Is there a commercial caster or swager making hollow point bullets? I prefer swaged lead but understand that cast is more likely what I will get. I am looking for various rifle and pistol calibers. Thanks.

Tanker
Can't answer you question, mainly because I don't buy commercial lead bullets.
Buttttt....
Many years ago there was an article in Handloader where the fella was uniforming his cast bullets, after sizing and lubing in a swaging die set from Herters. He had honed out the die and made a hollow pointing punch, then swaged each bullet up to the diameter he wanted, squared the shoulder of the SWC and hollow pointed the bullet.
It was his thought that by swaging and hollow pointing he would uniform the bullets diameter, collapse any voids and put a truely flat base on the bullet.
Sounds like a great idea but impractical for me, he was a machinist and I'm not.

There was a maker mentioned in an issue of Handloader by the name of Baer, I believe, but I have never been able to find him. I do not cast due to lack of the right space and time. I am no machinist either. Thanks.

If you can't find a source I know a guy who will make a hollow-pointing tool pretty reasonable that is very easy to use. E-mail me at ejkelley@no spam kconline.com
Take out the no spam of course
Eric

Somewhere I have a Forester hollow pointer but doubt it could be found soon. I may have to go this route using swaged bullets. Problem is that they are only offered in a few calibers. The Speer and Hornady swaged HPs are very good but that's about all there is. I could use a good swaged HP for the 38-55, 44-40, 25-35, 30-30, 41 mag, 32 mag, to name a few.

quote:

Originally posted by Tanker:
Is there a commercial caster or swager making hollow point bullets? I prefer swaged lead but understand that cast is more likely what I will get. I am looking for various rifle and pistol calibers. Thanks.

Speer and Hornady both make swaged lead SWC hollow points in .357 caliber and Hornady makes some in .44 caliber.

Go to www.midwayusa.com and in the search windows select "Reloading Equipment and Components" then type in "lead hollow" in the description window.

I just checked Midway but if you don't like them I'm sure lots of other mail order companies carry these bullets.

I have made Swaged lead SWC 44 bullets with a base guard. They are totally worthless to shoot unless you use a sabot. They lead the barrel terribly. This has been my experience others may have had good luck. You can get a mold from Lyman or Lee that makes hollow point bullets if you cast.