I wanted to swage a 500/pc lot of 44/cal bullets using copper jackets to see how close I could hold the overall weight and look of the bullets. The weight only deviated about 0.5/gr overall which is pretty close for a 240/gr bullet. Even swaging the cut cores even a slight variation here will affect the swaged core weight. You would have to swage the cores twice which is really not necessary. A half grain deviation is still very close. The finished bullets look as good or better than a factory bullet. This 500 piece lot cost $40, $30/jackets, $10/lead. Factory bullets would cost around $175 per 500. Even buying jackets at todays prices would add another $25 per 500, still a good savings, a few dollars more for lead costs.
Here is the actual statistical data taking a 50-piece random sample
AVERAGE BULLET WEIGHT 240.446 -------- 240.446 = AVERAGE BULLET WEIGHT
LOW BULLET WEIGHT ---- 240.2 ------- (-0.246) = LOW BULLET WEIGHT VALUE FROM AVERAGE VALUE
MEDIUM BULLET WEIGHT ---- 240.5 ------- 0.054 = MEDIUM BULLET WEIGHT VALUE FROM AVERAGE VALUE
HIGH BULLET WEIGHT ---- 240.7 ------- 0.254 = HIGH BULLET WEIGHT VALUE FROM AVERAGE VALUE
MAXIMUM WEIGHT DIFFERENCE ---- 0.5 ------- 0.12 = STANDARD DEVIATION
Attachment 288572Attachment 288573Attachment 288574Attachment 288575Attachment 288580Attachment 288581
Picture 1-4 swaged cores to seated cores 500/pc lot
Pictures 5-6 Finished 500/pc lot of 44/cal TC-SP copper jacketed bullets
Picture 7 possible variations that can be made
copper jacket and swaged core before seating core
240/gr finished bullet
300/gr finished bullet
240/gr hollow point bullet
240/gr finished bullet using 40-S&W cases for jackets
I will be using these over the years in a 44 S&W magnum revolver and for my Desert Eagle using a rare 440/Corbon 10" barrel.
Hope this information shows those interested of what is possible in swaging bullets. These came out very consistent using a hydraulic press. The first bullet looks the same as the last bullet, the way they should come out with the correct setup.
Using copper jacket the finished product will come out looking like factory bullets or better.