Quote:
Originally Posted by herr_oberst
This is probably the dumbest question ever, but can a home bullet-caster jacket the lead with copper? Or would he even want to? Here's my line of thought...I know - through this BBS - that Higgins is fussy about the loading process, and I'm thinking that if that discarded lead has any impurities, then bubbles or occlusions might cause the trajectories and velocities to differ from cartridge to cartridge, and perhaps a jacket would smooth the airflow thus making results more consistent....
(Full disclosure - I'm not a gun guy..)
(All of you gun guys probably just figured that out.)
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Great questions, really - lots of folks who would call themselves "gun guys" are kind of in the dark on all of this as well.
Yes, we can swage a copper jacket onto home made bullets. A company called Corbin makes the equipment that makes this possible. It's a lot of work, though, and really unnecessary for handgun or lower velocity rifle bullets. Rifle bullets meant for high velocity use are pretty much required to wear a copper jacket. Not for any in-flight issues, but just to keep the lead from smearing in the bore - "leading" the bore, which results in a dramatic loss in accuracy. The harder copper jacket prevents this.
Yes, this discarded lead does have its share of impurities. We remove those through generous fluxing when we first melt the lead so that we can pour it into ingot molds for later use in our casting pots. I use a camp stove and a big cast iron kettle to melt down the discarded wheel weights I get from the local tire store. This allows me to flux it, and also to remove the steel clips that are crimped to the rim. I then pour the molten lead into a muffin tin to form my "ingots", which fit nicely into my casting pot.
By the time I cast bullets with it, the lead alloy is quite clean and consistent. I'm very picky about the bullets I keep as well - any with visible defects as they come from the mold are just tossed back into the pot. Internal inclusions or voids are virtually non-existent, to the point that with handgun bullets, I don't bother to check for them. For long range match rifle bullets, I weigh them to check for these defects.
Jackets are really quite unnecessary on handgun bullets. The very best handgun bullets, for any purpose, are those we cast ourselves. Jackets (on handgun bullets) only exist as a manufacturing, handling, and shipping expedient, with the manufacturers having sold the shooting world a bill of goods regarding their actual usefulness in shooting. Good cast bullets, of the proper designs and proper alloys, are impossible to mass produce for many reasons. So, unable to provide proper cast bullets, the industry has duped shooters into believing jacketed bullets are "better". Nothing could be further from the truth, at least as far as handgun bullets.