I am not a metallurgist, which is pretty much a rocket brain surgeon to me, so I have a question…
(Related post by @JMC_Def Anybody else swaging. )
Seems like there are people who make jacketed bullets using lead filled swaged cases from another calibre… So a couple of questions…
First, would it cause damage to the bore or rifling?
And second question, one would assume that that would be some fouling. While we have copper and lead fouling removal down with all sorts of solvents, how would you clean the bore after brass fouling? And is it even a concern?
Short answer is no damage to the bore, or no more than copper projectiles. Cartridge brass is commonly comprised of a copper alloy a 70-30 mix of copper 70% and zinc 30% (c2600) the zinc helps with corrosion while providing more rigidity to the alloy. Once annealed and in a dead soft state which is in the usual swaging process it comes in at about 25-30 Rockwell hardness and your average barrel is commonly sitting around 32-50 Rockwell obviously a stainless barrel or chrome lined is the later number on the scale.
As for cleaning the bore use your usual process, coppers fouling cleaners will work on the cartridge brass with out a hiccup as both metals are active enough to be lifted with ammonia and non ammonia based modern bore cleaners.
As for speeds I’ve tested 22lr swagged projectile in the 22-250 and tested velocity and the velocity of which the projectiles begin to breakdown, and what I’ve found they have started to breakdown and fail on average between 2900 and 3000 FPS.
On the other hand making 6mm pills from 17hmr have seemingly not failed at all at any velocities I have driven them at.
Lately I’ve also made 9mm and 308 projectiles out of 223 brass which have far surpassed my expectations in velocity and expansion.
Really good to know. I watched a couple of videos and I am very keen to try. Specifically for 45-70 and 45ACP. Because sciencing 
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Sciencing and because 45 pills ain’t cheap either.i might give try the 45 cal thing ago aswell just because! but I don’t have anything to test them out in atm
45 are certainly not cheap. However, I use powder coated cast, which are cheaper than DIY swaged. Never the less, it sounds awesome and I want to make a few, just because… Seems like a cool skill.
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Why not I feel lot of rainy days at home ahead(COVID) for working on these things. How’s the powder coated bullets go in big bore? just for interest sake, do the run as clean as the rest of the cal’s do?
Pretty clean. Some leading is unavoidable, but knowing what REAL leading looks like, they run very clean. If nothing else, just very fine lead dust that comes out on the patch. Trick is to shoot some jacketed projectiles at the end of a shoot and that will blow all the lead out. But yes, run very clean in all my big and big-ish bore funs.
Awesome to know jacketed bullets help clean things up a little, I’ve made the switch to powder coated bullets in my 25-20 lately and They are performing great
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Hi, what kind of accuracy do you get at 100m? I like the look of the long case neck, should be an ideal candidate for cast bullets!
Good little cartridge with cast bullets mate, I’m shooting from a lever action with open sights and I can still manage 2- 2 1/2 at a 100 on a good day
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