Swaging .22LR cases into .224 jackets
 

Yeah, this post is pretty specific.

I just read that a company called Corbin makes a kit that you can use to swage spent .22LR brass cases into jackets for .224 diameter bullets. Wow, I thought. With this kit, I could pretty much always ensure I have a supply of .223. Cool!

Then I checked the price on the kit. $783!!!! That's about the cost of all of my reloading equipment, combined! Guess I won't be doing that.

I don't get it...you're going to turn a .22LR casing (far right) into a .223 case (2nd from left)? :confused:

Edit: Err...nevermind. Just re-read your post. You'll be using the cases to make "jackets" for the bullets...

http://visionforgestudios.com/jesse/...ot/frame47.jpg

I loaded 1000 .223 and 300 .308 this past weekend. Reloading season is coming to an end for me as the warm weather brings the 911 season in with it! I'm getting an AP press for nest fall, probably the Hornady Lock-n-Load AP 1000.

One of the largest manufacturers of reloading equipment in the industry got their start by making just such a bullet swage. Fred Huntington started RCBS - Rock Chuck Bullet Swage - with a press he designed for making .22 caliber centerfire bullets from spent .22 LR cases.

Things have changed since then. .22 centerfire bullets are cheap and readily available. There is no way one could ever match their quality and uniformity at home. The variety available commercialy is simply staggering. Most of us would rather shoot 'em than make 'em, so there is really no practical need for this kind of equipment anymore.

Yes, but .223 is all but NLA right now.

Famous story Rock Chucker Bullets. He built an industry on them.

The stuff has a lot of Zinc in it does not perform like modern copper jacket material
the old.22 case bullets were hard on barrels to much zinc, they did not fly like the modern bullets

Hard to beat the Hornaday V-max for the .22 or the speer for that matter. You are better off spending the money on packaged bullets.

there is a new company that is making 22 rimfire to 223/224 swage dies.
for a complete set of dies to convert 22 rimfires into 223/224 projectiles they only charge $300

you can also use your NORMAL reloading press with these dies.

for information feel free to contact me or email drickard at gmail.com