Does anyone make their own bullets?

[dreslinger]

I am starting to reload and find the price of bullets to be very high. I was thinking about making my own and remember reading about others that do this. What are your thoughts or experiences about this? I was thinking about 223 bullets made from solid copper round stock. If I could turn it down with a lathe and drill out some of the core to get the weights correct, I think it might work. Has anyone tried this or have knowledge about this? My main concern is balance and accuracy. My friend also mentioned possible legal concerns of making an "armor piercing" round. I don't think it would but who knows?

[bohoki]

wow so you think you can mill copper cheaper than buying surplus 55 grainers

my hat is off to you

its only illegal to make armor piercing pistol ammunition

rifles do what you want (no tracer pellet though)

[grammaton76]

It's certainly legal to load AP bullets into rifle rounds. I am not 100% sure on whether it's legal to manufacture AP bullets, however. I don't think copper would qualify for it, and at present I'm too lazy to dig up the statutes on whether solid copper would be considered AP. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be.

That having been said, making those bullets will probably cost you more than just learning traditional lead casting. I intend to pick up one of those Magma Casters to do some lead cast 308 and 50cal bullets once I move into my new place and have a dedicated reloading room... but you've gotta make sure you use gas checks if you don't want to foul up a semi-auto using cast bullets.

[rabagley]

5000 55gr .224 Hornady bullets cost $420 + shipping.

Nuff said.

[CSACANNONEER]

You can't just drill a little here and there to make the overall weight right! All the bases need to be identical! Also, if you start removing weight, you'll be changing the CG too much! Instead of trying to turn monolithics, you could either cast and gas check lead bullts or get into swaging bullets. Either meathod would be better than turning solids unless you have access to one of the very few swiss screw machines in this country.

[five.five-six]

5000 55gr .224 Hornady bullets cost $420 + shipping.

Nuff said.

yes, but you can make about 1k 200 gn 45acp bullets for about $20 in lead

[mrkubota]

Corbin makes a heavy duty swaging press and dies to convert spent .22LR brass into .224 or 6mm bullet jackets that can then be made into bullets:

http://www.corbins.com/jackets.htm#rfjm

[tzahoy]

Haha, so many reasons not to do this, number one being brass and copper are not cheap! Price out some bar stock, and I think you'll realize it's cheaper to buy bullets.

There's no shortage of swiss screw machines in the US by the way. I know a guy with about 40 of them.

You can't just drill a little here and there to make the overall weight right! All the bases need to be identical! Also, if you start removing weight, you'll be changing the CG too much! Instead of trying to turn monolithics, you could either cast and gas check lead bullts or get into swaging bullets. Either meathod would be better than turning solids unless you have access to one of the very few swiss screw machines in this country.

[bohoki]

i suppose one could make a toolhead that would cut uniform bullets then just drop them

but to me lathing out 223 bullets seems to be a lot of work

[thempopresense]

getting 224 tolerances out of a lathe would be very difficult, that's what grinders are for.

[CSACANNONEER]

Haha, so many reasons not to do this, number one being brass and copper are not cheap! Price out some bar stock, and I think you'll realize it's cheaper to buy bullets.

There's no shortage of swiss screw machines in the US by the way. I know a guy with about 40 of them.

I'm not a machinist so, the name of the swiss machine I'm speaking of is illuding me right now. I've been told that some +$500K machine is the only machine capable of consistantly holding tight enough tolerances to make match quality bullets. I've also been told that there are less than a dozen of them in this country. If you know someone with 40 of them who is willing to do cutstom bullets on them, please send me his contact info. I'll pass it on to a few people who would love to speak with him about custom projos.

[tzahoy]

Here's a couple local ones.

http://www.precisionswiss.net/

http://www.crosswindmachining.com/

I know a guy in Sunnyvale with a couple Hemburg lathes that will hold ~50 millionths on production parts. I've seen these machines used to turn optical lenses that are ready to go right off the machine with no polishing or grinding. The same guy has a few Studer cylindrical grinders that will hold about the same. A good CNC lathe will hold .0002" with a good operator, care, and good measuring equipment. There's a number of guys locally making parts for air bearings that are finished to flatness within fractions of a wave of light.

There's a lot of very high precision machining capability around here, some of the best in the world. The US may not be the powerhouse of manufacturing any more, but many of those who are left have adapted to survive by being the high tech leaders. That means having the best equipment and operators around.

Anyway, in SoCal machining is a little cheaper, but don't for a second think any of these guys are going to make you bullets any where near as cheap as you can buy them!

[ar15barrels]

It's certainly legal to load AP bullets into rifle rounds. I am not 100% sure on whether it's legal to manufacture AP bullets, however. I don't think copper would qualify for it, and at present I'm too lazy to dig up the statutes on whether solid copper would be considered AP. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be.

Hunting regulations through much of the state require non-lead bullets.
The most commonly used bullets are Barnes which are solid copper and not considered AP.

[tamalpias]

I cast bullets but I was always under the train of thought that you do it because you love that aspect of the hobby, not to save a penny or two.

Lastly about casting, I can't remember where I read it from but solid lead bullets can only handle up to certain velocities and not really suited for high caliber rifles because they tend to tear apart in flight.

[Lancear15]

It's certainly legal to load AP bullets into rifle rounds.

So is it legal to import complete AP rifle ammo from Nevada? Or just buy it online?