Making own bullets

My shooting/gunsmithing mate has the press and dies to make 6mm and 5.56 projies from .22LR cases.
They were accurate and useful against roos and foxes but the amount of time and buggerising around to get them right nullified any advantage.
 
I don't think it's to save money, more to enhance a hobby and know that he's made the bullet that put the meat on the table or scored him well in a match.
At least that's why I'd do it.
 
I just found this article in January 1965 American Rifleman which proves there is nothing new under the sun.
It seems to back up my idea
bullets 1.JPGbullets 2.JPG
Martin
 
That's how some of the originally family owned American bullet making firms started up. Immediately after WW2, there was a terrible shortage of everything except for military surplus such as fired .30-06 brass, and moreover Winchester / Remington had set their corporate faces against handloading believing it would reduce their ammunition sales, so they wouldn't sell components to the retail side of things. Joyce Hornady and Dick Speer started out in garage workshop operations swaging .22 rimfire cases onto lead cores for smaller calibre bullets. Fred Huntingdon started out by making bullet swaging dies out of scrap automotive parts and this became RCBS in due course, RC being Rock Chucker from the marmot species that Fred assiduously 'hunted' (and his .243 Rock Chucker wildcat varmint cartridge) and BS = Bullet-Swaging Supplies. The best benchrest quality .224 and 6mm bullets are still made in low volume workshops many using hand operated swaging presses (better 'feel' than hydraulic models), a very hard way to earn a living. In this country, we have G&C Custom Bullets making this quality of 68gn 6mm bullets. http://bossons.awardspace.info/Benchrest Suppliers.htm The gap between the best of the large manufacturers and small volume custom makers has narrowed drastically in recent years. Berger Bullets (which started as a one-machine bespoke bullet outfit operated by Mr and Mrs Walt Berger) makes bullets now that would have easily outperformed any of the hand made bespoke outputs only a few years ago.

I'm talking consistency / precision here for match and benchrest shooting. Throw in the need for expansion on live quarry too and a world of difficulty and complexity is added hence the near absence of very small producers in this field, their limited to large game bullets like GS and machine-turned monometal types.
 
Just reread this post after stumbling on to this idea on utube to the guys that have experience with this, I can't get my 17hmr to group its done alot like the idea of a 22 hornet to replace it and as I can get lead and spent 22lr ammo for nothing could this ever work out as cost effective I want about inch grouping at 150 yards I know I should factor in my time as a cost but evenings at home don't cost at the mo
Thanks Jake
 
Cost effective? Likely not as set up costs aren't that cheap at about £600 for a basic kit. Eventually it would pay for itself but unless you shoot A LOT I don't think it would be in the near future.

However, it'll be a good bit of fun and add another dimension to reloading.
 
Cast bullets are a much cheaper option. You can buy/cast your own and if you paper patch them you can treat them pretty much like jacketed bullets but at a fraction of the cost.
 
The idea of casting bullets and loading then using them in your own gun has always appealed to me but it has never happened partly due to not having somewhere suitable for the casting pot. It is not exactly the thing to have on the kitchen side after all. It is something that I may well consider again if we can get a proper power supply into the shed. Our American friends are big into home casting and hunting with cast lead bullets and I notice that there are several ways to achieve cast bullets with softer noses so that they expand more easily yet the main body that bears on the bores surface is harder to avoid leading the barrel. Velocities of over 2000 fps are common with such bullets and have seen much higher velocities reached in articles not only that but matches are shot and won using cast lead bullets.

Of course I have no idea as to what regulations cover home casting of bullets now if any so that would have to be looked into should the time come.
 
Of course I have no idea as to what regulations cover home casting of bullets now if any so that would have to be looked into should the time come.

No regulations thankfully. Probably one of the few joys left unregulated in this country. :thumb:
 
No regulations thankfully. Probably one of the few joys left unregulated in this country. :thumb:

Interesting indeed and now even more attractive. As I said it was something that I looked into many years ago for pistol shooting but due to lack of somewhere to cast them as was living in a hi-rise block of flats back then it was a non starter. So much of what I found out has been forgotten. Researching this will pass the time now doubt and makes me wonder how things have changed and possibly improved.
 
It's a hell of a hobby like and one I will get in to at some point as my .458 is crying out for some 730 grainers!

Paper patching really is the way forward for high velocity. Probably a ballache with a small .224" bullet but you could cast it as pure lead, wrap it up and shoot it like jacketed. Pure lead will have zero problem expanding on something like fox or rabbits and would be a mean round for them.
 
Paper patching a pure lead bullet for .224" you would be making life hard for yourself Jim. What's your next hobby shoeing houseflies? :rofl:

Would this possibly be regarded as micro engineering? I don't think that I would have the eyes for it or for that matter the delicate touch.
 
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You're a man after my own heart Jim. While I have a .223 and enjoy shooting it I have to say that shooting 286 grn home cast bullets out of the 9.3mm gives me a bigger smile on my face.
 
What can I say, big guns are better guns :) Always fancied a short barrel 9.3x57 with the sling set up like on the continental tracking rifles. Would be a nice woodland deer or boar round.
 
Jim, I know where there is an old 9.3 barrel and a Colombian mauser action to marry it to if your interested. The 9.3 is a very valid round for the uk and is great for fallow and I can dream of one day taking it to Africa, the perfect one rifle battery.
K
 
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