Warthogga10
Member
I was wondering if anyone knows how FMJ rounds are made and if they can be made at home?
How are FMJ Rounds Made?
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I've read about jacketed bullets being made at home using a cold swaging technique in a book called The Gun Digest Book of the .45 by Dean Grennell (pages 230-236)
There are about 4 pages of info about it so I'll just type the basic steps he lists.
1) Produce the core blanks by cutting lead wire or casting
2) Swage the core blank to final shape and weight
3) Seat the core in the jacket (copper tube)
4) Form the bullet nose to the final shape.
He was making jacket hollowpoints not FMJ in these pages though. The press used to form the bullets was a "Corbin Silver Press".
There are about 4 pages of info about it so I'll just type the basic steps he lists.
1) Produce the core blanks by cutting lead wire or casting
2) Swage the core blank to final shape and weight
3) Seat the core in the jacket (copper tube)
4) Form the bullet nose to the final shape.
He was making jacket hollowpoints not FMJ in these pages though. The press used to form the bullets was a "Corbin Silver Press".
Lupinus
Member
For such a process I would stick with factory made bullet's.
Just the bullets are relativly cheap and the plating...well I would trust factory bullets much more and just use them for reloading.
Just the bullets are relativly cheap and the plating...well I would trust factory bullets much more and just use them for reloading.
Grump
Member
In a BIG machine!
Usually.
See Corbin for home-production stuff. To get any volume, you need one with a hydraulic ram. You still wind up buying jackets (there's a little cottage industry for benchrest DIY-folks, where the "J4" or J-4" jackets now used by Nosler came to dominate the nottotallyridiculously-priced market) unless you're REALLY into doing that stamping and drawing stuff.
Two methods popular in the past were jackets from fired .22 cases (only good up to 6mm or 6.5mm, I don't 'member!), and jackets from real pennies for up to I never knew what maximum diameter. In mid-to-late 1983, the US Gummint switched to those lousy clinker copper-plated zinc pennies. I have no idea whether the will work for jackets.
With what my hobby time and work time is worth, buying bulk bullets for less than a nickle apiece beats casting or otherwise making them. My reject rate for casting is so high, the production rate is probably similar to swaging jacketed projectiles.
We need to get Fitz in on this thread. He'll actually remember all this stuff I've either forgotten or never knew...
Usually.
See Corbin for home-production stuff. To get any volume, you need one with a hydraulic ram. You still wind up buying jackets (there's a little cottage industry for benchrest DIY-folks, where the "J4" or J-4" jackets now used by Nosler came to dominate the nottotallyridiculously-priced market) unless you're REALLY into doing that stamping and drawing stuff.
Two methods popular in the past were jackets from fired .22 cases (only good up to 6mm or 6.5mm, I don't 'member!), and jackets from real pennies for up to I never knew what maximum diameter. In mid-to-late 1983, the US Gummint switched to those lousy clinker copper-plated zinc pennies. I have no idea whether the will work for jackets.
With what my hobby time and work time is worth, buying bulk bullets for less than a nickle apiece beats casting or otherwise making them. My reject rate for casting is so high, the production rate is probably similar to swaging jacketed projectiles.
We need to get Fitz in on this thread. He'll actually remember all this stuff I've either forgotten or never knew...
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