I am tired of not being able to buy bullets for my cal .224 guns. I have seen where youy can buy equipment that uses .22 LR spent brass as the jacket to make .224 diameter bulletts. I even a sample of one of those bulletts and they look pretty good. Here is my question. Is anybody out there doing this and what do they think of the results. The tools cost plenty and I'm not going to invest that kind of money until I have heard form someone who has shot them. Corbin I think is the company. No other process interests me other than the .22 LR brass method. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks

The company is Corbin they have that method. I have also been touch with them about it. They reccommend using their press mainly because it takes alot of force to make them but long term I think if you shoot alot of 224 bullets it could be a good thng...besides if you have friends that reload you can sell them some. My friend several years aho bought a bunch of them at a gun show and they shoot great. not superb accuraccy but good enough to shoot p-dogs out of his Ar out to 200 or so yds. But a plinking round I dont think you could get any cheaper good luck let us know how ya do

I have a friend that sent me some 40gr bullets made from 22LR brass. They were some of the first he had made. They shot good, not a match grade good but I did take a charlie at 47 yards with them in my BEE barrel. From what he tells me the cases are a little tricky to form if the fireing pin strike is heavy on the rim. It tends to make a hole when drawing them into casings. He also said it took a little "fine tuning" to get the lead core cut to the right lenght for the right weight. After that it was decent production. I didn't get to talk to him much more about it. I plan on going down to PA this spring and shhot with him. I'll get more info then as it has peaked my interest as well.

I used to make all of my own bullets for my .22-250 using Corbin dies. I started in 1968 and made them off and on for many years. They made a great bullet but finding the correct lead was somewhat of a pain as you couldn't use melted wheel weighs. The lead had to be dead soft to work best. To much Antimony and tin and the lead was HARD. Buying the lead rolls they sold was too expensive for me as a kid so i found some plumbers lead that fit the bill and made up a mold to cast the size of lead i needed for the Corbin dies. I would never sell the dies because in an emergency I can still make bullets. I used an RCBS RockChucker press to swage the bullets and it never gave me any trouble. A lot of coyotes and squirrels fell to those bullets. It is slightly labor intensive but when I couldn't afford bullets and we didn't have anywhere near selling them it worked out great. Good luck it's fun producing your own bullets. I also got into producing my own cast bullets for larger calibers too. Gas checked bullets in .30 cal can be very effective.

For what it's worth, I believe the founder of Hornady started the business by making bullets from .22 brass.

Thanks, great information. I called the dude from Corbin and he seemed very honest and open about his products. Told me about the limitations and the advantages of this tool over that tool. I am still not sure If I can invest that much money into the project. I would need to find a supply of .22 LR brass. Thanks again for all your input.

Look on the ground around any bench at your local rifle range.

+1 That's where I used to get all of mine.

You might check your local indoor pistol range. At the indoor range I shoot at, they sweep up the .22 brass and sell it for scrap metal. You could probably get some for next to nothing.

Good idea. If I decide to did up that much money the indoor range will be my first stop. Thanks.

"The tools cost plenty and I'm not going to invest that kind of money until I have heard form someone who has shot them. Corbin I think is the company."

It is expensive to start up. Jackets are the most critical item in bullet construction and not all RF cases have the needed consistancy. Getting a sufficent quanity of a good grade of spent .22RF cases and high grade lead wire can be difficult. There are many reasons the vast majority of us don't do it; cost, resuts are spotty, takes a lot of time-effort, long learning curve. But it can be fun, so....?

Everything is expensive nowadays! RF cases are very consistent! I can go to the range and in one afternoon have more RF cases than I could swage in a month. As for the lead wire required just go to a good fishing supply store and buy lead wire used for making pencil sinkers. The reason most don't do it is it's easier to buy bullets and most people are lazy. Most don't want to invest in the time but many shooter still spend the time and produce great bullets. Results aren't spotty at all and the learning curve is over in one session.

It's like casting bullets, it takes some setup time but you can produce much better bullets.

"I can go to the range and in one afternoon have more RF cases than I could swage in a month. As for the lead wire required just go to a good fishing supply store and buy lead wire ..."

Valid observation, IF the maker's goal is to produce plinker-grade bullets.

I don't want to argue with you but more benchrest shooters use custom hand swaged bullets than factory. I don't think you are aware of what real hand made bullets can do. Perhaps Google benchrest swaged bullets and see what turns up. Plinker grade bullets I think not!

I have dies that I got from the original in North Bend OR. I believe Corbin bought the patent from him. I probably only have a $100.00 tied up in pres and dies. These dies work best with a core swage to get the right weight. You can use a core mold, but they work better if they are swaged after moulding. Lead fishing wire is not the proper diameter, and I could not get it to work well,as most has a hollow center. Indoor range is best bet for .22's and would probably be cleaner. These all have to be annealed in the oven pryor to swaging over the jacket maker. I found that CCI mini mags worked the best as they are heavier in the rim. They don't tear as bad at the fireing pin indention as other brands, but they all work. You can also buy regular .22 jackets by the 1000 from Corbin I think. They used to be made by J4, which was the company that supplied Sierra Bullets. You should plan on having a lot of time on your hands, as this is really time consuming. I found that when bullets are available you buy a whole bunch and then don't worry about it. If you are a low volume shooter its OK, but if you shoot 1 to 2 K a year you are in for a lot of work. When Clinton was President, I did what everyone is doing now, and I have enough powder, primers and bullets that I should never have to buy more. Making bullets can be fun,but a lot of work. I think Corbin makes an auto machine for a few thousand dollars that would speed up the process. I don't want to discourage you, and I hope this helps.

"I don't want to argue with you but more benchrest shooters use custom hand swaged bullets than factory. I don't think you are aware of what real hand made bullets can do. Perhaps Google benchrest swaged bullets and see what turns up. Plinker grade bullets I think not!"

John, I just wandered by again., find this.

No argument, but your "facts" leave out a lot of the facts.

I never said hand-made bullets are automatically plinkers. In fact and as you observe, the very best target bullets ARE handmade. And, I have a goodly collection of some them in .224 and .243 in my supply bins now. But they were made with J4 jackets and precision wire. I can assure you that NONE of them were made from spent .22 RF cases and/or fishing sinker wire!

Notice I didn't say the premium bench rest bullets were made that way. I said you could make your own that way and I did as a kid because I couldn't afford bullets to reload as we didn't have any stores near us that carried .224 cal bullet back then in the 60's. So lets read everything for how it was written. There's nothing wrong with hand swagged bullets made from whatever you want want to use. Some people just like to argue I guess, go figure.

"Some people just like to argue I guess, go figure."

Some do.

Seems your posts initially jumped me for suggesting bullets made from .22RF cases are fine for plinking and you then leaped to a comparision of those made with precison jackets.

To a novice, your post "correcting" me would imply there is no difference in bullet quality when made from those excellant(?) RF cases. My desire has simply been to correct that error.

Enjoy your Left Coast life...

Really?

My .22 smallbore competition range send there spent shells to the scrap yard, theres anoher avenue you could try. My dad's mate has his local scrappy call him if they get an ex-military consignment of .50 BMG and 7.62 x 51. maybe yiu can get on good terms with your local scrappy and ou'll soon be swimming in .22 brass.

I'm gonna do it for my future 17 Bee for down-loads Probably won't use them much but they MUST be on my work bench shelf

----fl

(pic stolen from a post on saubier.com a few years ago)