Corbin bullet swage, any info?

tootall

tootall

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Anyone here know about the kit that Corbin has that allows you to turn fired .22 rimfire cases into jackets for making your own .224 centrefire bullets?
.corbins.com/kit-224.htm
The site has a huge amount of info, but it is spread out all over the place. (A bit of a mess, really)
The kit that I was curious about is bloody expensive, US$783 if I read it correctly.
Anyone here ever play with one? With components becoming harder to get every year, this may be the way to go.
 
Go on cast boolits forum. They have a whole section on swaging.

You can save a pretty decent amount of money if you go through centerfire jacketed rifle bullets like a demon dog, but from what I've read it's more the people really obsessed, and making custom designed bullets and wildcats, and other peculiar things that are doing it.

Either that or they get the stuff intending to "save money" and just run with it over the horizon, once they realise they can do whatever they feel like.

You'll have to read the threads. It doesn't sound like anyone is saving any money designing and building custom bullets and shooting them out of custom rifles.

Be sure to keep us informed of your forays into the new .224 tootall you're about to create.
 
If you're looking to save money and have lots of time, then go for it.

There is a lot of prep work to be done before you will turn out your first good bullet.

There is another issue with using spent .22rf cases, accuracy. The cases aren't noted for having consistent wall thickness and have that annoying firing pin indent on the base, neither of which is conducive to accuracy.

There have been many fellows trying to utilise the spent .22rf cases on a commercial basis. The first one coming to mind is James Calhoon, who now resides in the US and has been promoting .19 and .20 calibre bores. JCs' offerings even went so far to be electroplated with a harder metal in an effort to try to stop fouling at higher velocities. Calhoon was also among the first in Canada to offer heavier bullets in .223. Good bullets, to many fliers.

If you are going to build bench rest quality bullets, the only way to make some decent money, you will have to buy J4 jackets. It's relatively easy to keep lead weight constant as there is good availability of soft lead wire, which will cut easily and form nicely into the cups.

Another good acquisition to think about if you're really serious about swaging your own is a "Juenke Gauge". All of the prominent bullet makers today use these gauges. They measure jacket thickness consistency. It's one of the main reasons why bullets are so good today.

I quit making my own a long time ago. To much drudge work, after the novelty wears off.

The bullets being offered today are so good it's almost impossible to beat them. They are also cheap when you buy them a couple of thousand at a time.

If you're working on your anarchist skills (wink) go for it. Good learning experience. It's easier and just as cheap to buy excellent factory made bullets and wrap them carefully for long term storage. Takes up a lot less room as well.

bearhunter
 
I started a thread here a little over a year ago here about the same thing.I think at the time it was going to cost nearer to $1200.00 US to get just the tooling. I did talk to Dave Corbin quite a bit,(he was very helpful and willing to spend time with me).I bought the manuals/books that he recommended to me.These made for an interesting read.However,it looked like you would need to produce over 6500 bullet to pay for the equip(not including your time or the lead cores),so I dropped the project.I am still very interested to find out what can be done by producing your own bullets so let us know if you proceed.
 
I keep looking at the stuff, and the prices, and figure it'd take me a loooong time to ever see a return.

Just somethin I'd be willing to put a few evenings into, making my own dies and stuff, rather than something I'd be willing to pound that much money into.

The current wait time for dies and presses from the Corbin outfit is between 3 months and over a year, depending on what you are looking for, too.

The dimensions are given on the Corbin site. If a guy dug around in a Machine Tools catalog and come up with the correct size drill bushing, and some gage pins or dowel pins of the right diameter, he'd be about 3/4 of the way done making a set of those case forming dies right there.

Cheers
Trev
 
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I've given the "drudge work" some thought.

If you had some extra cash, but really used alot of bullets,. You could get the swaging press going, and set-up properly, then when it became repetitive, and boring, you could hire a student to churn out the bullets for you for ten bucks an hour and really stock up.

A couple years of evenings and weekends, and you might actually be in a position of being "set for life", and the envy of all your buddies.
 
I looked into this several years ago as well, spoke with Mr Corbin, bashed it around the Gun Club on Tuesday evenings, and decided that we would go forward. However, as things would have it we decided that $2k was too much to spend on this project and opted for an Oehler Ballistics lab instead. That was the better option, but now I am thinking about swaging again. Led is basically free, so is copper with a little bit of scrounging. I like the idea of investing money in pre-mades though, and by the thousandm they are cheaper. Hmm $2k will buy a lot of bullets, thanks for the suggestion...
 
TOOTALL;
They make it for different presses, their hand press, any good quality C press, as well as for their hydromatic unit.
Quality is top drawer....
I have their hydromatic with many different dies, can't beat the quality.
John
 
Bearhunter mentioned the issue about the firing pin dent as well as varying thickness cases. The Corbin site mentions the same thing, and says that if you want bullets to plink with or go gopher shooting these will be fine, but for benchrest, dont bother with the reformed .22RF case idea.

For me, it would be keep a semi "black gun" well fed, so I'm not chasing the last 1/4" at 100 Yards of accuracy.

All good replies, thanks.
 
I have been looking at one of there production units... buy the time you source lead wire and copper tube and buy the equipment it can get very expensive...
 
i too have looked into it, and costed it out, lead wire is far from free, as someone mentioned...you can only use pure lead wire or cast your own cores but they must be pure lead, not wheel weights, or scrap. Once you price the J-4 jackets, lead wire, and shipping, exchange, etc...It didn't add up to me.
 
To do it right your probally looking at 100,000 dollars minmum for auto machine that can punch out 4000-5000 bullets per hour... and the materials to go into it so you can make enough to make a profit and make your time worth while...

The biggest problem is relying on someone else for the materials to do so... To get setup to produce what is need from basic materials its probally in the millions...
 
There are several guys out there making their own lead wire.

A decent hydraulic press seems to be the most common tool used.

One guy says he's using his wood splitter.

I've been doing lot's of reading around the web. Sorta getting into the idea of making small bullets. Doesn't 'require' the heavy duty press, but can be done with a decent hand press.

Cheers
Trev
 
msg.drew said:
To do it right your probally looking at 100,000 dollars minmum for auto machine that can punch out 4000-5000 bullets per hour... and the materials to go into it so you can make enough to make a profit and make your time worth while...

The biggest problem is relying on someone else for the materials to do so... To get setup to produce what is need from basic materials its probally in the millions...
Click to expand...

Where did these numbers come from?

The corbin swager is a replacement for bullet casting and gas checks for the hobbyist, not a replacement for winchester or the purchasing agent for the 101st airborne.

Producing what you need from basic materials? What, is a guy supposed to go prospecting for lead? Start digging a mine shaft?

$1000 or so for a solid setup is not much more than alot of guys spend on decent bullet casting setups, and less than alot of guys spend on a single rifle.

There are a significant number of people who are swaging bullets today with Corbin equipment, they have a sub forum on the cast boolits website. They might not be "doing it up right" by your insane standards, but I'm sure they're happy.
 
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I am talking about for my use of making bullets for resale... like a machine that can make 250000 FMJ

I am talking about an automatic machine and the nessary materials to make alot of bullets...

To be honest if your going to get setup for 1000 bullets or even 10000 and spend a couple grand your better off buying them... if your going to try and make super accurate weird weights then this might be for you...

I am just speculating but I think the hand operated machine would be lucky to make 50 bullets an hour...

For a corbin automatic unit your looking at 8000 USD for the press alone, then a setup to smelt lead, machine for lead wire, smelting setup for copper, machine to make copper tube for jackets... a medium size workshop rent or own... bills add up.

Like I said if you rely on someone for your copper jackets 1000 jackets cost more then 1000 pre made bullets.

An auto setup for casting bullets will run 12000 usd plus another 500 for dies per caliber + lube machine...

I dont have an auto setup but a hand operated caster is 1000 usd sizer ran me about 1000 usd with a few different dies for sizing... not to mention all the materials and time I spent welding up my own gas powered smelter...
 
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Oh, I understand what you mean now.

But btw. You're most likely melting the lead; not smelting it. Huge difference.

Smelting is an electro/chemical process used to produce metal (in this case lead metal) from ores (chemical compounds) like lead sulfide in the case of lead, or copper metal from malachite (copper carbonate), etc..etc..
 
What about casting or swaging and then electroplating to make a CMJ bullet? I know this is mostly done for handgun bullets but could you not make a reasonably accurate rifle bullet the same way? I see Marstar has some for .308 but that is the smallest they list.

What would it cost to get started at home to electroplate bullets?

If you only want bullets to plink with at the range out to maybe 100 yards it might be alright.


Fudd
 
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