Comments

Episode-128- TSP Rewind – Understanding Caliber, Millimeter, Gauges and Ballistics — 1 Comment

  1. Hey Jack, thanks a ton for this rewind because as a young guy trying to get into guns for self defense and hunting it’s a little hard when my circles would probably look down on me if I started asking questions.
     
    You mentioned you were planning on doing a reloading episode, if you could mention what you think about swaged bullets vs cast I’d be appreciative. Being a physics nerd I think I would have been with you on the ballistics charts if my dad had been more into hunting and shooting. The advantages to the swaging as I understand from forums  are a much higher quality bullet, the ability to make jacketed rounds at home using copper flashing or spent brass, the ability to make hollow point or boat tail without a lathe, and it requires no electricity or heat source. The main disadvantage I see are much higher setup cost, around 600-1000 for the press and another 500-1000 per caliber plus the reloading dies themselves. That being said I can potentially stomach a cost like that if I keep the number of calibers low and as far as I can tell these things never wear out if made correctly. Plus I think liberals will more easily get assault weapon ammo bans passed versus assault weapon bans, a personal concern of late. Its something I’ve been meaning to ask you or JR about but have been lazy and keep forgetting. 
     
    The cast boolits forum has a ton of info regarding this and an open source swage press if you can weld, I was listening VERY intently to your semi recent interview on welding for this reason because some people report it takes the price down into the 2-300 range for the press.
     
    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?76514-Lets-make-a-Swage-press
     
    http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?153325-Making-308-Swaged-bullets