Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada A productive week of bullet making

I can do that, but it will take a few posts.

Anyone can make this type of bullet. No fancy equipment or hydraulic press is needed. It’s an aspect of the shooting hobby that’s always been around but is not popular. You can make bullets for pennies a shot, even today.

A Short History

During World War Two, the metals used to make bullet jackets – copper and zinc – were in short supply. The man who would go on to found Speer Bullet Company, Vernon Speer, figured out a way to recycle 22 rimfire cases and substitute them for traditional gilding metal.



Since then, shooters have been able to create their own at home. The process is straightforward and easily learned. In fact, many of today’s custom bullet businesses started in someone’s basement or hobby room. Even today, with none of the problems of wartime shortages, the fascination with making homemade bullets still attracts the do-it-yourselfer.

Some hobbyists – especially cowboy action and handgun shooters – like to create their own lead bullets by casting. Users of jacketed bullets can do this too. Making jacketed bullets is certainly cheaper than buying them ready made from a store, but there is a trade off. You swap the money saved for your own time and labour.

Some people believe that it is dangerous to cast your own bullets or cast your own bullet cores. You have to melt the lead which means heat and hazardous fumes. A safer alternative to this is swaging. Swaging is the term used to describe shaping lead into bullets under pressure. There are no high temperatures or fumes because the metal is cold formed. In many cases, you can use a standard reloading press or step up and get a special bench mounted press specifically designed for the job. I'll show that in another post.

Making jacketed bullets from 22 rimfire cases is certainly a niche area but is very rewarding. Like handloading, there is a real satisfaction when using your own creations to shoot targets or take game. It’s more rewarding than buying a box of bullets at the store.



The Difference between Commercial and Rimfire Jackets

Commercial hunting bullets use tapered jackets. The wall gets progressively thicker as you go from the tip to the base. When you make jackets from 22 rimfire cases however, the wall thickness is constant. They are approximately 10 thousandths of an inch thick from top to bottom. Thinly jacketed bullets are excellent for varmint hunters because they expand quite rapidly. For this reason, the maximum recommended muzzle velocity should not exceed 3200 fps (some say 3000 fps). Push them any faster and the bullets fly apart when they leave the barrel. This is more of a problem these days because of faster twist barrels. For 55 to 65 grain weights shot from a 222 or 223 Remington though, this is usually not a concern.

I can break it down into core making, jacket forming, bullet assembly and targets.

Core Making

Cup and core bullets are made of a jacket and a lead core. I make cores from extruded lead wire. I cut them to a short length - approximately 3 grains more than the finished weight - and then put in a core forming die. This makes them perfectly cylindrical and they weigh the same. If you look at the base of the die, you can see extruded lead that has bled off. Because lead is very dense and swaged into an area inside of the die, the cores come out very close to the same weight. The bottom picture is a core mold.

I have also tried melting lead and pouring it into a core making mold, but it is easier to cut lead wire.

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