 45cal 0.58" back when he was making them. Rant off...

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Tigger 762. Interesting idea/description. I make 175 Grain .308's from 5/16 Tubing using a copper tubing jacket die set I bought from BTSniper on this forum several years ago. Works pretty good and accuracy is as good as my loads using Sierra Matchking 175 Grain bullets. I like the idea of the gas check on the base - it would remove the small exposed lead circle in the center of the base; and should give a stronger base - as well as support a "Flat Base bullet (I normally make 175 grain rebated boat tail bullets in my Cornin .308 swage dies using jackets I made using the BT Sniper 5/16 tubing jacket dies.