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Who makes their own pellets or slugs?

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corbin is good but expensive. If you but the swaging press then you can buy more dies and even swage power burner bullets. I always found it hard to reach them. like every thing they found people want to take up time and want to ask many questions and balk at the prices. Corbin stuff is better then good. years ago I looked into corbin and then slod pamphlets that taught you how to swage, listed components and prices. Nothing I could afford on my slick sleeve month's pay. now we have pyramyd and trenier for pellets and slugs. buy in bulk I have been shooting for 6 cents a round for .25 pellets. That includes all the charges. .177 is about 3 cent. Your decision
 
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I'd thought about this too, maybe recycling the shot pellets that litter my garage, but looking into it it's the same equation as reloading for powder guns. Cost of the tooling/ time ect vs cost of buying new. Though with powder guns it could be cost effective sooner given the price of ammo these days. How long would it take for the gear to pay for itself? How good would the finished product be? That's whats kept me from "pulling the trigger" on it.
 
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I used to be a half owner of a Corbin press like that. Back then about 13 years ago we couldn't get slugs to work in our FT rifles, the shape of the slug we asked Corbin to make dies for, the diameter, and weights, wasn't working with our barrels and the twist rates in them. To get things working would have been a bunch more trial and error, something I wasn't interested in pursuing for more than just the financial aspect which included buying more expensive dies, punches, and barrels. My friend and I did some trading and I was out of the swaging business. Believe me when I say that getting everything right could cost you thousands of dollars and many many hours of time to get a satisfactory outcome! That being said things are probably more easy to figure out now than back then as far as small caliber slugs in airguns because back then some of the reason for failure were mysterious.

Just the last few months I started swaging again but using the entire system ready to go from my GS/Thomas Rifles and everything all figured out already for one gun - a match barrel with proper twist, swage die, sizer die, slug ejector tool. Then bought an arbor press, lead wire, and boy the outcome is sweet! I couldn't be happier with all of it including the performance of the slugs and corresponding precision of gun and ammo!

I have another friend that owns a Corbin press which he seldom uses to make 44 cal lead bullets for his lever gun, he mentioned selling it last year. I might just buy it from him if he wants to sell it so I can experiment with 6mm slugs. This time around I'm more familiar with barrel twists and proper fit of slug to barrel so....
 
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I bought the GMI die in .25 cal. and wasn't that impressed with it. They work ok but I have had better luck with the ones I made myself. I make the main body on mine out of 1 1/8" diameter hot rolled steel and the shaft out of hardened tool steel. I bought several sizes of reamers. from McMaster Carr to bore the die body as I have several.25 cal. rifles. This way I can make the main body the size that works best for each gun without having to making the whole thing. The internal parts interchange with the different size die bodies as long as they are within a couple of thousandths. I use a hydraulic press from Harbor Freight to swage them and it works out pretty well. I buy lead wire to cut the slugs to swage but I haven't found a good way of cutting them consistently to a certain weight.


 
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I cast using pellets recovered from traps or pure lead from rotometals. It is not too hard to do and I have not had to rely on purchased slugs for a long time. I have not tried casting Diablo pellets however. 


I have had good luck with Arsenal, MP, and NOE molds. I use a pressure-pour ladle that helps fill out the mold nicely. I think it is a great option if you can do it safely. 







 
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I use Corbin swaging equipment exclusively for all of my slugs, all in .1775, and several different nose and base shapes. I originally set out to create a slug that would be suitable for sub 12ftlb WFTF Field Target class, and had some success. Being that the lack of range time due to covid has thwarted this endeavor somewhat, I have had some decent results. AAFTA has ruled for 2022 slugs in Field Target competition are banned, but I'm still going to investigate the viability for their use in the future.

Tom Holland 

Field Target Tech 

Fieldtargettech.com 
 
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Hi there
Any one used the slug mould called lanslug it is made in Indonesia.
IMG-20221115-WA0017.jpg
 
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IMADMAN said:
Google search didn't turn up any hits on this.
I suspect it's similar to the H.M. Hen swage kit, where as exporting it may be an issue.
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Yes the have not official site on net. But I found a Facebook page for them and slot if YouTube videos, yes a good price for swag kit, but I want to ask if the casting mold more cheaper option give an accurate results close to pressed methods. The People used for example lane or Noe one could answer this question
 
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