Hunter,
True, if going from scratch, it is just under $900 for dies and press for one caliber, but you need a press for reloading anyway, plus 458 dies work for 458 Win Mag, 458 Lott and 45-70, and even pistol calibers (with inexpensive sizing dies) 45acp, 45lc, 454 cassul, 460 S&W. Then the 2nd, 3rd and 10th calibers use the same press, so the cost per caliber gets very close to $600. Now add to that the vast array of combinations of bullet weights, jacket thicknesses, tip configurations, bonded/unbonded, partitions, cannelure placement, etc. (many combinations unavailable from any commercial manufacturer) and you start to see the real value. Then there is the ability to make specialty rounds like frangible rounds for home defense or indoor ranges. This is on top of avoiding the supply chain issues and future price inflation. The swaging presses have a much shorter stroke and higher compound leverage than reloading presses, plus much longer levers, so operations like swaging 308 to 458 on a swaging press probably takes less pressure exerted on lever than full length resizing big cartridges in a reloading press. I always give myself a good hourly rate when working for myself, dang near free.
Dewald,
You can easily bond the lead to the core. There is a solution you buy for this purpose. You put a drop of the solution in the jacket, place a pre-sized lead core in the jacket and heat with a torch. The solution acts like a flux to bond the molten lead to the jacket. You then rinse these jacketed cores to remove residual solution, then put them into point form die of your choice. Brass case jackets are about .014 and up. Copper tubing jackets are about .030 and up. You can also use steel cartridge cases (wolf, etc) as jackets for solids inside a copper or brass jacket to protect rifling in bore. Commercial jackets are available in different thicknesess. Jacket making dies for making jackets from sheets of metal are pretty expensive, but can be had and jackets can be almost any thickness.
3.
