Making a jacketed .357 bullet.

[MilesW]

Its only to see if it can be done and nothing to do with economics. I cannot get the engineer mentality exorcised from my brain.

Mate, it has been done for decades. Probably every copper or brass cylinder (cartidge case, water pipe, lipstick tube, etc) up to about 3/4" has been eyed up as a potential jacket at some time.
Whole businesses have been built around making bullets this way, or manufacturing dies and swaging presses for doing so..
There are thousands of pages written on the subject from bubba backyard efforts to sophisticated commercial endeavours.

 

[Bavarianbrit]

It seemed to me a nice way to recycle brass with an added bit of playing at the bench.
The .308 cases I have sized the necks down to .243 first and then after cutting them down and filling them with lead I plan to use them as .430 diameter projectiles in my modern Traditions Pursuit .50 cal muzzleloader with a 3-12x52 scope using plastic sabots to bump the projectile up to .50 cal which is a very popular way to shoot them in the USA. There will be no pressure exerted on the bullets bases so no need for gas checks to be added.

 

[MilesW]

This 8 incher was last shot by me in Buenos Aires back in 1996 and as it only cost me $40 at a US gun show it would have been no loss if it had been damaged through the test.

Maybe not to you economically - about $80 today - but maybe would deprive someone else in the future the possibility of obtaining a cheap barrel for their encore like you did.

 

[Bavarianbrit]

Maybe not to you economically - about $80 today - but maybe would deprive someone else in the future the possibility of obtaining a cheap barrel for their encore like you did.

1. It was a for Contender barrel not the Encore.
2. I am located in Germany and the barrel has not yet a European proof stamp = I can use it but not sell/dispose of it.

When in Buenos Aires back in 1996 I did melt out some 158 grain .357 jacketed bullets lead content and replaced it with shot pellets encased in epoxy which came out around a 98 grain projectile weight, they shot with the same powder charge at I reckoned to be at 1900 fps (Glaser lookalikes) and were surprisingly accurate but had very loud reports I turned around after shooting at the cities huge range and there was quite a crowd gathered to see what I had shot with.