40 &W casings turned into 44 mag bullets

[Shadow9mm]

So this popped up in my youtube feed. I have seen the 223 bullets made from 22lr casings. Never hard of anyone using 40 brass to make 44cal bullets...

I'm thinking a cast lead core, with a modified rifle sizing die to put the shoulder on? might have to resize ot bulge bust the 40 to get a consistent diameter. looks a lot easier than the the 22 deal though

Bullet weight right around 275g


Interesting stuff. all credit to TAOFLEDERMAUS very cool concept.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O90Qqj7L6F4

 

[Unclenick]

Those have been around for awhile. They aren't as accurate as commercial bullet's because cases have more unevenness in mass distribution than jackets do. A match jacket, for example, is often uniform within a tenth of a thousandth of an inch of total indicated runout, while a case wall is often twenty times that. So the centers of gravity will be a little off, opening the groups up at any sort of significant range. The other drawback is the extractor groove and head thickness use up space that would be available for more powder with a conventional bullet of the same weight . But as an emergency or experimental source of bullets, there is nothing wrong with them for practice and use at modest distances.

IIRC, the castboolits site had information on someone offering tooling for them.

 

[Crankylove]

I know the guy that made the ones in the video, and have seen first hand what they do on bull Elk out of a .444 Marlin.

He’s been making them for several years, and has also experimented with a bonded core version.

 

[reddog81]

It's an interesting concept but the dies are expensive, you need a beefy press, and you go through brass cases pretty quickly that way. Its much cheaper and easier to just cast your own bullets.

You can use 9mm cases for .40 bullets also.

There's a subforum for Swaging bullets on the castboolits forum if interested. The video makes it sound like some new fangled technology but it's been a thing for decades.

 

[FrankenMauser]

Explanation here, in post #5:
.40 S&W to .444 reloads

The basic process:
1. Clean the range pick-up .40 S&W brass.

2. Trim the cases to length (.810" for 275 gr bullets and .700" for 250s).

3. Expand the case mouth to .44 caliber (Lyman M die).

4. Match a lead core (lead wire or cast lead bullet - .40 or .41 cal) to the jacket, to achieve the desired weight.
4.a. If bonding, the inside of the case is fluxed, the core placed back inside, then the assembly heated. When the lead has melted, the flux stops boiling, and carbon stops bubbling up out of the primer, it is allowed to cool. If it "sinks" in the middle, it is bonded. If not, you've got some rejects. They look terrible, but work well. (5th photo)

5. Seat the core in the jacket by running the inverted assembly into a 7x57mm sizing die, on top of a Lee "pusher" (bottom punch) from a .430" push-through sizing die. This bevels the rim (side effect of the process), and "bumps up" the body diameter to about .434" by sealing the punch against the case body and expanding the lead core. (Second and third photos.)

6. Turn the bullet over, and run it into the 7x57mm sizing die to form the nose. (4th photo)

7. Lastly, lube the bullets and run them through a [bullet] sizing die.

Notes:
The primers are untouched, and left in the cases.
Tarnish doesn't matter.
I use pure lead for the cores. The lead wire is from RotoMetals, and won't be used again. (It is expensive.) The cast lead bullets are from Lee molds, 401-175-TC and 410-195-SWC. (In pure lead, they drop heavy.)
The bullets are ejected from the sizing die with a section of O-1 drill rod. Initially, I was using a letter-size rod that was about .186". But, I recently went to some N-size, that mics .297". It fits much better, and produces much better looking bullet noses. (last photo shows the .186")
I use a Lee .430" bullet sizing die, so the bullet's spring-back gives me a finished product at .4315" to fit my .432" bore better than factory bullets.

Origin, here:
Something new to play with - Page 3

Result:

 

[Grey_Lion]

I make .40 JHP's out of annealed cut down 9mm brass. The 9mm brass I use for this ( blazer & aguila ) I would have scrapped as substandard anyway - so an efficient use of the material.

I have a sizable collection of .40 I won't be reloading - shells are either a headstamp I reject ( blazer, aguila, perfecta ) or shells that are stretched wide in an experimental load I have since ceased to make. - i.e. PERFECT for making JHP's for in a larger caliber. Let me know if you're interested and we can talk about a trade.