The Gun Counter

So, after shooting a friends Barrett 82a1 and talking about ammo prices I got to thinking about swaging .50 BMG bullets, I know .22LR brass is used to make .223 bullets but is there any common (cheap) brass that can be used to make .50 bullets? I ran my calipers over some of my fired brass and the closest i had was my 8mm brass comes out around .470 where a .50 BMG bullet should be .510, since brass cased 8mm isn't free or all that easy to find laying around I was hoping someone had an idea on what brass could be made into .50 jackets which is reasonably cheap/free and fairly common. Thanks

Included is a pic of 9mm brass as .40 S&W jackets.

That's a FULL seamless copper jacket covering the ENTIRE CASE AND BULLET without any break/weak-point to separate the bullet from the case? Might that not cause case head ruptures before the bullet separates (unless it's scored around the top of the case) - or possibly causing issues with protruding primers?

Now THAT'S pretty cool!

I had a friend back in Omaha who used to use .22 LR cases to make "practice" bullets for his .220 Swift. They were almost as accurate as his factory bullets, and a lot cheaper to shoot (unless you counted his time to make them).

Of course, this was a guy who would regularly re-barrel his rifle every two or three years, and I've seen him hit prairie dogs at over 800 meters. So he shot a LOT!

You may need to look at Corbin bullet swaging options. I can't think of an available case that would work.

Mike I think that the idea is that those are just bullets, not entire cartridges.

yeah, well there's that whole etymology of RCBS naming thing after all..

On my bucket list for sure.

Kommander wrote:Mike I think that the idea is that those are just bullets, not entire cartridges.

Okay, I claim ignorance - WHERE would the cartridge end and bullet begin (in that picture)? Would that actually be a "caseless" cartridge?? If so, WHY haven't we been doing so for years?

I'm just looking for education, and if such a thing is possible, why are we holding back on such production?

that IS the bullet. The 9mm case is swaged over a lead core to form a finished bullet. Don't let the rim distract you -- that's a red herring.

It's just the bullet base now. The rim is just an artifact that remains from it's previous live as a cartridge case. It's a brass jacketed lead core bullet instead of a copper jacketed lead core bullet.

just follow the bouncing ball from cartridge casing to bullet jacket to loaded in a .40SW cartridge

That is cool. It takes bullet casting to a whole nuther dimension.

Usually, they use copper tubing to make bmg jackets, or if a full base is absolutely required, caps.

Swaging, is not economical, the presses, and dies can cost truly stupid amounts of money - a Walnut hill press from RCE is what? 400 bucks these days, with a how many month wait?

Swagings big advantage is you can make bullets for anything no matter how oddball the size - 227, 318, 298, 318, 435, etc. Even bonded bullets are now easy for something where a commercial offering doesn't exist, has few, or spotty suppliers.