Wanted: .185" Pure Lead Wire

OBIII

New Member
Hi,
Looking to see if anyone has a few feet of .185" pure lead wire they would be willing to part with. Buy or trade.
Let me know.
OB
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
OB I think it's Z-Bench [John airc] on the other site has the capability to make that diameter and is a V.S.
there.
I use a RCE adjustable core mold and swage to weight, it makes cores in the 185-6 diameter range.
I think I have a bunch in the 50-55 range kicking around the garage [I'd have to weigh some to make sure]
 

OBIII

New Member
Hi,
I appreciate the response. I've done a lot of business with Z-Bench over the years, but he is currently offering 60#,
which is way more than I want. I have a swaging setup and am interested in making cores 65 gr and up, Thanks for the offer though.
OB
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
if nothing else turns up I can see if the mold goes that big, I have never tried it.

I remember a few guys buying a little wire making tool LaFaun used to make over there also, it poked out about a 6" chunk from a 44 lead bullet I think R.P. the moderator bought one.
 

KeithB

Resident Half Fast Machinist
Just curious - is .185" diameter lead wire a standard size for swaging bullets? I understand the swaging process but know very little about the actual tools and materials used.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
it's for 22 cal bullets.
it can also be used for 243 and some 257 depending on their jacket thickness.
I had a chart that showed which wire went with what calibers but can't find it now.

the easiest way to think about it is jackets are only so thick/long and have X amount of internal volume.
a .185 wire that weighed say 115grs would be about 2" long.
a 30 cal jacket for a 150-155 gr bullet is only .925 long, they take a core that is about .250 thick and around .850 long.
this gives you a jacket weight of about 35-40 grains [depending on thickness] and a core weight of 115 grs. so the bullet comes out at 150-155 grs.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Swaging is a rabbit hole I steer well clear of.
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
I could have literally bought a half a truck load of components for the little bit of swaging stuff I have.
it's nice to have though and it really let's you get a good insight into how factory jacketed bullets work or don't work since you can mimic some of them and improve on them based on what performance you want, the neat thing is you can measure and modify everything before and after.
you get that extra little bit of satisfaction when hunting, or just shooting a nice tidy group with them, just like using a cast bullet too.

the 25" [mule deer] Buck I shot this year was with my own home made bullet.
I had modified it from mimicking a sierra pro hunter into something with a slightly harder core and I Bonded the core to the jacket.
this gave me about 3' of penetration before exiting and a deer that took 4-5 steps before back peddling and going down like a frat boy trying to make it up the second flight of stairs on a Saturday night.