Bullet swaging

[blaser.306]

Has anyone here dealt with Corbin manufactureing ? How are they to deal with and can you still import bullet swaging equipment into Canada! If so what has your experience been like as far as success/failure rate of shootable progectiles !

 

[sunray]

"...still import bullet swaging equipment..." Should be the same as reloading equipment. You'd best contact them and ask if they ship here though. The U.S. government made a bunch of changes, relatively recently, that requires any exporter to have a Federal licence and not all American retail or manufacturing companies bothered to get it.
Their bullet swaging dies and presses aren't cheap.

 

[blacksmithden]

If this is the same place I'm thinking of, the dies that they sell to punch out your own gas checks are $400 US!!!! , plus shipping, plus whatever taxes you get nailed with. I'd love to be able to tell Honady to to go get stuffed at over $30 a box, but you've got to punch out an aweful lot of gas checks to make it pay for itself.

 

[SandRoad]

There was a person who used to be on this board who was making 22 caliber bullets using spent 22LR cases using the Corbin equipment.

The results were mediocre accuracy and the jackets were too thin for high velocities. Plus he was buying the lead wire for the cores. He ended up buying preformed jackets to swage his own bullets to get better results.

After all of that he gave up on the idea. I believe he still makes a couple speciality bullets in sizes that are not commercially available.

 

[trevj]

If you order from either of the Corbin's (swage.com, rceco.com) and they quote a particular month for the delivery date, do be sure to ask which year!

RCE tends to be a little bit faster, and a touch less pricey, but both are backlogged, and have lots of wait involved. Neither is particularly cheap, either.

.22 cases for jackets works pretty good, it started the Speer Bullet company. As mentioned, they cannot be driven to extremes, so plan accordingly. Gophers seldom can tell that you hit them with a bullet that could only shoot 3/4" groups...

J4 jackets can be got through a Berger dealer. Not cheap, but no excuses to be made about the jackets, if the bullets don't shoot well, either.

I've been looking at swaging for a while. Have not took the plunge, yet.

Cheers
Trev

 

[johnone]

I have a Corbin manual press and the Hydro press, numerous die sets, lead extruder for making wire, etc, etc, the eqipment is first rate, the service tremendous.
Oh yes, they ARE expensive....
John

 

[thegunnut]

Many years ago, I bought the then state of the art Corbin " Mity Mite" (??) horizontal swaging press.
Beautiful equipment. Made exceptional product.
Dave Corbin was a true gentleman to deal with.
However.......
When I took into account the time and money invested, I could have bought a heck of a pile of match grade custom bullets for less money and had time to shoot more.
I was thinking I would become athe next great custom bullet mfg in Canada until the reality of economics intruded.
With the number of excellant bullet mfgs out there these days - both custom and commercial... I can really think of no reason to try swaging swaging.

Just my opinion... If you choose to proceed, Corbin is probably the best.