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.he Corbin Handbook & Catalog No. 7, Introduction, Page #


                         INTRODUCTION TO BULLET SWAGING


          I'm Dave Corbin, and I'd like to be your guide on a trip you won't 
     soon forget:  a safari to the ultimate levels of handloading, where the 
     final  control  over  your  firearm's  performance  -- the  design  and 
     construction of the bullet itself -- is totally in your hands.  This is 
     the awesome power of bullet swaging.
          What  is  bullet  swaging?   It  is so simple  that  one  sentence 
     describes  the process.   Yet,  it is so powerful that more than  seven 
     books are in print today,  crammed with  experiments,  techniques,  new 
     ideas  that  swaging makes possible.   Research keeps adding  to  those 
     bulging files every day.  
          Technically,  bullet  swaging is the manufacture of bullets  using 
     high  pressure  to  cold-flow  metals at  room  temperature,  inside  a 
     precision die and punch set.   You merely put a piece of lead (or other 
     flowable materials) into a high-pressure die, squeeze it by inserting a 
     precisely-matched  punch (driven by a press),  and the lead flows  like 
     putty to take on the exact dimensions of the die cavity.
          The die must be extremely strong and remarkably well-finished  for 
     this  process to work.   Bullet swaging is done at pressures that often 
     exceed those of a typical rifle chamber!   Yet, even under thousands of 
     pounds of internal pressure,  the die cannot change its size or  shape.  
     The  level  of precision required for these  hand-made,  diamond-lapped 
     dies is measured in the millionths of an inch.   Only a handful of die-
     makers have ever existed who could produce the quality required.
          There  are dies to make semi-wadcutter  pistol  bullets,  boattail 
     rifle bullets,  partitioned,  hollow-pointed,  cup based, spitzer rifle 
     bullets,  and anything else you might imagine!  All the dies operate on 
     the same simple principle:  an undersized piece of material is expanded 
     outward in diameter by high pressure,  at room temperature, until it is 
     stopped by taking on the exact form of the die cavity.
          We'll cover technical details in a minute.  But there is something 
     beyond  all this that describes what swaging really means.   More  than 
     just  the technical power it places in your hands,  swaging reaches out 
     to capture the imagination of people in all walks of life,  and becomes 
     something far greater.
          Bullet  swaging,  to  a  rapidly  growing  number  of  people,  is 
     financial security.   The famous Corbin HYDRO-PRESS system,  now in use 
     around the world by nearly all custom bullet makers, makes it simple to 
     offer  highly-advanced designs of bullets that cannot  be  economically 
     produced by the mass-marketing firms.   Corbin has developed the tools, 
     the  techniques,  even the marketing expertise,  to the point where the 
     average person interested in a second income or a new career can afford 
     to operate a successful bullet manufacturing operation from his home.
          The  custom  bullet maker of today has huge  advantages  over  the 
     founders  of major bullet firms of the past.   Knowing what to make and 
     how to sell it is part of the advantage.  Having standard manufacturing 
     systems, methods, and expertise as close as a phone call or letter is a 
     major  leap over the hurdles Speer,  Hornady,  and Sierra had to  face.  
     You don't have to start from scratch and design not only the bullet but 
     also the tools to manufacture it.  It has all been done for you.  There 
     are  at  least  seven  books at this writing to tell you  how  to  take 
     advantage of these years of experience!
          Corbin publishes the WORLD DIRECTORY of CUSTOM BULLET MAKERS.   It 
     is the source-book for writers,  experimenters, procurement officers in 
     military  and police headquarters,  defense contractors,  and  advanced 
     handloaders  in at least nine countries.   Your own brand of bullet can 
     be listed,  along with your address,  just for the asking.  Advertising 
     space is available for a very reasonable cost.  Reaching the world with 
     your custom bullets is no longer a major challenge.
          By  keeping  in close contact with our  commercial  customers  and 
     working  with them on exotic design variations and tooling,  Corbin has 
     been  able  to help insure a healthy market,  prevent  unnecessary  and 
     wasteful  duplication  of  efforts,  and see that  the  real  needs  of 
     shooters  are met with constant new developments in the field of custom 
     bullets.   Every  individual,  like yourself,  who decides to  offer  a 
     small-scale  supply of some special product is just one more  guarantee 
     against quality bullets ever being swept out of reach.  
          During  major  wars,  economic upheavals,  or bouts of  mis-guided 
     legislative fervor,  it is the small-scale,  wide-spread producers  who 
     stand  strongest  against  shortages.   It  is much  less  likely  that 
     thousands of smaller operators will be forced to cease operations  than 
     the chance that three or four major outfits can be shut down!   Most of 
     the  major firms have other interests to protect and are very  visible, 
     vunerable,  and  sensitive to pressures that would not affect the  home 
     operation.
          You  don't  need  to  sell bullets to get a  pleasant  feeling  of 
     security  in owning a quality set of swaging dies.   Many  people  find 
     that the lower cost of making your own bullets lets them enjoy far more 
     shooting, with less drain on the family finances.  And the equipment is 
     always there, waiting, if you should want to make a little money on the 
     side.    Friends,   club  members,  local  gunshops  -- all  provide  a 
     convenient  market for certain specialty bullets that the factories  do 
     not offer.
          Because bullet swaging is so fast and easy to do,  you can produce 
     enough bullets in a weekend to help cover your own shooting costs.  The 
     "make a few, sell a few" approach serves vast numbers of shooters.  You 
     need only to obtain your Class 1 and Class 6 Federal Firearms Licenses, 
     neither  of  which is expensive or difficult.   Write to your  regional 
     Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms for forms.  Note that you ONLY 
     need the licenses if you plan to SELL the bullets:  you need NO license 
     to buy equipment and make them for your own use.
          For  many  people,  selling bullets is not  important.   The  real 
     thrill  of  swaging to them is seeing their ideas come alive  in  solid 
     metal.   What  hunter hasn't dreamed of some improvement,  some  better 
     construction,  different weight, or modified style of bullet that would 
     fill  a specific need -- and yet,  it just isn't offered by any of  the 
     mass production firms?
          Sitting  around  the campfire with the remains of a  spent  bullet 
     that  utterly  failed to do the job brings wistful thoughts  of  making 
     something  better.   The  tools  of swaging turn  these  thoughts  into 
     reality  with  lightning swiftness.   Versatility is one of  the  major 
     advantages of swaging, along with speed.  The equipment doesn't have to 
     cost any more than the messy, dangerous hot lead casting equipment with 
     which you are undoubtedly familiar.  Yet the same investment in swaging 
     tools can make literally hundreds of different bullets!  
          Changes in weight are entirely up to you.   In five  minutes,  you 
     can  use  the same dies to make whole bench-top covered with  different 
     bullet  weights.   The dies don't care how much material you  put  into 
     them,  within a broad limit.  They faithfully reproduce the diameter to 
     a  precision  impossible  with any hot lead  process,  operating  at  a 
     constant room temperature instead of changing from molten to solid lead 
     temperature  on  every bullet made.   The lightest weight and  heaviest 
     weight  a certain die can make are normally beyond the limits  of  what 
     you would want to shoot.
          With a cast bullet,  you buy a certain mould for a certain weight, 
     shape,  and style of bullet.  You are limited to various forms of lead.  
     If you want a different weight,  or style, you have to buy a new mould.  
     And  you  spend half an hour waiting for a lead pot to melt the  metal, 
     cast several times to get the mould up to temperature, sort through the 
     bad  casts and rejects,  clean the whole mess up after it has  time  to 
     cool down to safe levels,  and THEN, when all that is done, you have to 
     start all over again and run each of the remaining good bullets through 
     a  sizer  and  lubricator tool,  with the mess of greasy lube  and  the 
     chance of getting too much or too little application.  
          The bullet you get from casting is limited in velocity because the 
     lead will melt in contact with the bore of your gun and the hot  powder 
     gas  if  you  try to drive it too fast.   The  performance  is  limited 
     because  if you try to use harder alloys and reduce the leading of your 
     barrel, the bullets no longer expand or hold together as well.  Using a 
     copper gas check on the base of the bullet is a small step in the right 
     direction, but it isn't nearly enough for full performance.
          With a swaged bullet, you can use any alloy that you might use for 
     casting  (depending on the particular system and dies -- anything  from 
     pure  lead  to solid brass rod can be swaged on the  right  equipment).  
     The  dies make a wide range of weights without further expense to  you, 
     and  the range can usually be extended even further with  simple  punch 
     changes.   The  styles you can make are virtually unlimited.   There is 
     nothing commercially produced today or at any time in the past that you 
     cannot make at home,  and make it more accurately at the same time!  It 
     all depends on the particular kind of equipment you get.  
          Bullet  swaging  equipmenmt quickly demonstrates to  you  that  it 
     saves  you money over casting,  when you begin making different weights 
     and  styles.   If all you want is one weight and style to be shot at  a 
     velocity  of  perhaps  1,200 fps or less,  and that one  style  can  be 
     nothing more than a lubricated piece of lead,  swaging may have  little 
     to  offer you except speed and safety.   If you are looking only at the 
     cost per bullet, there is no difference.  What you pay for lead to cast 
     bullets is what you would pay for the lead to swage the same bullet.
          If,  on the other hand, you are interested in making the bullet to 
     tolerances  that can't be approached with hot lead -- repeatability  of 
     less  than  0.0001 inches -- and you want a system that  can  give  you 
     weight  tolerances so small a normal scale barely registers them,  then 
     even  this one simple cast lead bullet might take a second seat to  its 
     swaged cousin.   In our own experiments, we have found that group sizes 
     of  .308 caliber cast bullets could be cut in half at 100 yards  simply 
     by running the same cast bullets through the final point forming die of 
     a .308 bullet swage outfit.  
          In some calibers -- not all,  mind you! -- you can make absolutely 
     FREE bullets for the rest of your life by using materials others  throw 
     away!   Do you shoot a .224 or a .243 caliber rifle or handgun?  Do you 
     shoot a .25 ACP once in a while (which you might shoot more if the ammo 
     wasn't so costly) or a .257 rifle?   In these calibers,  it is possible 
     to  make  bullets using fired shotgun primers,  spent  .22  cases,  and 
     recovered range lead.  
          All  the materials you need to keep yourself shooting for the rest 
     of your life are lying on the ground by your feet,  when you go to  the 
     target range.   Those empty .22 long rifle cases make excellent quality 
     .22  centerfire  bullets.   The  empty .22 Magnums  and  Stingers  make 
     reasonable  quality .257 and 6mm bullets.   Fired shotgun primers  turn 
     into acceptable .25 ACP bullets.  
          In  the  .224  caliber  (all modern .22 centerfires  use  a  .224" 
     bullet),  the  quality of bullet you can make from a fired rimfire  .22 
     case  and  scrap lead is as good or better than you  can  purchase  for 
     $6.50 a box!  The material is actually easier on the bore than standard 
     thicker jacketed bullets,  shoots well enough that matches are won with 
     the  bullets  (although it isn't a recommended benchrest bullet by  any 
     means!),  and  is  so  explosive that you seldom get  a  ricochet  when 
     varmint hunting.
          Bullet swaging can be profitable, and it is versatile, economical, 
     and enjoyable.   It has the advantage of the highest possible precision 
     in bullet making,  on the order of ten times better than lathe  turning 
     the bullets.   The pressure of more than 2,000 atmospheres in a typical 
     swage  die  contrasts  sharply  to the pressure of  slightly  over  one 
     atmosphere  typical  of  casting a  bullet,  compacting  the  lead  and 
     squeezing  bubbles and voids into oblivion.   The cost of the equipment 
     always  SEEMS  high  to a beginner,  because (1) he  is  starting  from 
     scratch  and  usually needs all the basics at once and (2)  he  doesn't 
     realize yet how much power he is getting for those dollars.  
          In the final analysis, swaging is far lower in cost than any other 
     method  of  bullet making,  except in the one instance where  a  single 
     weight  and  style of lead bullet is all you want,  and a mould  exists 
     that will make it.   As soon as you start experimenting, swaging begins 
     to prove its economy.   As to the cost of the bullets  themselves,  the 
     range starts at zero cost -- remember the rimfire cases! -- and goes up 
     from there depending on the material you choose.   It is quite possible 
     to  make swaged bullets that cost more than a roughly similar style  of 
     factory  bullet.   In  fact,  if you only want to duplicate  a  factory 
     bullet  with  no thought of making something better,  then quite  often 
     swaging won't justify its cost unless you shoot quite a bit.
          The  casual  shooter  who goes through one or two  boxes  of  some 
     caliber a year has no real need for swaging equipment.   It would  take 
     far  too long for him to amortize its cost,  and besides,  he might  be 
     able  to  find  some  bullet  that costs just about  the  same  as  the 
     materials he would have to purchase to make it!   In general,  a swaged 
     jacketed  rifle  or handgun bullet costs about half that of  a  similar 
     factory bullet,  but there are some exceptions.   And many people  make 
     high  performance bullets,  using heavy copper or brass tubing jackets, 
     or  other exotic constructions,  with swaging's  ultra-high  precision, 
     that  cost several times as much as a run-of-the-mill factory bullet in 
     the  same  caliber.   But  they are getting something  that  cannot  be 
     obtained anywhere else, at any price:  a premium bullet made exactly to 
     their order.
          You can see that economy can be a good reason for swaging,  but it 
     isn't necessarily the best or only reason,  and in some cases there are 
     over-riding needs that make cost per bullet relatively unimportant.  If 
     you  want  to  shoot a fine double-rifle and  simply  cannot  find  any 
     suitable weight or even caliber of bullets for it,  what does it matter 
     that your own custom-built bullets might wind up costing you fifteen or 
     twenty cents each?   On the market,  they'd be easily worth a dollar or 
     more in some of these calibers.!   That, in fact, is one of the secrets 
     of  being a successful commercial bullet maker:   picking a product  to 
     make  that  does  indeed  command a price higher  than  standard  mass-
     produced bullets, but which is so unique and valuable to those who want 
     it that they are glad to see you offer it at almost any price.
          If,  for example,  you are affluent enough to afford to travel  to 
     Africa  or  the Far East for big game hunting,  you certainly  are  not 
     going to worry about the cost of a few boxes of bullets.  The important 
     thing is whether or not they will work correctly,  reliably,  when that 
     big  trophy is in your sights at last.   It could mean life or death if 
     you are facing a charging Cape Buffalo.   Anyone who has been there and 
     experienced a bullet failure at such a time -- and has lived through it 
     -- isn't likely to quibble over the price of bullets.   Perhaps you can 
     begin  to see why there are so many successful custom bullet makers  in 
     the  world  today,  making  bullets that sell as fast as  they  can  be 
     produced,  for  over  $1 each and in some cases as much  as  $2.50  per 
     bullet!
          "OK", you say,"bullet swaging sounds like it's got a lot going for 
     it.   But how hard is it to learn?   Is it going to take me the rest of 
     my life to figure out?"
          Have you ever dug a post hole?   Filled a pipe with tobacco?  Both 
     those operations are good allegories for swaging.   When you put a post 
     into a post hole, you tamp earth back around the hole.  When you fill a 
     pipe,  you  tamp tobacco into the bowl.   In a very crude way,  this is 
     what  it takes to learn to start swaging:   press the material  into  a 
     hole  or  cavity,  so  it takes on the shape of the  cavity.   The  die 
     corresponds  to  the pipe bowl or the sides of  the  post  hole.   Your 
     tamping stick or thumb corresponds to the punch in a swage die.  
          There  are  a lot of variations on this process,  and a number  of 
     different  dies  made  to  form  certain  shapes  on  the  bullet,  but 
     basically,  every swaging operation is filling a hole with material  by 
     pushing an undersized piece of material into the hole with a punch. The 
     end  of the punch forms one end of the bullet.   The die walls form the 
     sides of the bullet.   There is another punch,  held captive in the die 
     assembly, that blocks off the other end of the die, and is used to push 
     the bullet back out the die mouth when you are finished.
          A lead bullet takes one stroke to finish.   A semi-wadcutter takes 
     from  one to two dies (one stroke per die) depending on how  fancy  you 
     want  to  get  with the weight control.   A rifle bullet or  a  handgun 
     bullet  made  with  the jacket wrapped over the  ogive  (nose  portion) 
     requires either two or three dies (one stroke per die, again) to finish 
     the projectile.   Whether it takes two or three dies depends on whether 
     or  not you want to swage the lead slug that makes up the  filling,  or 
     core,  by itself first.    You can insert the core into the jacket (the 
     skin of the bullet) with or without first swaging the core.  Either way 
     makes  a  reasonably good bullet.   Swaging the core  first  makes  the 
     weight variation extremely small.
          We'll get into the details later.  But that is really all there is 
     to  learn in order to get started.   You can be making your own bullets 
     within a few minutes after you get the dies.   And you can be  learning 
     to  make  ever better ones fifty years later!   It's a little bit  like 
     learning to shoot:   you can start hitting the target the first day you 
     get  your new rifle,  and then you start working on getting  10's,  and 
     never quit working on getting all X's.   The bullets you can make right 
     away will probably be equal quality to what you can buy off the  shelf.  
     But why stop with that?  Swaging is capable of giving you so much more.
          You may not have any desire, at this time, to make exotic bullets.  
     You may not want to extrude your own lead wire, or produce heavy copper 
     or  brass  jackets  yourself,  or  form  partitions  and  liquid-filled 
     internal cavities in your projectiles.  You may not want to make a high 
     performance  12  gauge  shotgun slug,  or a solid  copper  .14  caliber 
     bullet,  or  a  rebated  boattail .500 caliber  slug.   The  tools  are 
     available,  if you do.  Knowing what is possible can be as important as 
     doing it.  
          The  same copper tubing that runs air conditioners,  nuclear power 
     plants,  automobiles,  and  apartment  buildings  can  be  turned  into 
     excellent  quality jackets.   The same lead that is used  for  roofing, 
     plumbing,  x-ray shielding,  and nuclear medicine containers is capable 
     of  supplying you with an endless quantity of cores.   Until you  place 
     the  lead core into the jacket and swage that bullet in the privacy  of 
     your home, nothing about your supplies is unique to bullet making.  The 
     materials are all around you.  
          The bullets you can make in times of serious economnic upheaval or 
     a great national disaster might well be worth more than their weight in 
     gold.   Survival  weapons  don't shoot gold coins.  It's hard  to  make 
     change  with  a  couple  of  investment grade  diamonds  when  you  are 
     bartering for medicine or food.   And cast bullets tend to foul the gas 
     ports of automatics and gas-operated military rifles.  It isn't radical 
     to consider, at least, the potential for barter and the value that your 
     bullet-making ability might have in such circumstances.
          "Sounds interesting.   What's next?", you may be asking. The first 
     step  was obtaining this manual.   It will give you a wide view of  the 
     field  of  swaging and show you what kinds of equipment  are  available 
     today.    There  isn't  room  to  describe  every  possible  trick  and 
     technique,  nor to go into the details of a commercial business, nor to 
     really give you an intense course in the art of swaging. Those subjects 
     are  found  the seven books Corbin has published over the  past  twenty 
     years.
          Before  jumping  in,   you  should  read  at  least  the  textbook 
     "REDISCOVER SWAGING".  This should be read primarily as a course in the 
     art  of swaging and not with a great deal of attention to the  specific 
     machines or tools described,  since the principles are the same but the 
     products may change over the years.   If your interest leans toward the 
     commercial  aspects,  then by all means read "POWER SWAGING"  as  well.  
     Greater detail on a wide range of specific subjects can be found in the 
     three  volumes  of  the Corbin Technical Bulletins.   And  the  ancient 
     "BULLET SWAGE MANUAL" gives a different writer's viewpoint from an  age 
     gone by.  
          With  the  information at your fingertips,  you have a  tremendous 
     advantage over the handloader of the past -- as well as the founders of 
     the big bullet factories of today!   Corbin has brought swaging out  of 
     the dark,  mysterious realm of the die-maker and turned it over to you:  
     one  of  the most powerful tools ever devised for advancing the art  of 
     handloading is placed in your hands.
          In  August,  1984,  Corbin opened the world's largest bullet  die-
     works,  in  a new plant built just for this purpose.   Located  at  600 
     Industrial Circle,  White City,  Oregon,  on a 44,000 square foot site, 
     the  entire  plant  features electronically cleaned and  filtered  air, 
     climate control for both offices and machine shop, and a six-inch thick 
     barrier on both ceiling and walls to insulate the shop from temperature 
     changes.  Brilliant  shadowless  lighting and  spacious  workroom  give 
     Corbin's die-makers remarkable conditions for testing and inspection of 
     their work, even as it is being produced.  
          The  Corbin facility is unique:   no other firm has ever poured so 
     much time,  effort, and capital into the development of bullet swaging.  
     If some of the things you read here seem completely different from  the 
     general  public's impression of swaging,  there's a good reason for it!  
     Most  of  the limitations and problems with swaging in  the  past  were 
     simply waiting for someone to find the solutions.
          Swaging itself has few limitations.  It is a quantum leap over the 
     usual  "cookbook"  kind of reloading.   Swaging releases you  from  the 
     limits of mere repetition of what others have done.  Instead of forcing 
     you  to  follow  recipes in a reloading  kitchen,  swaging  turns  your 
     handloading  bench  into  a  laboratory  where  new  knowledge  can  be 
     developed.
          At any point, you could be holding in your hand the prototype of a 
     design that could change the future of shooting.   And yet, at the same 
     time,  you  can immediately begin producing bullets "as good as factory 
     ones", and likely, a great deal better!  No matter how routine a bullet 
     you may wish to make right now,  it's hard to resist the temptation  to 
     nudge  the  throttle a bit on the powerful design  machinery,  and  try 
     something a little better.  The spirit of invention is far from dead in 
     most of us.
          At  the moment when you first hold the gleaming perfection in your 
     own hand, which only seconds before was empty copper and dull lead, you 
     may  sense  the  presence of other eyes  looking  over  your  shoulder.  
     Perhaps,  if you turn quickly enough, you may catch a fading glimpse of 
     the spirit of the ancient founders of the swaging art:  men like Harvey 
     Donaldson,  who  swaged some of the first .22 caliber jacketed  bullets 
     from  fired .22 cases -- a trick you can handle much more easily with a 
     simple  kit,  today.   Behind  him,  you  might  see  a  long  line  of 
     experimenters,  slug-gun  shooters with their Carver pound-dies in  one 
     hand -- the men who first began the process of shaping lead bullets  in 
     swage  dies,  to  advance the art of accurate shooting beyond  anything 
     that had been done before. 
         Whatever work you might do,  whatever ideas you might explore,  you 
     have  just  as much potential as they did to advance the whole  art  of 
     shooting  into  a  new generation.   When you place your  hand  on  the 
     powerful leverage of swaging equipment, you are stepping far beyond the 
     experiences  of  even the most knowledgable handloader  who  has  never 
     tried this remarkable field.
         Men  with  forty or fifty years of handloading  experience  express 
     wonder  at  the  vast new horizon swaging lays  before  them.   It's  a 
     feeling all of us, from the dim beginnings to this day, can appreciate.  
     It's  the feeling of pride that comes,  when you realize that your  own 
     bullets  -- your  ideas  and  experiments turned  into  reality  -- are 
     building  on  the solid foundation built by the greatest  experimenters 
     shooting has ever known.  If you could catch that glimpse in the fading 
     light, I'm sure you'd notice each of them nodding their approval.