Does anyone make, and sell a copper jacket that a accommodating cast bullet could be inserted to and crimped on? The jacket would simply be a ultra-long gas check with a cast bullet made from a mold designed for this.
Surely someone makes something like this. I would think it would be pretty simple.
Have a mold with a smaller than caliber ID and a long gas check/cup to encompass the body of the bullet.
Cast as normal then insert bullet into ultra-long gas check then run through sizer die like Lee's.
No lube needed except to size and crimp the gas check/cup on.

The goal is to make a simple and accurate cup and core bullet without having to buy expensive presses and swaging dies.

You are in effect talking about a swaging setup, and yes, they are available. The difference is that the core is just a cylindrical chunk of alloy (or pure lead) as opposed to a real bullet, at least as I understand it. And yes, Corbin sells the dies, presses, core moulds, and the rest of it as well...

Yes, I've been to Corbin's site a several times.
Pretty expensive set up from what I saw. Not to mention having to buy coiled lead and copper tubing.
As I said I was just a looken 'n a thinken.... about a cast bullet "designed" for a long gas check. Seems like it would be easy to do and a lot cheaper.
Have mold with 1-1/2 gas rings with base and body diameter taken into account for the cup thickness. Then use a ultra long gas check with a slight flare to place the cast bullet in.
Run it through a sizing die. Done. Cup and Core bullet.
Just wondering if this kind of setup was out there?

If you're going to use that "much" gas check might as well just buy and shoot jacketed bullets. That's sort of how the old 1/2 and 3/4 jacketed swaged revolver bullets were.

quote:

Originally posted by SmokinJ:
If you're going to use that "much" gas check might as well just buy and shoot jacketed bullets. That's sort of how the old 1/2 and 3/4 jacketed swaged revolver bullets were.

Smokinj, Tell me where I can find some .30 cal. Cup and cores bullets to buy?
As you know they are all pretty scarce and it's hit-n-miss right now and "maybe" from here on.

Being I don't swage jacketes bullets I can't tell you. I would imagine if you gave Corbin a call they can either sell them to you or tell you who does sell them. If you go over on the Castboolits Forum you get into the Swaging section and their is lots of info there from making swaging equipment to swaging empty cartridge cases into useful calibers.

Rae59: not exactly what you are looking for,But,there have been commercial moulds made to accomplish what you ask..The one I have (and the only others I've seen)was made to produce two diff.weights of jacketed cast bullets in .375 diam.. All were made by NEI when that firm was in Oregon...Paco K.did a writeup on his,and having seen that I eventually found one for sale,and using 3/8 copper tubing have made bullets for use in 375 H&H, 375 Hawk-Scovill, and 375 Winchester.Mine casts round nose bullets in both sizes,which can be hollowpointed after loading with the Forster tool. if desired..Seems like about any custom mold maker could produce about whatever you seek, but you need to find a source for the proper size jacket material before investing that much in a mould.

I didn't see a caliber listed.
but 380 cases make nice 375 bullets.
40 S&W cases make nice 44 mag/45 acp/45 colt bullets.
5.7 brass makes nice 30 caliber rifle bullets.
the list goes on and on.
8mm bullets make nice cores for 357 half jaxket bullets too.

the trick is to swage UP not to try squeezing down.
you can get drawing dies and make cases for jaxkets smaller.
it's possible to get a set and make good 30-06 bullets from 9mm brass.

Thanks for all the replies.
SmokinJ, I should have added the word "bullets" behind cup-n-core. Working off of iphone, it's easy to miss things. I will edit my previous post.
NateDg and Lamar, I Will also check into your suggestions. I knew about the pistol cases used for jackets but didn't think about the 5.56 for .308.

Rae,

I'm going to be working on some gas check experiments. I've done some in the past and found out a few things. One was I lengthened the gas check cups. Well that really messed my groups ups. Another was using harder gas check material. It too messed the groups up. With either of those it would require to start the loading over for smallest group. I didn't want to waste the components at that time. I have another experiment to do and will report on how it works.

Copper tubing has become very expensive. I'm including the run of the mill stuff your buy at the hardware store. With the cost of the components, the money into swaging dies, it's just not worth it in my opinion. Now the tubing that placed into the mold when you cast the bullet is the cheapest way, but with good alloys and careful knowledgeable cast reloading you just don't need the jacket. You can also achieve the same results with paper patched bullets which shoot very accurately and at jacketed bullet velocities too. With the paper patch bullet the alloy doesn't have to be real hard either. You can push pure lead with a patch pretty fast.

If it's just something you want to do just to do it, then go for it because I've had that kind of urge too.

556 and 30 carbine make better 358 win bullets.
you have to have some oomph and a dead soft anneal to squeeze them down enough to make 308 bullets.
the 5.7 case is a lot closer in size to begin with.
you could also get a pinch-trim die and use 5/16ths copper tubing.

Hmmm, I have about 900 5.7 cases here that are messed up. Had forgotten about using brass for jackets. Since I have this .358 U/M that would be mighty handy. Just might give them a try.

Thanks guys,
George

PS:
Checked awhile ago and they mic .308" not .358 so they wouldn't work for this one.

I seriously thought about this some time ago: Many years ago I worked in mammal plating industry in West Springfield Mass. I saw barrel plating. A simple process where a wire barrel with small parts in it is rotated in an acid solution with electric current drawing the metal from the bars (anodes) to the pieces begin platted (cathodes).

Why not get a undersized lead bullet and add .005 or.040 or whatever thickness you want to to get the exact outside diameter required. I would be easy to do and i bet the barrel plating setup, acid, rinse tank, acid tank, electric source, bars of plating metal (copper, hell pennies could work) and a bit of safety equipment and one could do this in weekend in a garage. What a neat way to plate 8- and 4-bore bullets or anything where jacketed is not readily made. I know how to do it as I worked there years ago. I don't have the desire to do it in my old age. But, I would be willing to go partners and some financing is there is a market.Cal
Cal

So you want to teach these guys how to do it?

http://www.hn-sport.de/en/products/bullets.html

As most have replied, I don't think there is anyone around making half jackets which is what you are wanting but I'm sure you could have a FreeChek (gas check maker) made to produce gas checks that resemble a half jacket. Anyone of the mould makers would produce a mould for a cast bullet that has an extended shoulder for the half jacket to crimp to.

It would also be possible to take a normal cast bullet and turn a shoulder on it to suit the extended gas check/half jacket.

I do something similar to this with my flat based cast 404 bullets. My RCBS bullet puller die and a 44 cal collet are held in a lathe chuck and each bullet is inserted nose first into the collet. A long handled socket through the lathe centre tightens the collet and then with a single pass with the tool, a gas check shoulder is cut on the bullet base. Simple process and can do a lot of bullets in an hour.