458 bullets

[phishroy]

Making some hollow point 458 bullets.
i decided half way to take a few pictures of the steps hope this gives some people inspiration to make their own.
a few steps are missing, jacket forming, jacket trimming , deburing, annealing.
lead core forming: cutting lead wire, lead core making degreasing lead cores.

swaged cores in jackets:

seating the cores, expanding the diameter to 457 and creating the hollow point.

cores seated in jackets, expanded to 457 and created hollow point.

forming the bullet nose: final expansion to 458 and point forming.

formed bullets: expanded to final size and point formed to an exposed lead hollow point tip.

forming the cannular

all done and ready to load.

 

[65cutlass]

Looks great. Thanks for posting.

 

[double gun]

Very nice! Not sure if I missed it, but what weight are they?

 

[phishroy]

Very nice! Not sure if I missed it, but what weight are they?

350 grain

 

[3#cannon]

Nice work. How costly is the setup for this? How expensive per projectile or per 100?

 

[skokie]

Very cool stuff. How many bullets per hour can you make like this?

 

[burnt_servo]

where did you get your equipment ?

cost for the equipment ( rough estimate is ok )

cool thread

 

[phishroy]

I got most of the tooling from RCE LLC.
Wait times are long, for some dies easily over a year.
It depends on what dies are being made at the moment.
Each dies is custom and hand made with extremely tight tolerances.

For starting out Three are also ways to create jacketed bullets using a good solid reloading press and a set of reloading dies.

The process is a lot more tedious than making cast bullets.
It may not be worth it for high volume shooting since it takes long to make a batch of bullets but its nice to know I am not depended on availability of “whats in stock in stores”

I particularly like this for my long range shooting, like 338 and my 243 win.
Once I have a bullet model. I can make as many as I want and dont have to worry about running out or hording bullets anymore.

The jackets for the 6mm can also be made from 22RF brass which in abundance in every range.

Still tinkering around with lots of 6mm designs, ive even made a 6mm polymer tip using the plastic BBs, made a long slender bullet but weighs only70 grains. Still need to test those.


I work in batches. So its not exactly “how many bullets per hour” type deal.
For example: make a batch of cores, seat the cores, move on to the next step, make the jackets etc etc'. it does take much longer than filling up a mold with lead.
I usually run batches of 50 to 200.
if im tinkering with a new bullet configuration it can take me a full day and ill only make 10 bullets.

For just starting out or for just trying to make jacketed bullets you don’t need special equipment. Assuming you reload you can use your reloading dies and press to make jacketed bullets.
You can use empty brass for jackets and look at the specs for some calibers to check out neck angles which can create bullet noses.

Here is a you tube video showing how you can use reloading dies to make jacketed bullets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gSm--Oj4q0

important to note that you should anneal the jacket materiel completely (not only the case mouth) so it will be completely nice and soft and wont crack, especially if using empty brass casings.

use common sense and write down your measurements and your set up so it can be reproduced when you have a design your pleased with.

have fun with it but just be warned it can be addictive.

 

[saskgunowner101]

That's a neat process. How do they perform in the accuracy department? Have you tested on any creatures yet?

 

[skokie]

That's an incredibly ingenious process. I would definitely be interested in what the effects on game would be with the annealed brass jacketed rounds.

 

[phishroy]

That's a neat process. How do they perform in the accuracy department? Have you tested on any creatures yet?

As for accuracy, it depends on how tight you hold your tolerances and consistency is key.
When using proper jackets or tubbing jackets these preform just like commercially available bullets and even better in some cases.
I have heard some guys making 308 bullets using 223 brass which would be probably good as plinking ammo but wouldn’t expect long range accuracy.
I have not tried many centerfire brass jackets, I have made a few prototypes to get an idea of the concept but haven’t shot many of them.
I do use lots of RF brass for making 6mm plinking bullets.
I find the RF brass to be on the thin side and when I push them to fast they can come apart.
I have also heard that that tends to happen on fast rifle twists, like a 7 twist.
This does not happen with proper jackets or thicker brass.
I place orders once in a while for Berger J4 jackets with Jerry from mystic precision. He can bring them in.
Jackets are cheaper than made bullets.
With commercial jackets I get superb accuracy. I have a 6mm bullet design with a very long ogive (10S) and rebated boat tail that shoots extremely well at 300 meters.
I still have allot of tinkering around with that design to see what bullet weight works best, tried 100, 90, 105, and 110 grain. It’s a work in progress.
Thicker jackets can be made from specific copper tubbing but they have to be swaged for proper concentricity and diameter.
As for performance on animal, So far I have only used the 458 jacketed bullets on deer and zero problems, preforms just like any other jacketed bullet.
I have also made some 485 grain 458 dual core partition type bullet that punch through pretty hard.
The nose portion deforms and the second encapsulated core keeps chugging without expansion.

A note on cores: make sure you use pure lead for cores. Anything harder than that and you will be needing allot of force and risk damaging your dies.

 

[Brassman66]

I am definitely impressed by your work. Thank you also for posting Pictures and comments.

Cheers

 

[redruns]

For the partition bullet, did you use a smaller trimmed jacket or a gas check or something different for the lower core?

 

[phishroy]

For the partition bullet, did you use a smaller trimmed jacket or a gas check or something different for the lower core?

Have used both methods, a trimmed upside down jacket and a gas check.
I have had trouble using the upside down trimmed jacket.
The lead in the upside down jacket needs to fill the exact amount of expanded length of the jackets while being seated upside down.

If there is not enough lead to fill the expanded space during the core seating process than the inner jacket will crinkle, too much lead and it will try to flow around it and in between the inner and outer jacket creating concentricity problems.

using an undersized gas check during the base core seating will let copper expand which will wrap around about 5 mm below the top edge of the base core and tightly seating against the jacket wall and ready for seating thee top core.

 

[redruns]

Thanks for the insight.

 

[Camp Cook]

I've been shooting the 350gr HP's in my 14" and 22" barreled T/C Contender carbines in 45-70.

I find these bullets to be as accurate as anything else I have ever shot in these guns I can consistently hit the 200 yard 12" x 12" gong at my club shooting free hand.

I have not taken game with them yet plan on changing that soon.

phishroy I'm ready to give the partitions a try let me know when your ready to ship...

 

[phishroy]

I've been shooting the 350gr HP's in my 14" and 22" barreled T/C Contender carbines in 45-70.

I find these bullets to be as accurate as anything else I have ever shot in these guns I can consistently hit the 200 yard 12" x 12" gong at my club shooting free hand.

I have not taken game with them yet plan on changing that soon.

phishroy I'm ready to give the partitions a try let me know when your ready to ship...

Check your inbox

 

[Camp Cook]

Check yours...