Making .223 60gr bullets with 22lr brass jackets - very interesting video

[tankman1989]

Here is a video of some guy making what looks like very nice home made bullets

I'd like to get a setup like this as I always have a ton of extra 22lr hulls around and I might as well make some use of them. I would think hollow points could even be made with a little effort.

Is anyone interested in getting a setup like this? IDK if the parts have to be custom made, such as the hot molds, but I have some experience with mold making and metal casting. I could make custom hot pour molds with a specific # of bullets per mold.

Anyone interested in this?

Now I just need a good source for used .223 brass's/cartridges. Ideas?

[Fasha]

Hum. Ok other than the spread of the bullet, thus larger damage to the target, what is the advantage of this, verses just reloading with .223? I'm not a reloader.

[UmaineGreg]

...and it's green because you are recycling all your spent .22's so you can tell all the libs that you are making "earth conscious" bullets I would definitely be interested in seeing how he made that homemade press to turn the shells into cups or getting one made...that could certainly come in handy!

[Dark Skies]

Originally Posted by Fasha

Hum. Ok other than the spread of the bullet, thus larger damage to the target, what is the advantage of this, verses just reloading with .223? I'm not a reloader.

It's recycling otherwise useless spent .22lr cases and it saves him money. I was very impressed with his setup.

[Wetwork]

I saw the same video, did some Net searching, then found out just how much real swaging dies cost. I buy bullets, its cheaper for my budget. Now if someone gave me the dies, game on, I shoot thousands and thousands of .22 LR, and I could scrounge up the lead to fill'em.-WW

[tankman1989]

I would think this would be an indispensable skill/trade to have if something big ever happened. Sure people will probably hang on to their 223 brass's but their won't be a huge supply of .223 bullets available. There will most likely always be 22lr cases to be found/saved which can then be made into the .223

I also found that 9mm or .380 cases work for 40cal and 10mm bullets and 10mm/40cal cases will make 45 cal bullets. So, these can always be used for something else down the road as well. No reason to scrap them when they could be more valuable in the used condition.

Does anyone know where I could get a lot of .223 cartridges cheaply to refill with these?

[Fasha]

It was late last night when I replied the 1st time, but sitting at work today, this came to me.

There is no way I’m pushing a brass jacketed bullet down the bore of my AR. As this numbskull will soon discover, brass will erode the lands and grooves of his barrel ten times faster than copper. As this erosion takes place, accuracy will steadily, and quickly, diminish.

[Jida]

This isn't so green once you take the lead enema you are giving the Earth into account.

[TDFbound]

Originally Posted by Jida

This isn't so green once you take the lead enema you are giving the Earth into account.

I could have sworn we had to perform surgery on Mother Earth just to make her give it up in the first place? She might be happy to have it back.

[Jida]

That is not true, man made lead and all other bad things, they aren't natural silly.

[hatchet jack]

I was late last night when I replied the 1st time, but sitting at work today, this came to me. T

There is no way I’m pushing a brass jacketed bullet down the bore of my AR. As this numbskull will soon discover, brass will erode the lands and grooves of his barrel ten times faster than copper. As this erosion takes place, accuracy will steadily, and quickly, diminish.

Hate to bust yer bubble Fasha but 22 cases are made from copper. Brass is too hard for a rimfire round.

This is real old stuff. Where do you think that RCBS came from? Rock Chucker Bullet Swaging company. During the war years (WW2) bullets couldn't be found. So folks like Vernon Speer and Fred Huntington set up to make bullets from 22 cases. That was the start of the speer and CCI ammo componant company. This was the heyday of hot 22 centerfire wildcat rounds. And no, they wont hurt your bore in the least.

[mefunkymxw]

cold swaging is a bit more precise, but has a greater cost for setup... corbin makes good presses and dies for this, but its tough to justify a 600 dollar expense just to recycle 22lr cases. at 20 dollars for a box of 550 x 22s... it would take 16,500 rounds to break even. great concept though.

[priceless]

You can get into swaging fairly cheaply. Mr. Corbin puts out a good product but is by far not the only one out there.

Take a look at Dr. Blackmon out of LA. He is by far the cheapest when it comes to setting up to go from 22 hull to .224 bullets resdy for loading. It can all be done on a standard reloading press.

22 hulls will not damage the barrel of you rifle. I have literally shot 10's of thousands of these rounds through my guns(both gas and bolt) and they still perform admiderably. I have yet to have a pest animal get up after being hit with one of "my" bullets. Praries dog can't tell the difference even at 500 yards.

[9111315]

Originally Posted by Jida

That is not true, man made lead and all other bad things, they aren't natural silly.

If man made lead, I would think the alchemist would make gold instead.

[whirlibird]

Originally Posted by Fasha

It was late last night when I replied the 1st time, but sitting at work today, this came to me.

There is no way I’m pushing a brass jacketed bullet down the bore of my AR. As this numbskull will soon discover, brass will erode the lands and grooves of his barrel ten times faster than copper. As this erosion takes place, accuracy will steadily, and quickly, diminish.

Originally Posted by hatchet jack

Hate to bust yer bubble Fasha but 22 cases are made from copper. Brass is too hard for a rimfire round.

This is real old stuff. Where do you think that RCBS came from? Rock Chucker Bullet Swaging company. During the war years (WW2) bullets couldn't be found. So folks like Vernon Speer and Fred Huntington set up to make bullets from 22 cases. That was the start of the speer and CCI ammo componant company. This was the heyday of hot 22 centerfire wildcat rounds. And no, they wont hurt your bore in the least.

Wow, there's a lot of misinformation out there.

Yes, most .22's today are @70% copper and 30%zinc.
No, Brass bullets won't hurt your barrel.
The military is still using soft steel bullets today in the .308 and the barrels aren't going dead at any drastic rate.

There are several companies who make swaging dies for .22 rimfire jackets, but the Corbins, are pretty much the best.

But don't look at the prices.

http://www.corbins.com/

[crazygary]

Originally Posted by Jida

That is not true, man made lead and all other bad things, they aren't natural silly.

That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard. Lead is a naturally occurring element.

[mefunkymxw]

i recently joined the cast boolits forum... they do have a swagging section and one of the members there sells die sets for de-rimming those 22 shells... he sells a 4 die set for $345, they are custom made... two are for reforming, and i think the other two are for swagging the lead cores.

[Prepping]

Originally Posted by 9111315

If man made lead, I would think the alchemist would make gold instead.

You beat me to it and you're a bit nicer than I am toward someone who doesn't believe lead exists without man.

This is interesting...it may be a good technique if things get scarce...heck, they are scarce.

[MichaelK]

Swaging is one of the specialty hobbies that has really, really gotten way more expensive than it should be. I originally bought a RockChucker adapter for making .224" bullets from a company called SportFlite. You replaced the standard ram of the press with their priority threaded ram. The total setup, including all the dies only cost 125$.

I also purchased my first set of .357" dies from CH for 58$ (try visiting www.ch4d.com). Again, it's a die set that screws right into your press, but this style uses your stock ram without any conversion. I've used drawn .380 auto brass to make .357" bullets with them. I've also used .223 brass cut in half to make .357" pistol and rifle bullets. So, the question is should I save .223 brass to make .357 ammo, or save .22RF to make .223 ammo?

The reality of swaging though is that it's just so time consuming! If you also have to buy jackets, then then combination of time and money makes swaging unrealist. More cost effective to just buy bullets from Midway. But, in a situation like what we're seeing right now, where panic is stripping the shelves bare, swaging again gets attractive. Plus nobody at the range is very going to say "Ohhhh, you made those yourself" with bullets bought through the mail!

[FALPhil]

Originally Posted by Jida

This isn't so green once you take the lead enema you are giving the Earth into account.

You need to take a couple of chemistry courses. Elemental lead is not a problem. Lead salts are a problem. Bullets are not made from lead salts.

All this BS propaganda sinks in with low information people. Here is a tip: the government lies to achieves its own agenda, as do special interest groups.

For decades now, the people of North America have been told lead = bad. Guess what? Lead is one of the most common elements in the Earth's crust. It it were truly bad, we would have died out when we were amoebas.