Making Jacketed Bullets from 5.7x28mm Brass 

"Plus, we fire the whole bullet. That's 65% more bullet per bullet!"

Imagine if someone used rounds like that in a crime and they pulled the round and found a whole shell in them like those animations of whole cartridges flying out the barrel.😅

Legacy reloading tech. Old timers used .40 brass for .45 ACP bullets in the 90s.

Not sure why you’re getting hate. This is awesome. Bet most of the ppl in the comments do not even reload.

There is no better feeling than discovering things that unintentionally fit perfectly and going "Fuck it, let's see how far this can go" and it works incredibly

Dude, I will send you 3-400 cases of 5.7x28 brass. Just tell me where to send it. Also, to knock off the coating, you can use steel pins in a tumble washer. If you wanted to prolong the life of the barrel, coat them in boron nitride, even powder coating, or adding bullet lube would help. The bearing surface of a bullet is directly related to the pressure wave behind it. The faster wear on a barrel is also directly related to the type of steel and steel thickness. Harmonics are caused by ignition, but contrary to popular belief, it isn't the heat of the powder and gas which causes a barrel to heat rapidly. It is the rapid expansion of the steel of the barrel as the pressure wave travels down the barrel and dissipates. This expansion/contraction heats the steel much faster than just the hot gas. It's closer to 18,600fps compared to a bullet travelling at only, for example 2650-2950, out of most 30 caliber base cartridges like 308, 303, & 6.5 Creedmoor. There are quite a few expert barrel makers on Erik Cortina's channel, Believe the Target, who explain harmonics well, and Bryan Litz's Applied Ballistic books also discuss this to some length. Erik even has the guy who originally applied harmonic tuners to rifle barrels. He learned about it as a kid hitting radio tower guy wires and listening to the twang sound. That was his first introduction. This is one reason moly or boron nitride coated bullets extend a barrel's life. They are slick so the pressure wave doesn't expand the barrel as much due to the friction of the bearing surface being reduced.

"Cave Johnson here! Introducing the consumer version of our most popular military-grade product!"

People have been making. 224 bullets out of 22 LR brass for years, great idea you had. Love the video. 😊

Helpful hint when cutting threads in Aluminum with a die use automatic transmission fluid as a lubricant. It works amazing my grandpa taught me that when I was about ten years old in 1980. Awesome concept I love this!!

I've used similar methods to make .458 bullets out of .308 cases. The thing i noticed was that it takes a lot more powder to drive them to the same speed as lead bullets with the same weight and seating depth. This is when given the same space for powder in the .458 case. Hence pressure can probably spike if you are close to max loads. The same applies to most solids so it's not new knowledge, but worth mention to new re-loaders. There is probably a good idea to anneal the 5,7 cases after forming to reduce the work hardness of the brass. Should increase performance, reduce barrel wear and lower pressure.

Speer bullets started as a small business selling tools to reform spent 22lr cases into 223 bullet jackets for home reloaders. I’ve also seen 9mm cases formed into 40 S&W bullets and 40 S&W cases formed into 45 acp bullets.

This is how Vernon Speer started back in the day. funny to me how many people "know so much." Well done dude, this is pretty cool.

Using stuff others consider junk in a way that is EFFECTIVE, LOW COST and Unique are the HALLMARKS of a Great Mind. I go to ranges sometimes and pick up brass to reload, I own a Ruger 57 and plan on getting a carbine Rifle to complete the set. I know you are getting hate for doing this because 5.7 x 28mm can be hard to find and EXPENSIVE! Some 5.7 brass cannot be reloaded or are just shot out (you can only reload one or more times before the neck of the brass hardens to the point of failure). I am going to try your BRILLIANT plan with some shootout 5.7. Great Vid you have a new Subscriber!

I enjoy shooters who like to think out of the box. Good video, thanks.

Well done. You'll put meat on the table with those if the Zombie Apocalypse happens and you have lots of 5.7x28mm brass. I used .30 Carbine brass (I had several hundred berdan primed brass) to make .357 projectiles. After prep, I loaded with lead shot and sealed with silicone sealant. A guy saw one of them stuck in the wood after shooting and said that something was wrong with my gun as it shot the entire cartridge out.

I never imagined you'd take my advice. I feel honoured

This is the first time ive seen anything from this channel before. I had to say that the little animation he used to show what steps were being done in the lathe is the most innovative thing ive ever seen on metal or wood working channels. I think most makers assume that you know exactly whats going on and you are following whats being said. Great video. Ive heard of people doing this before and it was nice to see it done for fun. I also heard of people using .22lr brass to form 5.7×28 projectiles for loading. Of course, this was back when only one company was producing the ammo, FN.

And this here is how better ammo is figured out.. experementation like this... You came up with the question, the hypothesis, the experement, and the best answer you could provide while working with the tools you have... IM IMPRESSED!!!!❤❤❤

I love the fact that they are Boattail Softpoint 184 grain rounds. That seems like a lot of 💥FIREPOWER💥

Finally a decent use for 5.7

To straighten up the case mouths, you might try using a universal case deprimeing tool with the decapping pin removed and the expander ball adjusted halfway up. I do this, esp when I tumble garbage range brass . Sometimes, the cases have debris inside, and does you tumbler no favors, putting that gunk through your equipment.. just a thought.

I think I've seen someone making .223 bullets with .22lr brass.

I think its cool when people pick up ammo and do stuff like this with it. idk its just freaking cool

I know some folks that made .458" bullets out of .308Win cases. They would turn the rim off to make a somewhat boattail.

this is so impressive the amount of machining that took

I’d love to see one recovered after firing ! With the primer still there and everything !

Dude, you got some awesome tools/shop! And you're doing something fun and a bit crazy, but you're doing it well and making them right. People contradict each other in the comments about the barrel and tumbling. The rifling in the barrel is meant to stabilize the bullet in flight, which in turn keeps it from tumbling.

Such a novel way to make functional ammunition for your old rifle. As for the brass being hard on the barrel, that brass may have been work hardened by your shaping the head, but that part of the brass isn't in contact with the barrel. IF you are concerned about work hardened brass casings causing damage, you already have what you need to anneal the brass (heat); you could do that, run it through your tumbler to clean off any residue and then they're ready for the lead core... As for shaping the nose of your custom bullets, look into carbide tipped glass and tile drill bits the holes they make look suspiciously bullet shaped 😉

Best gun content on youtube.

I just got into reloading and am thoroughly impressed by your work. You definitely earned my subscription and I'm very excited to continue watching in the future!

Thank you for uploading this been wanting a full video

Further improvement idea: after filling the cases with lead, trim them all to roughly the same length on the lathe (putting an end mill in the lathe jaw and using a tool post jig would likely get the best results).

Bravo my fellow reloaded! 👏 Innovative ideas and experiments is the keystone to knowledge, skills and evolution of new technologies/practices. A projectile/bullet is literally a chunk of material shaped & sized to a specific weight then yeeted out a barrel. It's just sad many in the comments don't understand that or manufacturers sell brass solid rounds or bullets made from everything from foam to hardened steel. Keep up the innovation and have fun doing it!

Thanks for showing the step by step of this, Been curious about this for quite a while now. Definitely going to tinker with this! Thank you!

This was an awesome idea, and I like the thought out an controlled process you used to advance and develop your bullets

Brings back memories of using 40S&W brass to make bullets for the 444 Marlin. It works well enough but is very time consuming.

we need a meat target video Paul Harrell style!

Not only you're a great engineer but also a great creator. Very entertaining, informative and enjoyable. Thank you; just subed.

That's a great setup you have built. An excellent source of information and swaging equipment is Corbin Manufacturing in White City, OR. They have been swaging bullets for decades.

really cool and informative video. First time viewer, and I loved how informative and just interesting this was. Thank you!

I enjoy watching your craftsmanship! Keep up with the interesting videos!

FANTASTIC!!!! It’d be awesome to see recovered ones 🎉

Don't worry about using empty cases for jackets people have been doing it for years. Remington has brass jacketed bullets called golden sabers. People have made 224 bullets out of 22 long rifle cases etc

Really impressed and enjoyed this alot. Nice to see good minds coming together to make something better. I hope this is indicative of your followers and content. Subscription added.

That people concerned about the toll on your rifling kinda surprised me. Even before you mentioned the historical precedent for solid brass and copper alloy bullets, I was aware that the process of filling the cases with molten lead would anneal them and with annealed brass against hardened steel it was evident who would win.

Yes im really waiting for this epic satisfying making bullet from bullet video

That’s pretty cool. Thanks for showing it.

This is thinking outside of the box. Keep going!

Well done!

i've seen people reloading .223 with bullets with jackets out of 5.6LR casings. It's a bit cumbersome but works for shooting-da-cans, if you bother reloading at all. Fly a better than .223 pure lead, comparable with bullets casted of harder lead alloys which may be pricey \ troublesome to compose right in diy environment, so it's somewhat worth it.

Some boattail bullets are shaped a lot like those, instead of straight tapered. They're called Rebated Boattails and David Tubb's high-BC DTAC (David Tubb Advanced Concepts in Ammunition) 6mm 115grain bullet uses it. A rebated boattail bullet obturates faster and more efficiently to the rifle bore. This results in quicker sealing and less gas blow-by. The result is a significant increase in accurate barrel life compared to a diet of conventional boattails. Specifically, the RBT design slows down barrel throat erosion. This erosion results from the "flame-cutting" effect of burning propellant gases, which is intensified by a conventional boattail design. Along with extending the accurate life of a new barrel, this also means that their 115 RBT will perform better in a rifle that's already suffering from throat erosion. During testing with an Oehler 88 at 1000 yards these bullets provided a measured G1 BC of .620! I don't work for David Tubb but have made some purchases from his company and been happy with them.

Anneal the cases next time before you fill with lead to soften the brass for less barrel wear.

This is so cool. It’d be fun to shoot the same load at a handful of ranges, chrono them, and work out a rough BC. Also- for making one-off sizing dies, I keep a couple pieces of 7/8-14 allthread on hand, and just lop off what I need. I hate doing single point threading, so the few extra dollars to Grainger saves me a lot of frustration.

I enjoyed watching you make these rounds,very cool idea and use.

Great video,brilliant idea and I like how you showed all the steps you took to achieve your goal

Good job dude . Excellent thinking outside the box . Always gonna negative Nannie’s telling you that you can’t or shouldn’t. Just keep showing em’ how it’s done . 🎉

Great video!

This was very interesting, you recognized problems, listened to a a lot of input and came up with a pretty darn good projectile. For the hardness of the brass, maybe annealing the case would help, but, as you noted, there are solid brass bullets out there that wouldn't be as malleable as a lead filled case. I am not anywhere close to the set up required to duplicate this, though I do have a .303 British Enfield, and oddly enough, an 8mm Lebel LeBerthier...also some 5.7x28 cases.

Nice work Sir!

I love all the COD experts in firearms and ballistics talking their talk. "Hmmmm..... I wonder what would happen if I made a bullet from a spent casing?" "Hmmm, not as bad as I thought . Imma gonna tweek this crazy train and see whatsup." "Hmmmm.... not a great shot group, barely good *, but the damn thing got off the ground, flew the pattern, and landed....who woulda thought????" * the NORMATIVE circular probability of error at 100 yards for the Mini-14 is 3 [THREE] inches.... using commercial grade ammunition. This as a frame of comparison shows these Frankenrounds would hit a target close enough and do real damage. Many hunters in Africa would pull the bullet from their .303 and seat them BACKWARDS to make a flat nose. Apparently it was was more effective on BIG game.

Nicely done 👏👏👏👏

Thanks for sharing your experiments 😎

Awesome. Love your die you made.

😮 Have to give you credit that was in pretty slick, Thinking I picked up brass at the range before, but no report to put it to years like this. Just natural reloads, pretty cool.

Great video....improvisation is the mother of invention...keep it up!

Cool video, I enjoyed watching it. This sounds like the kind of thing I would try, and have.

So, the reason the driving bands are cut in copper solids and brass solids is because without them there is increased fouling. As solids don't *Squish* as well as lead or jacketed bullets The bands give a place to relive pressure or fouling to deposit verses getting shoved into the barrel. Even with the long bearing length of those projectiles the soft lead cores will allow it to swage easier in the barrel meaning you shouldn't see any ill effects of it. Your barrel life will have no meaningful difference, *Somewhat Off topic rant The biggest thing people need to get around is it's no so much the material, It's the hardness of the material. Steel, copper, brass can all be mixed, annealed, and hardened to a to varying degrees. There's a video out there showing that even some steel case ammo is softer than some brands of brass. Even SIG has used boxer primed copper washed 9mm steel case and no one notices any difference except for some reloaders who refuse to reload it (Google it there are quite a few thread of people making a big deal about it). Showing most of it is a placebo. People bring up OH steel case 9mm is nasty because it doesn't seal. No it's nasty because of the powder. Like my favorite 9mm reload uses titegroup and it is hot and nasty a single load on virgin brass will discolor it and leave a good amount of gunk in the gun however, I can and have, work up the same bullet and virgin brass with N320 and it comes out looking almost new. The same soft steel or even softer is used in the projectiles that are copper washed (Or zinc washed) sometimes, will show the same characteristics as copper jacketed or plated enough to the point there's no noticeable difference in barrel life. Rant over* Outside of the bearing surface, the swaging difference also is a reason why you can't use the same data for copper/brass solids. To the point that even if you compare both weight and similar bearing length of the copper solids to jacketed printed data will be a decent way off to what would be expected. Your brass jacketed pure lead core (Soft) will be fine. (Someone who reloads copper solids for hunting ammo 500mag, 300win)

Super, merci pour la vidéo.

You have some good skills and ideas, maybe consider building some tooling. You can start with a ball end mill and create your shap by regrinding the flutes and re edging them. It's doable. I was a journeyman machinist, i used to build bullet molds grinding all my own tooling. You young man are very talented in the adapt, improvise and over come department. Very well done.

Nice job great idea... keep up the good work.

This guy is doing good work great job

This is the most interesting and useful video I've seen in a month or so! Finlly something to do with all these stupid 5.7 cases. I've collected piles.

I had a pair of old swage dies that set untouched for a couple years and finally I got around to making some bullets using 5.7 cases, I annealed them with a torch and sized the jacket first to .306 and using RCBS bullet pulling collet mounted in a piece of aluminum plate. I used that to trim the cases down with a milling machine to make 125gr bullets for my 300 HAM'R. They were a bit tapered so I sized the bullet down to .3065", I really didn't expect much but I shot a 5 shot 0.77" group at 50 yards, that's 1.47 MOA. Velocity was 2400fps It was much better than what I expected! I didn't remove the rim, the gap was pretty much gone / compressed during point-forming.

Thanks. This was interesting.

Oh this is going to be an interesting one :)

Remember, every time you use a tap for anything other than tapping, a shop foreman explodes

Truly awesome. Finally a good 5.7 round lol! Got to love the clowns who know nothing thinking brass is going to just strip your rifling 😂

I skimmed through the first 15 minutes to understand what he was doing. He turned smaller cartridge brass into jackets, filled them with lead to make bullets and loaded those into higher caliber cartriges.

SPLENDID IDEA MAESTRO

Thank you for sharing, I found this case study (no pun intended) was very interesting.

Very cool!

Great work The most important thing is YOU'RE happy with it. Considering the speed of the process I don't see you wearing your barrel out. For cutting the threads I'm thinking you could have run the die conventionally, the turned it around to ensure the last few threads are cut fully.

I can identify as a slightly nerdy or special person... this video is epic from several points of view. I "reload" and I use 5.7... this is 22lr recycling to an exponent! Awesome.

Brilliant!

Very cool. It's experimenting like this that makes shooting fun. Most monolithic bullets are solid brass and do not noticeably reduce barrel life

another to add to the list, i love seeing what brass can be used to make jacketed bullets. i use 40 S&W and 357 SIG brass for jacketed bullets in my 44 mag

Well done experiment

*You have the right idea. As a marine sniper I always thought bullets should be built more like arrows. I made some .308 slugs out of solid brass that were 2.5" long. I had to remove the bolt in order to load them. The bullet was longer than the powder cartridge but light since it had no lead! The result was amazing! Even at shots over 375 yards the bullet still had 85% of it's muzzle V. and Ft. Lb. energy at 1/4 mile!!! These long bullets carried all their mass in a slender aerodynamic shape so they fly with very flat trajectory. Next I made an Aluminum slug 4" long and results were even better. Same day all sniper bullets will have the shape of small arrows. Just a matter of time now.*

Good job

Cool project and good video showing what you did! I love the nanny naysayers, lol, I’m sure most of them have never reloaded and don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground.

Very cool

This is so cool

I was looking for .312 bullets yesterday for use in a .303 Enfield and a Mosin Nagant. I found 2 or 3 companies selling brass bullets that looked a lot like those in the video.

honestly this is a genius way to make soft point rounds on a budget, next maybe try some .22 LR cases filled with lead and loaded backwards, or something like a .25ACP case could be interesting

this is art

Splendid choice of rifle. I have a Winchester P14, myself.

Brass is used as a mechanical bearing surface all the time because it is naturally more slick than most metals. People don’t understand how hardness actually works. If something is harder than something else it is going cut the softer thing. When a blade dulls cutting wood it is because of it playability making it deform from pressure. This is why you can sharpen a knife with a leather belt you are bring the atoms back into alignment. When you use a sharpener the ceramics are literally more hard than steel and so remove material. Barrel life is diminished because of corrosion and rapid fire heating the steal to a point it is actually softer than the brass. This includes the galvanic corrosion of metals being left in contact being moved around through electromagnetic interactions. May dumping kills barrels, or yes steel casings which are almost as hard as the barrel itself will pose a danger but brass being fired out of a bolt action eight times isn’t going to do anything provided you clean the barrel. People need to pay way more attention to temperature causing condensation or exposing the gun to salts or corrosive chemicals in cheap ammo more than brass. Brass is used in high rpm engines as a solid bearing in crank shafts, it literally slips over steel where a traditional bearing would break because of the lack of surface area.

Very cool. My kind of project.

A. Deprime the cases B.. Machine a spitzer swag and crush the tip to a point (you might need multi stage) C. Lead the back thru the primer pocket (probably be a good idea to drill em out) Yeah would be much more work I suppose...but daggum...that is sweet! I have an old .303 I would LOVE to reload for..such a great idea!

I loved the portal reference