Oklacoyotekiller
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does anyone have any experience with these? know these have been around a time. (rcbs) wondering if it would be worth thelong cost and effort
corbin 22 rimfire brass bullet swage
- Thread starter Oklacoyotekiller
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rcmodel
Member in memoriam
No experiance, but.
$803.00 for the .22 case bullet swaging kit?
That would take a whole heck of a lot of bullets to pay for itself!
rc
$803.00 for the .22 case bullet swaging kit?
That would take a whole heck of a lot of bullets to pay for itself!
rc
ReloaderFred
Member
I swage several calibers of handgun bullets, but not rifle bullets. What I can tell you is it's a very slow process.
First, you sort your brass by brand. Then the brass will have to be cleaned prior to any operation, which means really, really clean. Then you have to derim the cases, which means lubing them and pushing them through a special die for that purpose. Then you have to anneal the entire case, which means bringing them up to at least 900 Degrees F. Then you have to cut, or cast, cores of the appropriate diameter and weight, and they have to be consistant.
The cores then need to be seated in the core seat die. Then they're run into the point forming and final swage die, and IF they come out right, you put them in a citric acid bath to remove the carbon, etc. from the annealing process. After the citric acid bath, you then tumble them in corn cob for a couple of hours to make them pretty.
If you're going to cannelure them, you'll need the tool. Mine is from CH-4D, and you add the cannelure one bullet at a time.
As you can see, it's labor intensive and slow work. And if you don't buy the set for use on a reloading press, such as the RCBS Rockchucker, then you'll have to buy a swaging press, which usually runs around $500.00+, in addition to the cost of the dies.
I enjoy the swaging I do, but I'm retired and have a little more time to do it. And I've picked up swaging dies over the years at some great prices, but buying new dies would be very expensive.
Hope this helps.
Fred
First, you sort your brass by brand. Then the brass will have to be cleaned prior to any operation, which means really, really clean. Then you have to derim the cases, which means lubing them and pushing them through a special die for that purpose. Then you have to anneal the entire case, which means bringing them up to at least 900 Degrees F. Then you have to cut, or cast, cores of the appropriate diameter and weight, and they have to be consistant.
The cores then need to be seated in the core seat die. Then they're run into the point forming and final swage die, and IF they come out right, you put them in a citric acid bath to remove the carbon, etc. from the annealing process. After the citric acid bath, you then tumble them in corn cob for a couple of hours to make them pretty.
If you're going to cannelure them, you'll need the tool. Mine is from CH-4D, and you add the cannelure one bullet at a time.
As you can see, it's labor intensive and slow work. And if you don't buy the set for use on a reloading press, such as the RCBS Rockchucker, then you'll have to buy a swaging press, which usually runs around $500.00+, in addition to the cost of the dies.
I enjoy the swaging I do, but I'm retired and have a little more time to do it. And I've picked up swaging dies over the years at some great prices, but buying new dies would be very expensive.
Hope this helps.
Fred
Oklacoyotekiller
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thanks for the info guys. last time i looked it was about 600 for the set for a reload press. guess they went up like everything else. what pistol calibers do you swage? do you use rimfire brass for them also? read an article on it a couple years back and they used some lead shot in some of their bullets that worked fairly well. pretty explosive and grouped acceptably.
Viper225
Member
I sold my set up years ago. Way to much work in my opinion.
Bob
Bob
ReloaderFred
Member
Oklacoyotekiller,
For handgun bullets, I use both half jackets and cartridge cases for jackets. For instance, .32 Auto brass makes great .357" bullets, while .380 Auto cases make good .40 S&W bullets. I use 9x19 cases to make .410" diameter bullets, and .40 S&W brass makes a great .429" bullet, and can even make .452" diameter bullets. I also have a supply of half jackets in most of those calibers.
For cores, I use swaged lead wire for some of them, and bullets cast of pure lead, and unlubed, for others. It all depends on the target weight of the completed bullet. Sometimes a cast bullet and cartridge case together will make a bullet of the weight I'm looking for, so it's just easier to cast up a bunch of "cores" out of pure lead in the Master Caster.
I use a ceramics kiln to anneal the brass cases prior to forming into bullets. It really speeds up the process and assures all the cases are annealed uniformly. The entire case must be annealed, or you'll never make the solid base of the case swage out to the desired diameter.
There is a wealth of information on this subject on the castboolits.com site. Here's the link to the swaging forum: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?f=41
Hope this helps.
Fred
For handgun bullets, I use both half jackets and cartridge cases for jackets. For instance, .32 Auto brass makes great .357" bullets, while .380 Auto cases make good .40 S&W bullets. I use 9x19 cases to make .410" diameter bullets, and .40 S&W brass makes a great .429" bullet, and can even make .452" diameter bullets. I also have a supply of half jackets in most of those calibers.
For cores, I use swaged lead wire for some of them, and bullets cast of pure lead, and unlubed, for others. It all depends on the target weight of the completed bullet. Sometimes a cast bullet and cartridge case together will make a bullet of the weight I'm looking for, so it's just easier to cast up a bunch of "cores" out of pure lead in the Master Caster.
I use a ceramics kiln to anneal the brass cases prior to forming into bullets. It really speeds up the process and assures all the cases are annealed uniformly. The entire case must be annealed, or you'll never make the solid base of the case swage out to the desired diameter.
There is a wealth of information on this subject on the castboolits.com site. Here's the link to the swaging forum: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdisplay.php?f=41
Hope this helps.
Fred
Oklacoyotekiller
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thanks for the link. will check it out.
Oklacoyotekiller
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that was a good link Fred. checking on the kaine setup. can get them for about $300. saw a lot about the ch4d but their web site don't list the 22lr to 224 dies
ReloaderFred
Member
Oklacoyotekiller,
Dan just started selling his Kaine dies about a year ago. Some people love them and others don't. I don't have any experience with them at all, as I bought about 15,000 .224" bullets really cheap about 10 years ago and I'm still working my way through them.
BT Sniper, Brian Thurner, is also working on .224" dies, and expects to have them out in the next couple of months. He's a stickler for quality and is constantly experimenting. You might want to take a look at what he's doing, too.
CH-4D doesn't offer a .224" die set. I believe the smallest they go is .308". I have their dies in .357", .400", .410", .429" and .452". They make great handgun bullets and are pretty easy to master. The biggest problem these days is coming up with half jackets, since there are very few people making them. If someone would start, they'd make a lot of money, at least in the common handgun calibers.
The more you read on that site, the more you'll learn. I had never thought to use cartridge cases for bullet jackets until I read about it on that forum. Now I make them all the time from common brass. They shoot really great in my handguns and Marlin carbines. It's a win-win situation.
Hope this helps.
Fred
Dan just started selling his Kaine dies about a year ago. Some people love them and others don't. I don't have any experience with them at all, as I bought about 15,000 .224" bullets really cheap about 10 years ago and I'm still working my way through them.
BT Sniper, Brian Thurner, is also working on .224" dies, and expects to have them out in the next couple of months. He's a stickler for quality and is constantly experimenting. You might want to take a look at what he's doing, too.
CH-4D doesn't offer a .224" die set. I believe the smallest they go is .308". I have their dies in .357", .400", .410", .429" and .452". They make great handgun bullets and are pretty easy to master. The biggest problem these days is coming up with half jackets, since there are very few people making them. If someone would start, they'd make a lot of money, at least in the common handgun calibers.
The more you read on that site, the more you'll learn. I had never thought to use cartridge cases for bullet jackets until I read about it on that forum. Now I make them all the time from common brass. They shoot really great in my handguns and Marlin carbines. It's a win-win situation.
Hope this helps.
Fred
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