What equipment do I need to make FMJ??

[CrazyHorse89]

Sorry for the Noob question but ...

The more I read the more questions I have, seems that casting your own bullets results in a Lead bullet, but how or what equipment do I need to get my ammo to resemble that of FMJ or the Copper Layer (maybe I'm wrong), and what are the pros cons of using lead ammo to shoot my 9mm or .45 acp vs FMJ for target and Self Defense?

I'm willing to spend some $$ to get setup, any good reads to suggest?

THanks in Advance,

Paul

[tom234]

You "cast" lead bullets but you "buy" jacketed, including FMJ, bullets. The equipment for reloading lead or jacketed bullets is the same. Reloading and shooting lead is much cheaper that jacketed whether you cast your own or buy them.

[cgaengineer]

You can purchase the tools to make jacketed bullets but it is quite expensive.

[zebulonsmith]

If you're getting into reloading for the economy of it, reload with cast bullets and spend what you save to buy good SD ammo.

I don't cast my own (afraid of the lead), but they cost about 1/2 what jacketed bullets do when you buy in bulk.

[Sevens]

I don't believe making jacketed bullets is something you can typically do at home.

what are the pros cons of using lead ammo to shoot my 9mm or .45 acp vs FMJ for target and Self Defense?

Lead bullet ammo
PROS
--cheaper, and by a large margin, than jacketed bullets
--even that much cheaper still if you elect to cast your own
--can be very, very accurate
--MUCH less stressful on barrels with regards to wear

CONS
--can give some fits in feeding in finicky guns
--often need some "tweaking" to get them to run at their best
--can be dirty with regards to airborne lead particles
--can be dirty with regards to cleaning gun barrels
--can be problematic when driven too fast, or not driven fast enough
--can be made by any goof with erratic quality standards, resulting in lousy performance

It's a popular opinion (and absolutely my opinion as well) that it's not a great idea to use reloads for self-defense, so I won't bother trying to compare lead vs. jacketed for defense, but if you look at the top dozen defense loads for sale by all the ammo companies, all of them will be jacketed hollow points.

What do I use? Both... but I shoot a -LOT- more cast lead than jacketed.

[cv73]

to make your own fmj bullets check here. www.corbins.com or www.rceco.com it is another hobbie that takes up alot of time.

[darkgael]

You make FMJs by swaging a lead core into an appropriate jacket. Jackets can be bought, made from tubing and sometimes made from fired cases. Yes, Corbins and rceco (the other Corbin) are the main swaging guys. CH4D also sells some swaging equipment.
The two "problems" with swaging for most people are the cost to start up (presses run from $250 to $600. Dies are, depending on what you want to do, $170 to $?????.) and speed. You are making bullets one at a time. The FMJ process is a minimum of two steps and possibly as many as four (make the lead core, cut the jacket, swage them together - that's three and the core may require an additional step to get the weight correct.)
Expensive and slow unless you automate.
I use a Corbin CSP-1 press to make PP bullets and half-jacketed slugs for my 45-70, in addition to the occasional .45 ACP or .45 Colt slug.
Here's a fuzzy cellphone pic (it's late) of some 3/4 jacketed SWCs (340 grains) for the 45 Colt. To make them open based "FMJs" I'd have to have turned the jacket around and had a point forming die as opposed to the SWC punch.

Pete