BT Sniper
With shelves empty of reloading supplies and ammo it seems like a good time to share a bit of knowledge on how to become more self-reliant of one's shooting needs by describing the steps involved for those that may wish to someday make their own bullets.
Wow.... where to start
History- I suppose many of you may already be a little bit familiar with at least the process of making bullets, not reloading ammo, actually forming projectiles from copper jackets and lead cores. The history of course goes back a long ways but I like to recall the early days of Fred Huntington of RCBS developing a press and bullet making dies and Vernon Speer going door to door selling 22 cal bullets made from 22lr brass cases during the shortages of WWII. Many of you may already know that RCBS stands for Rock Chuck Bullet Swage.
Cost- I bet many of you that may have been interested enough to research just a little found the necessary tooling and dies required to make one's own bullets represent a much greater investment then the standard set of reloading dies. Any further research into making bullets probably ended there. I can assure you all the initial investment doesn't have to be that much and the returns can be made up quickly depending on what bullet you wish to make.
Time- Then there is the time involved in making a finished bullet. I relate it similarly to the process of reloading quality ammo. Reloading ammo can take a little time and involve many steps depending on how far the reloader wishes to go in search of utmost in accuracy, certainly longer then picking up a few boxes of loaded ammo off the shelves. But there is also potential to save money when reloading, after all the initial investments in press, dies, powder, bullets, primers, etc. has been made.
Satisfaction- I feel this is the biggest reason to making your own bullets. Many of you that reload your own ammo already have experienced a bit of this, the feeling of that trophy you took from ammo you loaded yourself, that small match winning group, or hitting steel way out there. That feeling is multiplied greatly when it with ammo you made yourself. Now imagine those shots where not only with ammo you loaded yourself but with a bullet you made too, the feeling is “priceless.”
Freedom- In times of shortages like what are experiencing now, have experienced in the past and certainly will experience again in the future, being able to supply yourself and/or others with bullets to supply your shooting needs is again “priceless” and possibly even a source of necessary income or in trade goods. To free yourself from those that will attempt to regulate your shooting needs is a great feeling, to be able to keep on shooting when others won’t or can’t…… is AWESOME!
Let’s see then….. While the process is very similar no matter what caliber or weight bullet one wishes to make lets start with making the awesome 55 grain 22 cal bullet from scrap 22lr brass!
55 grain 22 cal bullet made from 22lr brass
Set of BTSniper swage dies and base punches
Lee Classic Cast Press set up for making bullets
Standard RCBS press set up for making bullets
Process requires a few steps and a little bit of time but it is not difficult and can be accomplished by anyone with a decent reloading press and a little patience and ability. If you can reload safe ammo you have all the skills necessary to swage your own bullets.
First thing we must start with clean 22lr brass. The worst thing for expensive bullet swage dies is dirty brass.
Step 1. Derim the 22lr brass forming a jacket. A base punch with a pin of specific dimeter is used to iron out the rim of the 22lr brass as it is pushed threw a derim die. What comes out the top of the die is a brass jacket all most ready to be formed into a bullet. I use RCBS case lube for this step because it is easy to wash off. To make accurate bullets you do not want any sort of lube or grease to come into contact with the inside of the jacket.
derimed 22lr case
Step 2. Clean and anneal the derimed jackets. We must anneal the derimed 22lr jackets so they will form a perfect nose. If the jacket is too hard the jacket will fold in on its self at the tip rather then “flow” or swage into the perfect point. The brass must be heated to a temp above 800 degrees to achieve the necessary softness of the brass. By the way…. Brass is made up of 70% copper and 30% Zink, the same two components that make up commercial jackets which is Guilding Metal made up of 95% copper and 5% zink. So there is no harm to be done to the barrel shooting bullets made form brass. It has been shown that Zink actually has a lubrication property to it when used in bullet jackets. After the brass has been annealed the brown scale must be cleaned from the jacket. A quick tumble in stainless steel media produces a jacket now ready to be turned into a bullet.
Over 5,000 jackets made form 22lr brass ready to become bullets
Step 3. Making the lead core. One can either cut their lead cores from lead wire or cast their cores from a custom mold using scrap lead. I have done it both ways and both achieve the necessary perfect result yet for the shooter that already may cast boolits using scrap lead can be a lot cheaper then buying lead wire. I use a custom 11 cavity mold that when using pure lead drops cores that are about 50 grains in weight. Two evening of casting over a weekend can produce a mountain of lead slugs ready to be used for making bullets!
Takes very little time to turn scrap lead into bullet cores!
Step 4. Swage lead core to equal weights. To be able to make a bullet with both a specific and consistent weight we squish the lead slugs in a die that has a bleed hole in the side of it. This is commonly referred to as a “bleed die.” In my case I take the 50 grain cast lead slugs and need to remove about 5 grains worth so that when paired with the 10 grain 22lr jacket it will produce a 55 grain final weight bullet. Again RCBS case lube is used on the cores so when done the cores will be washed free of all lube. A good bleed die will produce cores that are equal in weight to plus or minus 1 tenth of a grain.
A clean swaged core and jacket ready for the next step
Step 5. Seat the core inside the jacket. Using a tight fitting base punch and a core seating die the lead core is placed inside the jacket and pushed up into the mouth of the die. Just enough pressure is then applied to expand both the lead core and brass jacket to the internal diameter of the core seat die. The seated core and jacket combination is now about .2235” in diameter. Quality Anhydrous Lanolin based swage lube is used in this step to ensure proper formation of the seated jacket and extraction of the jacket from the core seat die. Proper care is used to ensure no lube is present on the inside of the jacket or on the lead core.
Pile of 22 cal seated cores and jackets ready to form into bullets!
Step 6. Final point formation. With the lead core seated in the jacket the only thing left to do is form the point. A quality point form die with the perfect polished finish is necessary here to produce a quality bullet. The ejection pin used to push the bullet out of the die will be the same diameter of the tip of the bullet being formed, in this case about .062” in diameter. This is also why standard lubes used for reloading is not recommended. The same Lanolin based lube used during core seating is again used for point formation. A precise amount of lube must be used with every bullet formed. When using 22lr for jackets if we use too much lube it will form dimples in the curve of the bullet, same as too much lube used when sizing brass will form dimples in the shoulder of the case. The same is also true if we use too little lube, we run the risk of getting a bullet stuck in the die, same as what is possible with getting a case stuck in the FL reloading die. But when the die is good and the proper amount of lube is used on stroke of the press to push the jacket into the point form die and the subsequent push of the ejection system on the ejection pin of the die and out pops a perfectly formed 22 cal bullet that now has point formed to a small tip of only .062” and a final bullet diameter of exactly .2240”.
Perfect 22 cal bullets made from 22lr brass ready to load!
The process is now complete. Perfect 55 grain 22 cal bullets have been made from free scrap 22lr brass and a bit of lead. The initial investment in quality dies and tooling can be a bit of sticker shock as the amount of labor to produce these high precision dies and tooling is high but for the shooter that wants to take his reloading hobby to the next level, or the shooter that no longer wants to be at the mercy of supply shortages and those attempting to regulate their shooting needs, making your own bullets is a very rewarding experience.
I'll add more pics and results as well as additional bullet calibers in following threads or posts.
Till then I say,
Good Shooting and Swage On!
Brian
|
   
   
|
|
Reply With Quote
