Corbin Swage Dies and Presses, David or Richard?

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Ezana4CE

Ezana4CE

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Jan 15, 2021
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Let me preface this post by saying I am totally green to swaging. I have zero experience. My only exposure is via YouTube videos, AGN posts, and reading information posted on the internet. With that said, I have come across a couple of names concerning swaging slugs. The one I have encountered more frequently than others is Corbin. So I looked at some videos of people using Corbin presses and dies (the blue label Corbin presses). The process looks relatively simple and the slugs look great. Compared to slugs I’ve purchased they look pretty similar. 


Upon further reading I learned of David Corbin and it appears that NSA uses his dies. That’s a plus. I have barrels that like some NSA slugs. The cost of setting up a Corbin swage system is pretty hefty for a hobbyist such as myself, so maybe it’s something to consider in the future (see CSP1 press here http://www.swagedies.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=CBST&Product_Code=CSP-1&Category_Code=Airgun). However, my curiosity led me to continue reading and I came across an RCE press. Never heard of the company so I go to the site and check out their equipment. The site says their presses only work with their dies (more info here. see Walnut Hill 2 press https://www.rceco.com/catalog/) Then I find out this the “RC” stands for Richard Corbin. Next I start looking around for people on various forums to see if they use any components from either Corbin company with components from the other (i.e. David Corbin dies with Richard Corbin presses). It appears that a few people have made some sort of adapters to accommodate the equipment. In all of my reading I haven’t seen Richard Corbin’s equipment come up much in my reading. 

I’d like to know if any members that are into swaging airgun slugs use any of Richard Corbin’s equipment? If so, how do you like the dies and projectiles they produce? What’s the quality of his presses and dies? It seems to me that David and Richard are related and I don’t care to get into the details of any personal differences they may have or have had. I’m only interested in information concerning their products, particularly Richard’s. Thanks in advance for your input.

edit typo
 
I just received mine and set it up last night it is fantastic. FYI Dave is very upfront on delivery times I paid last March and just got it we spoke twice during that time I’m totally happy with it. I only have .22 rifles so I ordered 22 HP dish and I referenced the NSA and that is what he made me. I’m just starting out last night I checked what range of weights I can make and I did 100 slugs pretty quick I only tried going up to about 38 grains and there is a limit as the heavier the slug the longer they’d get again I was aware of this going in tonight Ill make more and a batch of 25.5 grain slugs and then test them in my Red Wolf, SK and Maverick. All three rifles do well with NSA slugs already. Forgot to mention I made 100 22.5 slugs last night and the weight variation was negligible at best so I’m making batches of different weights to test at the range next week!

The quality is excellent all hand made and machined no cast parts While its not cheap it is a lifetime piece of equipment it can also be used for powder ammo with the correct dies you’ll never have to buy another. There’s a learning curve but the info is all there. I’m semi retired and enjoy target shooting and slugs do fine by me and it will be nice to not chase the market anymore and I’m not worried about return of my investment although my son and grandson are shooting too so I could break even someday or they with inherit and real nice Airgun set up, that’s what dads do lol

Hope that helps

Mark
 
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Dave Corbin is one of most respected men in the buisness , he has designed all his equipment and has decades of experience with ultra long range slug making and his equiptment is flawless , I think the other man is his brother ? If my mind is working properly he owns walnut creek or some name like this , Mr corbin has gotten into pcp slugs for a long time now and has perfected things , and alot of slugs you buy are using his tooling ,

Their is not many choices in USA for swaging equipment the only drawback with Corbin is , it can take a long time to get things if it is not in stock , when I first ordered a press and tooling I was looking in mail in a week lol when I called and he explained how it used to be years to get his stuff custom made and he streamlined buisness to have it get her quick , I am used to ordering and it is here in a week not there lol , you need to be patient and also you can rush orders if you want to pay his machinists overtime pay this is how it works and it will work .

at one time when I didnt want to wait for something he suggested his brother would be quicker to get things , so this must be him , Mr Corbin is a nice man and nothing goes out the door unless it is perfect . dies will last 1 million or more slugs if not misused .the main thing is be certain of what you order or pick his brain , He will run threw process of how to measure your barrel for best size slug and go threw different noses and punches ,

LOU
 
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My understanding is Richard is not longer making dies but contacting him cannot hurt. Keep in mind Dave Corbin is the standard so if you buy from Richard make sure it is 100% compatible with anything from Dave. So in the future if you want other dies, etc and finding things in Ebay or somewhere that your tooling from Richard will work with Dave's because that is what the majority of what you find will be - Dave's.
 
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My understanding is Richard is not longer making dies but contacting him cannot hurt. Keep in mind Dave Corbin is the standard so if you buy from Richard make sure it is 100% compatible with anything from Dave. So in the future if you want other dies, etc and finding things in Ebay or somewhere that your tooling from Richard will work with Dave's because that is what the majority of what you find will be - Dave's.
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Thank you. That was my understanding as well. I am trying to find out if any AGN members are using products from both Corbin systems interchangeably. If so, I’d like to know how it works for them and what sort of issues they may have encountered. I was told that Richard’s equipment is not 100% compatible with Dave’s. Some sort of alteration is required in order to use them interchangeably. 
 
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I have the Corbin H-Press. I got it back in the 1990s to swage bullets for blackpowder and centerfire rifle ammunition. So there is no problem with getting swaging dies for various calibers.

When it comes to materials and equipment over the long run, you will save money by swaging your own projectiles. I say that with one caveat.

Ask yourself, how much your time is worth. Be honest with yourself. Do you want to spend the time shooting or swaging?

I have a lot of experience swaging large projectiles and it is very time consuming. I still prefer to swage the projectiles over casting. I've also discovered that buying lead wire saves a lot of labor over casting cores for the end product.

I use to cast the cores with whatever lead that I could find; thinking that I could get just as good as accuracy as with the lead wire cores. I was wrong.

I don't want to go down a rabbit hole on manufacturing techniques for making airgun projectiles but bring the subject of cast versus wire cores to point out the time that I wasted with the experimentation along with powder and primers expended.

This is an airgun forum so I'll get back on track. I could buy the dies for making my own .22 caliber slugs and save a lot of money over what I'm paying for the Nielsen slugs that I'm buying and enjoy shooting. 

Like I said, I could save a lot of money with ONE exception. I won't save or redeem any of my time. Nick at Nielsen Specialty Ammo has saved me the time and energy I would spend in testing my own creations. They've done the research and manufacturing for me. So all I have to do is shoot the darn things!

Some of you might be saying that you have all the time in the world and the journey is part of the enjoyment to shooting airguns. That's fine. However let me ponder some questions to you.

Let's say you want to shoot big bore air rifles. I can recommend Corbin products without hesitation. IMHO they are second to none for swaging equipment on a personal level. If you are going to make your own, please go to Corbin Swaging.

I already have the press but still need dies for the .45 caliber projectile. Dave or Richard might tell you the same thing. You can swage the .45 caliber slugs with their smaller presses but it's going to be a LOT of work. I know from experience that you will need their larger CSP-2 Mega-Mite Press (hand press). If you have the money the hydraulic press costs $9850. The CSP-2 costs $1398 before shipping and the dies and lube that you will need. Let's round that figure up to $2000, adding the dies, lube and shipping costs. That press is HUGE and weighs a lot.

The most expensive Nielsen slug for .45 caliber is the 348 grain knurled offering. For a box of 50 it costs $31.99 before shipping. Nick charges a flat rate of $7.00 regardless of the amount of slugs that your purchase.

Now before I go any further let me ask you this question and be honest. If you were going to invest in the equipment and materials to swage and knurl slugs like I've mentioned, how much would YOU charge me if I wanted to buy them from you? Take a few minutes to honestly answer then when you come up with the price, tell me if it's worth your time.

For the $2000 that you would invest in the equipment alone you could buy 62 boxes of 50 slugs for the .45 caliber knurled slug. That comes out to about 64 cents per round for 62 boxes holding a total of 3,100 slugs.

By now you're saying that you would not be buying that many slugs at one time. Okay so look at this another way.

It might cost you about $80-90 for a 25 pound spool of 3/8" lead wire to cut and swage for the 348 grain projectile. There is a certain amount of waste with lead that will be extruded during the swaging process. So I'll skip the math and tell you that you might get about 470 slugs out of that 25 pound spool.

Don't forget that you would have to invest the aforementioned $2000 for the equipment. Are you beginning to get the idea? How many slugs are you going to have to swage before your investment in the swaging press pays off?

Sure that 25 pound spool is only going to cost $80-90. You could buy 9 boxes of 50 slugs for a total order of 450 rounds. Add the $7.00 for shipping and the cost per round comes out to less than 65 cents per shot. 

So IF you were going to sell me your home-made slugs how much would YOU charge me per round? Oh, I almost forgot, I only want about 100 rounds as I will need to test fire my gun to see if your slugs are any good. Off the top of my head, I would say that without the equipment set-up it would take about 5-8 minutes per round to completely cut the wire, swage the core and knurl the slug. I lean toward the longest time of 8 minutes for 100 rounds. That's going to take 80 minutes without the time accounted for equipment set-up. 

Let's say you're making a pretty good salary of $120,000 per year. That's less than $58 per hour for a 40 hour week. So for the 80 minutes it took you to make those slugs you might want paid $77.00. That comes to 77 cents per round. Why would I buy the slugs from you when Nielsen has a better price?

I'm not saying any of this to bash Corbin. I will probably be buying another set of dies from them soon. I swage my bullets for the powder burners because I cannot find them anywhere else. However, I think I'll go to someone like Nielsen, for airgun slugs, because they've done the work for me and I can spend the time shooting rather than swaging.
 
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The other advantage of swagging your own is you can make precisely the weight you want. You can go up or down 0.1g and tune the slug for your gun. 
You can also make thinner edged hollow points that the bigger manufacturers don’t like because they can be damaged easily when packed and in transit. 
You can use pure soft lead that has better expansion characteristics. I’m pretty sure nsa is no longer pure lead as it doesn’t work as well in the automated machines. 



 
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