In my spare time over this winter, I wanted to make these calibers and do some more testing making 300/gn 50/AE copper jacketed bullets. This information is for those who do swaging and know all the steps and for those interested into what is required to make quality swaged bullets. I don't believe with the right equipment you can tell the difference between a factory bullet vs your own swaged bullets. Overall, the ones I make are as good or better than a factory bullet and about ten times cheaper.
The first several pictures show what it takes to make a 500/pc lot of 125/gn TC nose bullets I'll only use for the 357/sig.
10/billets = 10-28"long x 0.312" core wire which will give you 50 113/gn cores per length of wire.
The cut cores will then be swaged 500 more cycles, into 110/gn cores plus the 15/gn 357x0.500" giving you a 125/gn finished bullet.
The cores are then washed, and core seated 500 more cycles.
Finally, almost done point forming another 500 more cycles.
To finish a cannelure is added to finish the completed bullet.
Lets see my cost copper jackets $0.05/each x 500 = $25, lead 4/lbs@$0.50/lb=$2.00 Total cost per 500 bullets $27.00 not to bad.
Time to make using an automated hydraulic press less than five hours, also not too bad for a 500-piece lot, all look the same.
Prior to making this lot I made a smaller 250-piece lot of 240/gn TC nose 44/cal bullets. These were made to feed my Desert Eagle with a 10" 440/Corbon barrel which was discontinued many years ago. I like doing smaller lots because there are so many cycles involved, very repetitive. All these cycles take less than seven seconds so you're constantly feeding the press. Now I only do several hours at a time. In two or three days I can finish the smaller lots.
The one picture just shows the comparison between a 240/gn TC 44/cal bullet and the 125/gn TC bullets just finished today.
The last picture shows a small lot of 300/gn RN copper jacket 50/AE bullets. This was a test lot using 44/cal x 0.700" copper jackets to see if they would work. From the end results to my surprise the 44/cal jackets expanded 100% to form the 300/gn 50/AE bullet. The cost to make these is about $0.06/each a little bit of a savings. I don't think you could do this without using a hydraulic press.
Just some more swaging information to review for those new to this hobby. My only other goal is to make jacketed 45-70 bullets which I thought I would never get into. The dies have been on order but may take 9-12 months from Corbin. All I can do now is wait and shoot cast-GC bullets for now. I have all the cores swaged to make 300, 350 & 400-gn copper jacketed bullets. I will also make some test lots using 40S&W cases for jackets. They should shoot as good as the copper jacketed ones and a little cheaper to make. A 300-500-gn 45-70 jacketed bullet should cost less than $0.08 each. The two-die set will pay for itself pretty quick. Plus, I think this is the same caliber as the Socom!
Any questions let me know.