The Corbin Handbook of Bullet Swaging, No. 8 by David R. Corbin 1 Published by Corbin Publications PO Box 2171 White City, OR 97503 USA (C) Copyright 1998 David R. Corbin http://www.corbins.com [email protected] 2 CHAPTERS 1. Introduction to Bullet Swaging 2. Principles of Swaging 3. Bullet Swaging Secrets 4. Tubing Jackets CTJM-1-M,S,H CTJM-2-H Tubing 5. Drawn Strip Jackets JMK-1-S JMK-1-H JMK-2-H 6. Base Guard Bullets BGK-1-M, -H BGK-2-H 7. Draw Dies Jacket drawing JRD-1 Bullet drawing BRD-1 RFJM-22 SPJM-25 8. Making Lead Cores CM-4 CM-3 LED-1 LED-2 LW-10 PCS-1 PCS-2 9. Swaging with a Reloading Press EC-1 BSD-xxx-R 10. Bullet Swaging Presses 3 CSP-3 Silver Press CSP-1 Series II CSP-2 Mega-Mite CSP-1H Hydro-Mite CSP-2H Mega-Mite Hydraulic CHP-1 Hydro-Press CHP-2 X-Press 11. Lead, Gas Check, Base Guard and Paper Patched Bul- lets 12. Jacketed Semi-Wadcutters 13. Full Jacket, Flat Base 14. Lead Tip 15. Rebated Boattails 16. Shotgun Slugs 17. Bullet-Makers’ Tools 18. Lubricants and Chemicals 19. Delivery Information 20. Warranty 4 1. Introduction to Bullet Swaging Good morning! Im Dave Corbin, and for more than 20 years, Ive been helping people make the state-of-the art bullets you read about in articles and magazine ads. Nearly every custom bullet maker in the world started with equipment developed at the Corbin die-works. Yet, it seems that only yesterday my brother, Richard, and I were debating whether there was any possibility that someone could use our equipment to make a respectable living, producing custom bullets. All you have to do is scan the pages of nearly any magazine catering to handloaders, and youll see that the pages are full of ads from our clients; the articles are constantly talking about the bullets our clients make, and the major ammunition firms are buying the bullets made on Corbin equipment for use in major name brands of ammunition (the premium offerings, of course). Corbin Manufacturing publishes a book called the World Directory of Custom Bullet Makers listing hundreds of individu- als and firms whose names you will recognize if you like to read gun magazines. When I read the list, I remember peoples enthu- siasm for the new bullets that we were able to design tooling to make, and figure out a good way to market, thanks to the power of bullet swaging. Olympians and world champions in every field of firearms sports, from benchrest to air gun competition, using everything from paper-patched muzzle loaders to custom fin-stabilized shot- gun slugs, have come to the die-works where my brother and I have toiled for the last quarter century, some just to improve their already-outstanding achievements, and some to help others become better shooters by manufacturing their own best ideas in how a given bullet should look and be constructed. Engineers from the Department of the Army, Air Force Ar- mament Labs, Sandia National Laboratories, DuPont, Northrop, and other defense-related organization have visited us over those years. Tools and designs we worked on are in use today all over the world, wherever a long range, high precision projectile or a very special purpose bullet, that could only be made efficiently by the high precision techniques of swaging, is needed for the job. 5 Whether it is protecting a President at long range or picking a pine cone from the top of an experimental tree, whether it is surveying a dense mountain jungle with remotely launched flare projectiles designed for vertical firing stability, or stitching mir- ror-based bullets in an arctic ice sheet from a low-flying aircraft so a laser beam can measure the depth and estimate the strength of the ice to hold a transport plane, or whether it is the grim responsibility of instantly stopping a drug-crazed terrorist before he can take the life of another hostageregardless of the pur- pose, we sat through many meetings pouring over blueprints, computer readouts, and sketches on the backs of dinner napkins, helping design projectiles for visitors from the far corners of the earth. Yet, this work is only the continuation of development begun by other pioneers of bullet swaging: people like Ted Smith, who founded the old SAS Dies in the 1950s; Harvey Donaldson, who experimented with some of the first dies to make .224 bullets from fired .22 cases; Walt Astles and Ray Biehler, who developed the principle of upward expansion and the two-die swage tech- nique (as opposed to the RCBS single-die take-apart system); Charlie Heckman, a pioneer swage maker; and so many others whose names probably are unknown to modern shooters, but to whom all shooters owe a debt for their contributions to the perfection of bullets. You may know that the RCBS company (initials of which mean Rock Chuck Bullet Swage) got started making bullet swag- ing equipment, but soon dropped it in favor of much more easily produced reloading dies. You may even have heard Speer Bullets was started by Vernon Speer swaging .224 caliber bullets from fired .22 LR cases. But bullet swaging played a much larger part in leading to the products and companies you use today than just that: Hornady, Sierra, Nosler, Barnes, and a host of other mass production op- erations owe their very existence to the concept of bullet swaging. Today, more than three hundred and fifty custom bullet firms operated by people who probably differ from yourself only in hav- ing taken the step of putting their intense interest in firearms to work at a profitable and enjoyable occupationmake a full-time living by producing specialty bullets. So, what is bullet swaging and how do you do it? What do you need to get started? How much does it cost? What are the advantages and drawbacks compared to casting or just buying 6 factory bullets? Can you swage hard lead, make partitioned bul- lets, make your own jackets, make plain lead bullets or paper patched slugs? I answer those questions a thousand times a week and I never get tired of it. But to save you a lot of time on the phone, Ive written those answers here. If you read through this book and think I have left something out, you are absolutely right: I left out about six more books of information! Those are available if you care to read further. Swaging is so simple you can do it correctly after just a couple of tries. Then youll see its also extremely versatile and powerful: you can do one more thing, and then one more after that, and soon, you will have the whole top of your loading bench covered with one-of-a-kind bullets, some of which no one in the world has ever made before. And thats why it takes at least six more books to make a dent in the vast array of things you might do, could do, if you wished. Only your imagination limits the possi- bilities. A deeper study of the specifics of bullet swaging technique and tooling, including products made by people other than Corbin, can be found in the book Re-Discover Swaging, so named be- cause swaging was, in fact, discovered once before and then al- most lost: during the period of 1948-1963 there were many die- makers who produced swaging equipment, but none of them of- fered a comprehensive enough range of products to insure their own survival, or that of the swaging arts. Corbin Manufacturing was the first comprehensive effort to preserve and further the technology with information, supplies and tools from one source. Bullet swaging, by the way, is pronounced SWAY-JING and rhymes with paging. There is a blacksmith technique for pound- ing hot metal around a form that is called swedging but it is a different sort of thing altogether. If you want to really dig into the subject and learn things most peopleincluding most gun writers, unfortunatelynever find out, then order the Book Package. You get another copy of this book free, with it. Give this copy to a friend. Who knows: maybe between the two of you, a new bullet making business may develop that rivals the fame of some of our other clients? It could happen: it has happened over 350 times so far! 7 2. Principles of Bullet Swaging When we say bullet, the projectile or part of the cartridge that is propelled through the air is indicated. The news media in the United States often refers to a bullet as the entire cartridge with powder, primer, bullet and case. Bullet swaging has nothing to do with the rest of the cartridge, but concentrates on the part that flies to the target. In some countries, notably England, shoot- ers refer to the bullet as the head or the bullet head and call the entire cartridge a bullet. There is a good reason not to call the cartridge a bullet, as the general news media seems inclined to do. The bullet is inert metal without any explosive or propellant involved, which means that it should be treated as a precise metal product, not some danger- ous, risk-laden component subject to transportation restrictions and tariffs. Finding a bullet in the possession of an airline traveller should be no more cause for alarm than finding a coin. Unfortu- nately, through ignorance and imprecise language, the term bul- let causes problems where it should not.