making a new bullet

[geo.ulrich]

what ogive ? a 100 gr. difference in weight is a pretty large jump nose radii would be entirely different as in a 7.5 for 78 and a 13 for 175. longer jacket for heavier bullet equals a longer nose which wouldn't work on a shorter jacket. point dies 1050 each fb core seat 500 core form die 300, point die and core seat are carbide,,,,

 

[Dusty Stevens]

How much for the presses, dies and everything else to do one caliber/ogive? Pkg deal out the door

 

[liljoe]

Check out the prices of 25cal jackets. WOW! They are about double the price of most other jackets.
The place I checked they were like $365 per 1200pcs. The 30 cal .925 long are about $185 per 1100pcs. Thats a huge difference.

 

[crustyrusty]

what ogive ? a 100 gr. difference in weight is a pretty large jump nose radii would be entirely different as in a 7.5 for 78 and a 13 for 175. longer jacket for heavier bullet equals a longer nose which wouldn't work on a shorter jacket. point dies 1050 each fb core seat 500 core form die 300, point die and core seat are carbide,,,,

and what system do your dies fit? and as for the ogive I believe a 8-s is fine (if I remembered the terminology correctly)

 

[RGRobinett]

Dusty, yes it always amazes me when people want to go down the road with out seeing whats available jacket wise. its one thing for me to mess around after all dies don't cost me, but start adding draw dies and pinch trim dies just to a die set and things get pricey pretty fast not to mention all the extra work involved.

Roger this, George, even then, when the jackets (J4) were priced proportionally to other calibers, few people were/are willing to part with the $ for superior 25 Cal. (hand swaged) bullets! Even following some wins, at the NBRSA Hunter Nationals (a pair of 200 Yd., and a GRand Agg.), my 25 Cal. dies have never, "earned their keep" . . . thankfully, I never expected them to - they were just a personal desire/investment - like a new rifle!

Unless one is a precision freak, shooting in registered BR tournaments, or, possessed by [the demons demanding] the personal satisfaction of maximum precision, it's difficult to beat Sierra. The folks at BjackJack are offering some seriously good 25 Cal. heavy bullet options, along with reamers, and properly twisted barrels, at very reasonable pricing - I believe the bullets are made by Sierra.

For my own shootin', I'll continue to make my own 25s, as I have all of the necessary tooling, but when I croak, I suspect that the 25 Cal. dies won't be worth much.

To re-enforce George's gist: before you invest in odd-ball dies (caliber, or, odd length/weight bullets), make certain that you can obtain jackets to make what you want. AND, even then, purchase a BIG, if, not life-time
jacket supply . . . sometimes, quality, jackets can be difficult to obtain. Looking at unusable dies would frustrate even me . . . RG

 

[geo.ulrich]

How much for the presses, dies and everything else to do one caliber/ogive? Pkg deal out the door

Dusty, All according to what you want fb or bt breaks down like this... 1050 point die, fb core seater 500, bt core seater 850, core form if you want one 300, presses converted 250 per I would leave out the core form and just buy cores you will be happier....

 

[geo.ulrich]

and what system do your dies fit? and as for the ogive I believe a 8-s is fine (if I remembered the terminology correctly)

either 7/8 14 or in the case of larger cal. 1 1/4 12 standard press threads. an 8 will be fine on .880 lg jackets ogive length comes to .705 lg. and around .220 bearing surface on a 1.375 jacket it would mean ,705 nose and .700 bearing surface which would be excessive

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Dusty, All according to what you want fb or bt breaks down like this... 1050 point die, fb core seater 500, bt core seater 850, core form if you want one 300, presses converted 250 per I would leave out the core form and just buy cores you will be happier....

I know what goes into making bullets- therefore i know better than get into making them! I wanted you to post the price so those interested would see what it takes to do each caliber- if you can get jackets in the first place

 

[RGRobinett]

Dusty, All according to what you want fb or bt breaks down like this... 1050 point die, fb core seater 500, bt core seater 850, core form if you want one 300, presses converted 250 per I would leave out the core form and just buy cores you will be happier....

I own several [complete] sets of George's dies (.224 LR BT; 6.5; 7mm), and even some extra BT seaters, core-form, etc., of various calibers. ALL are excellent. George is also a wealth of knowledge, based upon experience - he has helped me solve several mysteries.RG

 

[crustyrusty]

ok I think I see the issue.. so I would start with only one bullet caliber and one bullet weight. that being said I would go with a 7mm 140gr soft point flat base with an 8 ogive front .. I would then master that bullet combo then move to the 80gr 4-s ogive flat base bullet...so I like the corbin hydro press setup but I need to start small and try the corbin hand operated press.. the results will speak for themselves. so I need to know how much dies will cost me to build 140gr bullets with 8-s ogive flat base, that fit the corbin S-Press (CSP-1).I believe it uses standard 7/8-14 thd

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Im not the master but youd be way better off to not even mess with corbin stuff. Get your presses straight from mr ulrich. And not sure about this soft point stuff either.

 

[dcali]

How much for the presses, dies and everything else to do one caliber/ogive? Pkg deal out the door

I’ve found that to really get into it you’re probably going to want to spend quite a bit on other random tools and whatnot as well.

Bottom line, it’s extremely rewarding to see bullets you design and make shoot tiny groups and work out exactly as planned. But man, it is not easy, cheap or quick to get up and running. If you’re like me you burn a few thousand bucks being stubborn along the way. The number of tiny problems that you never imagined could be problems is huge.

It’s the single most rewarding thing I’ve done in my shooting, though. And George was (and is) an invaluable part of it.

 

[dcali]

ok I think I see the issue.. so I would start with only one bullet caliber and one bullet weight. that being said I would go with a 7mm 140gr soft point flat base with an 8 ogive front .. I would then master that bullet combo then move to the 80gr 4-s ogive flat base bullet...so I like the corbin hydro press setup but I need to start small and try the corbin hand operated press.. the results will speak for themselves. so I need to know how much dies will cost me to build 140gr bullets with 8-s ogive flat base, that fit the corbin S-Press (CSP-1).I believe it uses standard 7/8-14 thd

Call George. Do what he says. There is no need for further advice.

 

[Dusty Stevens]

I’ve found that to really get into it you’re probably going to want to spend quite a bit on other random tools and whatnot as well.

Bottom line, it’s extremely rewarding to see bullets you design and make shoot tiny groups and work out exactly as planned. But man, it is not easy, cheap or quick to get up and running. If you’re like me you burn a few thousand bucks being stubborn along the way. The number of tiny problems that you never imagined could be problems is huge.

It’s the single most rewarding thing I’ve done in my shooting, though. And George was (and is) an invaluable part of it.

Being in with bart and the late brady knight like i am i know exactly what it takes even when no jackets are available. I was just wanting the man that sells the stuff to quote his price. I just say $10k for your first bullet and thatll cover it

 

[TrxR]

Do you need a completely different die to do a different ogive bullet? Say a 30cal 118 7ogive or a 8 ogive?

Thanks

 

[Tim Singleton]

I just say $10k for your first bullet and thatll cover it

Then more times than not a couple years later and another couple thousand in jackets and lead your first competitive bullet!

 

[dcali]

Do you need a completely different die to do a different ogive bullet? Say a 30cal 118 7ogive or a 8 ogive?

Thanks

You need a different point up die. You can use the same core seater.

The way I see it, if you’re just going to make another 7 ogive 118, there’s no real rational reason to do it yourself, other than that it’s an expensive and illuminating education. It’s a whole lot easier and cheaper to buy them if what you want is already being made by someone.

The real art to it is coming up with the designs that aren’t being sold.

 

[liljoe]

Here is the first bullet I made. I was probably in about $5000 for this one.
Tim is right about making a LOT of bullets before you make one that can win.
Joe Hynes

 

[TrxR]

The only reason i would consider doing this is because of the pain in the butt to get bullets accross the border to canada.

 

[INShooter]

There is excellent info given by some very accomplished people in this thread. For any shooter aspiring to make his own bullets do a search on this forum for several posts by Lee Martin. He make some great posts with videos on making custom bullets. See what is involved. After that do some searching for the costs and availability of jackets for the bullet you want to make.
If you decide to continue the adventure understand that making quality bullets is not done until much time, frustration, work are invested in the process. And experience is gained.