THANK YOU for your inquiry!
==================================

Answers to commonly asked questions follow, but if you need
more information, here are some sources:

You can order securely with your credit card (Visa or MC) at
our secure shopping cart, which is available by clicking the
large padlock image on most of our web pages, at the top
navigation box, or on the main menu where it is clearly 
labeled "secure shopping cart" or "on-line web store". You can
browse this server database without buying, of course. 

The on-line shopping cart gives you a thumbnail view of products 
and a brief description, so you can get a quick over-view of 
products available in different categories (click the category 
at the left side of the page, to view the products listed under 
that grouping, once you have logged into the web store). 

No questions are asked until you are ready to check out, and 
you can quit any time and go back to the website without buying 
anything. You can send e-mail to clarify or specify details for 
the order, such as shapes and calibers for a given die set. 
We will contact you by e-mail if there is any question about 
what you intended.

For a complete price list and color folder, send $1 to Corbin 
at PO Box 2659, White City, OR 97503, and ask for the InfoPak.
You can also download our price list/catalog in any of these
formats from our web site, right now:

http://www.Corbins.com/prices.htm  (html format)
 
http://www.swage.com/prices.pdf  (Acrobat PDF format)
 
http://www.Corbins.com/prices.txt  (ASCII text format)

The InfoPak is a set of documents that serves as our "catalog".
It includes price list, color product brochure, and a guide to the
selection of the proper tools, as well as any special flyers or new
product information. All the information included in this $1 package
is available FREE, on-line, with additional color illustrations,
drawings, and instruction. Shipment out of the USA is $3.

If you want to learn more about swaging, you can follow the link to
megabytes of information on our web site at...

http://www.Corbins.com
or 
http://www.BulletSwage.com

You'll find pictures and prices for the five models of Corbin bullet
swage presses, from the CSP-1 S-Press to the world's   
most versatile and powerful swaging, wire extrusion, jacket making, and 
reloading presses, the Hydro-Press and the Hydro Junior. 

Dies for swaging bullets on your existing reloading
press (type -R dies), dies for use in the S-Press or discontinued 
Corbin presses from the past 30 years (-M), or dies for the
S-Press (-S) or the large hand and power presses (-H) are fully
described with prices.

The most commonly asked questions about bullet swaging are answered on
our web site. If you would like detailed information -- a complete
course in the art of bullet swaging -- you can send for our 7-book
library of swaging (Cat.No. BP-7) which saves you more than $20 over 
buying the individual books. This set covers the basics,
most common questions, descriptions of all kinds of bullets and how to
make them, commercial aspects of custom bullet making, power presses,
hand presses, jacket making and exotic designs, survival and scrap
material conversion into bullets, and so much more! 

If you are interested in a quick study of swaging, just to find out if
it would be worth your while to look any further, you might want to get
the Corbin Handbook of Bullet Swaging, No. 8, which is $9.50 (plus
$4.00 S&H). (This is included in the book package). 

Corbin also published several books on CD-ROM, which are very handy for
browsing, locating the appropriate section by key word or phrase. The
e-Books are much easier and faster to update, so they will usually have
more current info and the latest products compared to printed versions.
And best of all, they all cost about the same to produce and stock, so
you can save money over the cost of certain printed versions. 

You can also download a digital text-only format of this book at
www.Swage.com. There are many other documents, folders, price lists, 
MSDS forms, and much more available free, on-line, at this site.

We're making every effort to provide you with free information without
the high cost and time delay of the postal system. If you would like
to have information delivered by the postal system, it is available 
for a small postage and handling cost re-imbursement. 

The Corbin Handbook of Bullet Swaging (No 9 on CD-ROM, or No 8 in 
print format) gives you an overview of swaging, tips and techniques 
for making many kinds of bullets from black powder paper patch to 
rebated boattail ultra-low drag machine gun projectiles,
airgun pellets to shot-filled fragmenters, jacketed, lead, solid
copper...all kinds of bullets you've heard about and others no one
outside of the R&D at Corbin has heard about! A whole section is
devoted to secrets of the industry, most of which have not been
previously aired in public, but which may shed a great deal of light on
subjects that will keep you from spending unnecessary money to support
myths and fictions about some of the components and tools you now
purchase.

Since precision is an inherent part of bullet swaging, a chapter is
devoted to explaining a major myth about measuring instruments,
including digital mikes, and the practical limits of precision (what
matters, what doesn't, and why instrument makers are misleading
general public buyers by implying far more than you get in many kinds
of measuring tools). Experiments with the bullet weight variations, and
how much really matters, as well as the source of variations and how
the cause is more important in some cases than the variation itself, is
spelled out. You can use this info rmation even if you never swage a
bullet! It will affect your purchases and your thinking...for the
better!

Because of the thousands of letters and messages received asking
virtually the same things, we've written the answers in detail with
pictures and drawings to make them more clear. Just a brief touch on
some of the major queries follows:

Q. Can Corbin equipment swage hard lead bullets?

A. Yes, even solid copper -- using the right press and dies. Corbin
builds swaging equipment to fit certain groups of capability. Hard lead
is best swaged with our type -S or type -H dies in the S-Press hand
press, Mega-Mite hand press, Mega-Mite Hydraulic press, or Hydro-press.
Solid copper is can be swaged if certain techniques are used. These
are described on our web site and in the literature that comes with
the tooling.  Wheel weight alloys are usable up to Bhn 10-12 in most
shapes, in the -S and -H dies. Type -R and -M dies are limited to 
pure soft lead with or without jackets. Some kinds bullets are difficult
to form using alloys (round balls are best with pure lead) because of
the resistance to flow under pressure. 

Certain shapes are easier to form from alloyed lead than others: 
for instance, a long pointed spitzer will form with more difficulty 
than a round nose bullet as the lead is made harder. Complex finned 
shotgun slugs may be very difficult to form with hard alloys. 

Fortunately, soft lead usually is the best for
both performance and manufacturing considerations, once the idea of using
jackets and coatings to eliminate leading and control expansion is fully
realized. 

Q. What are the caliber limits?

A. There are none, provided you select the appropriate family of dies
(and the press into which they fit). We make five families of dies.

The type -R dies fit into an ordinary slotted ram reloading press, but
because reloading presses are rather weak and fragile compared to a
Corbin steel alloy roller-bearing swage press with hardened and ground
ram, and because of the lack of precision alignment, ram bearing
guides, automatic ejection, floating punch alignment, and high powered
short stroke (all of which are present in Corbin presses), there are
limits to what you can do with a reloading press. Soft lead can be used
with jackets allowed from .357 down in diameter, up to 50 caliber with
soft lead only (paper patch type bullet or hollow base bullet), length
of bullet generally not exceeding 1 inch...available shapes and styles
are limited.

The most popular system is our CSP-1 (S-press) and type -M or
-S dies (both fit this press). The -M dies handle any caliber from .14
to .458 with soft lead cores, length up to 1.2 inches OAL. The -S dies
handle the same caliber with slightly more length but can use up to Bhn
10-12 depending on the shape and diameter of bullet. The type -H dies
that fit our MegaMite hand or hydraulic versions, or the CHP-1
Hydro-press, can handle anything from .224 to 20mm - even certain huge
projectiles like the 4-bore (short and fat) that approach 1-inch cannon
shell size.  

Q. Where do I get materials like lead and jackets?

A. You can get everything you need from Corbin, and there are hundreds
of suppliers for raw material such as lead and copper. Lead for the
cores can be cast from scrap material, extruded into wire using our
extruder dies in the hydraulic presses, or purchased in spools and
simply cut to length with a core cutter. Corbin makes both core moulds
and core cutters. The moulds use scrap or ingots, the cutters use
extruded lead wire. You can make the wire, or buy it. Corbin has all
the equipment to handle the production at whatever level you wish.

Jackets can be purchased in bags of 250 or 500, ready made, in some
cases. Some more exotic or unusual calibers you need to make yourself.
We furnish kits to make jackets from fired 22 cases, shotgun primers,
copper tubing, copper strip, and even solid copper rod. You can also
use our BaseGuard disks to eliminate the need for both hard lead and
lubricant or jackets in many instances (up to 1400 fps). And of course
you can make any kind or style of bullet you can imagine.

Corbin publishes the World Directory of Custom Bullet Makers, which
also lists 200 sources of lead and 200 sources of copper jacket
material, including tubing and strip. The book, Cat.No. WD-1, is 
available directly from Corbin. It is also available as an e-Book,
on CD-ROM. It is not included in the 7-book library, which
includes all the other books in print about bullet swaging.


Q. Can I make as good a bullet as I can buy?

A. If you make the only the SAME quality as mass produced bullets, you
are doing something wrong! 

The swaging equipment Corbin provides is identical to that used by
Olympic champions, International Shooting champions, defense and
security forces world wi de, the military R&D labs... in other words,
this is the most precise way known to make good bullets. It is capable
of vastly superior bullets to mass produced slugs, because every
single one is hand made by you, and you can inspect and adjust every
component that goes into the bullet, matching the length, weight and
diameter precisely to get the best results from your particular gun.

You don't have to compromise because of market pressure or the lowest
common denominator among buyers or even price of parts: if another
penny put toward better material gives you what you want, there is no
marketing department to tell you NO! You don't have to compete with
any other company for market share: you just have to please yourself.
If you want to try a different shape or weight or nose style or
construction, no one can stop you. And who knows? -may be it works
better than the common design sold to the average shooter on the mass
market! Over 350 custom bullet businesses using Corbin equipment have
found this to be true -- and are selling the results!

Q. How much does it cost to make a bullet?

A. From zero cents to thirty cents, in rough terms: depends entirely on
the material needed to make it. You can make free .224 and .243
bullets using fired .22 cases and scrap le ad that you pick up from the
range. You can make free 25 acp bullets from fired shotgun primer cups.

A typical benchrest quality bullet made with the best commercial jacket
available would cost about seven cents. A bonded core, partitioned,
rebated-boattail heavy-wall ultra-low drag .475 bullet might cost you
as much as twenty cents in materials, if you bought them all in small
quantity (copper tubing and lead wire, for instance). But to buy that
same bullet, you'd pay over $1.50 from one of the custom bullet firms
-- and chances are, you'd be making something they didn't even offer,
at any price! If you make a lead bullet, it costs no more than a cast
lead bullet. But it is usually 100 times more round and precise, 10
times more consistent in weight than the best cast bullets.

Q. Why is swaging more accurate than casting?

A. Split moulds open up and expose their 450+ degree interior surface
to room temperature air on every cast, which has to distort and warp
the hole slightly. They clang shut and cause slight misalignment as
there needs to be some tolerance in the pivots, and wear takes place
from the first time you use the mould. The split design of a mould
insures that you will always have some degree of wear, misalignment,
and out-of-roundness as a result of both temperature variation and
mechanical mis-alignment.

THE SWAGE DIE IS A DIAMOND-LAPPED CAVITY IN A SOLID CYLINDER: IT HAS NO
"HALVES" TO MISALIGN. SWAGED BULLETS ARE INHERENTLY MORE ROUND.

The mould temperature must vary from molten lead to solid lead on every
cast (or you'd pour out the bullet in liquid form!), which means the
size of the mould cavity constantly changes with temperature.

THE SWAGE DIE RUNS AT ROOM TEMPERATURE, NO HEAT APPLIED: IT STAYS AT A
CONSTANT DIAMETER. SWAGED BULLET ARE INHERENTLY CLOSER TO EACH OTHER IN
DIAMETER.

The cast bullet is compressed only by its own weight (one atmosphere of
pressure), which can leave voids and pits and air pockets inside.

THE SWAGED BULLET IS FORMED BY COLD-FLOWING LEAD WITH 2,000 OR MORE
ATMOSPHERES OF PRESSURE. AIR POCKETS AND VOIDS ARE ELIMINATED. THE
SWAGED BULLET IS INHERENTLY BETTER BALANCED.

The cast bullet can vary from one to another due to slight differences
in alloy because the lead, tin, and antimony can separate slightly as
you continue to mix and cast, resulting in different weights, diameters
and densities of bullets from one to the next.

WITH SWAGING, ONE BULLET IS PRECISELY LIKE THE NEXT. THERE IS NO CHANGE
IN ALLOY SINCE ALLOYS ARE NOT REQUIRED TO MAKE NON-FOULING SWAGED
BULLETS USING JACKETS, BASE-GUARDS, or GAS CHECKS. ALLOYS CAN BE USED
BUT THEY ARE FORMED COLD SO THEY CANNOT SEPARATE.  SWAGED BULLETS ARE
INHERENTLY MORE CONSISTENT IN WEIGHT AND HARDNESS.

These are just a few reasons. There is a book full of other reasons:
The Corbin Handbook of Bullet Swaging ($9.50) will explain in detail
precisely why swaging produces better bullets than casting. Virtually
every factory bullet is swaged. Virtually every benchrest winner uses
swaged bullets. (There can always be an exception: try to find it! Then
try to repeat it yourself! With swaging, you can make the same bullet
anyone else can make, or you can make better ones!)

Q. How do you put a jacket on a bullet?

A. You don't. You expand a jacket by putting an undersized lead core
into it, and then compressing the lead with a punch, so it flows like a
thick liquid. The lead transfers high pressure to the jacket from the
inside, and pushes the jacket into precise conformity with the inside
surface of a diamond-lapped die cavity. You actually MAKE the bullet
at that instant, you don't make a bullet out of lead and slip a jacket
over it! That is why the lead wire is always so much smaller than the
caliber (except for lead bullets). It has to fit inside the jacket, so
it must be at least twice the jacket wall thickness smaller than the
jacket diameter, which itself is always a few thousands smaller than
the caliber you will create. The die itself determines the bullet
diameter.

The pressure of pushing the lead core outward to fill and expand the
jacket, like a balloon skin, is what makes swaged jacketed bullets so
precise: the core cannot slip and turn inside the jacket because of
the tremendous gripping pressure of the jacket as it trys to spring
slightly back to original diameter.

When you draw down an existing bullet to smaller size, you can only
reduce it about .005 inches before the spring-back defeats you by
attempting to go the other direction (larger) when pressure is
released. This releases the grip on the core and lets the core fail to
spin with the jacket when rifling is engaged, resulting in poor
stabilization and poor accuracy. Swaging, which works by expanding the
diameter, tightens the grip of core and jacket. Drawing down makes the
jacket loose if it exceeds the elasticity of the jacket (.005-inches is
a good approximation for most jackets).

Q. Can I use my reloading press for swaging?

A. Yes, Corbin makes the Pro-Swage dies and other type -R dies for the
reloading press. Some weights, shapes, and calibers or styles are not
available for a reloading press. Most paper-patched or pistol bullets
with SWC shoulder (and almost any nose shape) can be made with the
Pro-Swage dies in your sturdy slotted ram 7/8-14 threaded reloader
(like an RCBS Rochchucker or Pacific MultiPower). 

Your material is limited to powder metals, pure soft lead, or 
jacketed soft lead bullets...pressure limits of the unhardened soft 
steel and iron parts in reloading presses, as well as the necessary die 
diameters, limit the pressure you can apply safely. Even the largest 
reloading press is less than 1/4 as strong as the smallest Corbin swage press 
and delivers only 50% of the power.

To find out which bullets are suitable for reloading presses, read the
Corbin Handbook of Swaging. It will explain in detail what kind of
bullets can be made without using an actual bullet swaging press (which
is far more precise, fast and powerful than any reloading regardless of
size, since a reloader needs 4 inch travel and a swage press can cut
that in half to 2 inches, doubling the power automatically with the
same lever system). There are four other main features of swaging
presses that make them better choices than reloading presses, plus the
fact that most swaging dies are designed to work in a swaging press
ram, not a reloading press head, so gravity works with you instead of
fighting you (as it would in the reloading press).

Q. Where can I get jackets and lead wire?

A. Corbin provides everything for bullet making, including supplies and
equipment. We help set up complete businesses and provide supplies for
them. But there are alternative sources as well. We publish many of them
in the World Directory of Custom Bullet Makers.

Q. Can I use scrap lead?

A. Yes, we make the CM-4 core mould for .185 to .365 diameter cores, and
the CM-3 Magnum mould can make up to .5 inch cores (usually .390 or .430)
for large lead bullets or big bore jacketed bullets. Remember that the 
core diameter is always smaller than the jacket ID, so you have to
subtract twice the jacket wall thickness and allow a few thousandths
in addition for easy filling. 

Q. Can I melt lead into jackets?

A. That doesn't really work. The lead shrinks away from the jacket and 
leaves a loose core, and the jacket spins separate from the core. The
amount of lead you pour varies too much, also. It is far better to 
make the cores and then swage them to exact diameter and weight in a
core swage die, insert them into the jacket in a core seating die, 
and form the ogive in a point forming die (3 steps for any flat base
or cup base bullet). You can melt the lead with Core Bond in the
jacket, and then swage it after it has cooled, to expand the jacket
to the correct diameter. Jackets are made undersized, so they can be 
easily pushed into the swage dies, and they are expanded from internal
pressure applied to the lead. Therefore, even with bonded cores, you 
need to "seat" the cores to expand the jacket.

Q. Can I make bonded core bullets?

A. Yes, you sure can. Corbin pioneered the difussion bonding process
as opposed to soldering, and has supplied major manufacturers with this
technology for over 25 years! Nearly every custom bullet maker today
uses Corbin Core Bond as the heart of their high performance, high
retained weight bullets.  It is clean, quick, and makes a deep bond
that adds no additional weight to the bullet (unlike trying to add
solder, which only provides surface adhesion). 

Q. What do I need for bonded cores?

A. Just a standard propane torch, and Corbin Core Bond CCB-2 or CCB-16.
You swage the cores to weight and size as usual, drop them in the 
clean jackets, put in 1 or 2 drops of Core Bond, and then melt the
lead in a few seconds with the propane torch played on the jackets.
Let them cool, and they are ready! A very handy accessory is the 
Corbin BL-KIT ceramic heat treatment blocks, which you can use to 
hold the jackets upright during the process and also reflect a large
amount of heat that would otherwise be wasted, speeding up the
bonding process. There are safety precautions to follow:

1. Wear protective eyewear, as the flux is corrosive.

2. Make sure there is a loose .002-.005 inch gap fit between the
core and the jacket, or else the core might be blown out from the
vapor, and it won't be bonded if the flux can't get between it and
the jacket. Do not force fit the cores into a jacket! Heating the
assembly can blow the cores out at high velocity and splatter flux
on you. The core must fit to the bottom of the jacket and fall out
of its own weight.

3. Apply the heat quickly so that the flux is vaporized while the
lead is turning to liquid. When the lead melts, remove the heat.

4. Check the bonding by looking at the top of the lead core: if it
forms a small "sink-hole" in the middle, and if the sides of the
lead flow up the jacket wall, then it is bonded. If there is a 
dome in the middle of the lead and the sides go down, then it is
not bonded.

5. Make sure the jacket and the lead are clean. Use a solvent to
remove all traces of grease and oil. 

6. Naturally, wait until the jackets are cool before handling them.

7. Dump the jackets into a container of boiling water and boil
them for 2-3 minutes minimum, to remove all traces of flux. Add a
teaspoon of baking soda to the water to neutralize any flux that
remains. Spread the hot jackets on a towel so they can dry from
their own heat. 

8. Seat the core after you bond it and clean it (not before!).

9. Use a Hollow Point core seating punch to move the uneven
sink hole in the core to precise center, even if you do not want
to make a hollow point bullet. Later you can point up the bullet
and close this hollow point if you wish, but it is necessary to
center the natural shrinkage gap that occurs when a true bond
takes place (lead can't pull away from jacket, so it has to
pull away from the middle if it is really bonded).


Q. HOW CAN I MAKE A LEAD TIP, BONDED CORE BULLET?

A. The bonded core has to be down inside the jacket so it won't
bubble over the top and run down the outside, ruining the
jacket. The lead tip can't be bonded (nothing to bond it to, 
obviously...the lead projects beyond the jacket).

Therefore, you can make two separate cores, one bonded and
inside the jacket, and a second short core that sits on top of
the bonded core, to form the lead tip. Make sure that the lead
tip core is long enough to fit down well within the jacket, so
it can't possibly fall out or wobble around. It is usually best
to seat the bonded core first, then put the lead tip core on
top and seat it with a different punch.

Q. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A RBT AND A REGULAR BT BULLET?

A. A Rebated Boattail or RBT gives you about 15% better accuracy
due to the way it handles the muzzle blast gasses. A regular BT
or boattail bullet has a smooth angled base, and this tends to
direct the muzzle gas around the bullet just like the nozzle 
of a water hose. The gas breaks up in a ball, right in front of
the conventional boattail, and you shoot through this turbulent
gas. With either a flat base, or with a RBT base, the angled
junction of the shank and the base or rebated shoulder breaks
up the gas flow and causes it to deflect in a ring, leaving you
clear space in front of the bullet.  Thus, scientific testing
has proven that you gain about 15% in decreased dispersion of
the group compared to identical tests with a standard boattail.
Corbin only makes the RBT design, for this and several other
reasons, all of which favor the RBT (barrel life, die life, 
consistency of bullet forming).

Q. HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET CORBIN DIES?

A. Depends on three things.  Do we have it on the shelf when
you order?  If so, it takes a day or two to process and that
is all. If we don't have exactly what you need on hand, then
is anything like your order already pending in our backlog?
If so, we can usually group pending jobs together and finish
those which are similar at the same time. Finally, delivery
depends on the type and number of pending jobs. If an item 
is not on the shelf, and is not similar enough to anything
else in the order queue, then it may be several months before
we can work through all the pending jobs and reach yours.

But, we begin working on your job immediately in any case!
From the moment your order is entered, it is being moved along
because there is a lot of scheduling, material allocation,
machine time, and standard components to make. Drawings and
job assignments for various components of the order are made
and records are produced to track the progress. 

In fact, there is nearly as much work done BEFORE any metal
is cut as afterward. The calculations, dimension checking,
drawings of each component with all their dimensions and
tolerances, assignments for various machines and die-makers,
material allocation and order co-ordination for special die
steels, scheduling use of heat treatment ovens, honing and
diamond lapping, and a myriad of other related planning, can
consume as many or more manhours as the actual making of the
die. All of this begins as soon as we receive your order,
even if it could be many weeks before the die is tested and
ready to ship. (So if someone asks "Have you started my
order yet?" the answer is almost always going to be yes.)


As we make other, unrelated orders, there are often certain 
components that will also be required for yours (punch blanks, die
blanks, parts of other equipment). These usually made for
any other pending jobs at the same time, while a certain
machine is set up. Your "parts bin" is slowly filled with
various items that will be required later, so that we don't
just "start working" on your order at some future point: we
have been working on it all along, and at some point we may
have enough of it done and enough time between older jobs to
fit, finish, and test it. 

For all these reasons, it is impossible to state with any
accuracy how long a given order will take. We don't even 
try. Anyone who places an order needs to understand that if
it isn't available at that time, we cannot make any promise
as to exact delivery time or delivery before a given date. 
There are hundreds of orders pending, all of which take
different amounts of time, some for tools no one has ever
built before. We are a custom shop, hand-building tools to
order. HOw long does that take? Multiply by 200 or 300 and
dust off the crystal ball for changes and modifications
that change everything for some orders, and you have an
answer. I sure don't.

If you need a job done quickly, and are willing to pay
overtime for the die-makers to do it on a weekend, then
we can probably do your order within 15 days and for
sure within 30 days guarenteed. The cost of overtime is
both time and a half for the die-makers, as required by
law, and the additional overhead based on wages such as
taxes, insurance, benefits, etc. It amounts to 2 times
the regular price of the die. However, even at overtime,
our dies are usually less than half the price of dies
of similar quality (benchrest) available elsewhere, and
other shops may be slower AND more costly. 

Bear in mind that RUSH OT basis doesn't double the 
cost of any items we have in stock or would have to 
make in large groups in any case, such as presses. If
we are sold out of CSP-1 presses, for instance, there
is no practical way to make one by itself in a rush
job. There are so many outside sources involved, from
foundries to powder coating shps, and so many operations
in-house that require lengthy setup procedures, that it
would just be far too costly to make one press. The only
way we can offer these hand-built presses for their
current pricing is to make at least 50 or 100 of them
while we are set up for it, and to order at least that
many sets of bearings and other components that go 
into them.

Overtime can be requested at any point for any order.

Dies are made individually and tested by hand in every case. 
And they are usually the main reason for any delay, in any case.
So if you ask for overtime rush, the only items that
are charged at 2 X standard price are those dies and
punches that we must build on overtime, not the other
stock items we are holding for the order, and not the 
presses whether or not we have them in stock.

It is also possible that we may be totally sold out of
available overtime for a given weekend. Seldom are we
totally sold out for all weekends in a month, which is
why we offer the guarantee of 30 days delivery, with a
fair chance of 10-14 days. But we do shut down for the
end of the year holidays, and during this time, no one
is available to do any sort of orders. 

Also, if we have illnesses or other issues that prevent
die-makers from coming in on the weekend, then we cannot
offer overtime rush for that period of time. This is
mentioned because, at times, we have had clients who 
always ordered every item on rush overtime (unless it was
in stock, of course), and they got to the point of
expecting always to have 10-14 day delivery or faster.
It isn't always possible! It isn't a right...someone has
to give up their weekend, even if they do get overtime
pay for it. Eventually wives and family can put their 
collective feet down and say enough! -so although overtime
rush is usually possible, it isn't always.


Q. IF CORBIN DIES ARE BENCHREST QUALITY, WHY DON'T 
I SEE MORE OF THEM ON THE U.S. BENCHREST CIRCUIT?

A. Conscious decision on our part to not step on the toes
of a few good diemakers who are making their entire living
supplying a couple of calibers and shapes to benchresters is
the main reason we don't push our products on the US benchrest
circuit. Since we've been making swage dies for over 30 years
in every possible field, from airgun competition to military
artillery, for security agencies and military sniper schools,
for space research and benchrest competition, and make more
dies in a week than most one-man shops make in a year, it 
should stand to reason that our die-makers have vastly wider
and deeper experience than would be possible for a one or
two person operation and would be capable of making at least
as good as die for a much lower price. That was, in fact, the
main reason we started this business: to bring benchrest quality
down to the price where any reloader could justify making good
bullets at home. 

You will see Corbin dies used by Olympic champions such as
Dr.Darius Young, ISU champs, International Benchrest shooters
in Australia, New Zealand, South America, France, Italy, 
South Africa, Botswana, etc., and you will also find that many
good shooters in every discipline of shooting from black powder
to airgun use Corbin dies in the USA as well, including quite
a few benchrest shooters. But...we have found that benchrest
has become a bit of a psychological game, and we are more
into physics and fact than head games. There are a handful of
other good die-makers who still offer just a few calibers for
benchrest. 

Since a fair number benchrest shooters may think along the
lines of doing whatever last year's winner did, rather than
following Col. Townsend Whelen's dictum and eliminating the
human factor from the search for ever better results, we have
decided that given our limited amount of time compared to 
the huge number of people who want our dies, it would be best
to concentrate on jobs where technical merit is the most
important factor. The psychology of paying the same kind of
prices that used to be necessary 30 years ago in order to get
decent bullet swages means that all our efforts to bring down
the cost of precision would work against us, with those clients.
 
Unless we spent a great deal of time explaining exactly what
we have accomplished, and why we can make a $229 point form
die that will offer at least three times the value of a $1200
die, if the more expensive die is made by EDM from a carboloy
blank for operation in a hand press, some benchrest shooters
would be suspicious of the dies at our relatively low prices. 

We just don't have the time to explain over and over again. 
Better to concentrate on the clients who already understand, or
who have actually tried our equipment and are coming back for
more.

For years, we have had bullet jackets of the VB
(versatile benchrest) trademark, which have run-out that will
usually be up to 5 times smaller than the J-4 jackets which 
we used to sell by the millions. People who are knowledgable
and have no monetary interests to protect, such as Dr.Lou
Palmisano, are more than happy to endorse the jackets and the
dies we make. People who stand to lose money if they are 
candid, will of course tend to be less than candid. For us,
benchrest is a very tiny part of our total market, and we do
not wish to cause any difficulties for those individuals who
do make their entire living selling costly dies to a handful
of benchrest shooters. 

We have nothing against these products
and say only that with double blind testing of bullets made
in those dies versus bullets made by equally careful people
using our dies, there is either no difference found, or our 
dies make bullets with slightly better accuracy. A 
person working in their garage usually cannot justify spending
half a million dollars on equipment, maintaining constant 
temperature environment, using shadowless lighting on a 4000
square foot work floor, or spending the time and money for
specialized equipment and training as new technology evolves.
A group of die-makers can share insights and discoverys with
each other, and everyone gains, whereas a man who only makes
224 and 308 dies in a certain shape for years becomes bogged
down in "that's how we always did it" syndrome, and may be
hostile to new ideas because they threaten the comfort level.

Rather than trying to overhaul an existing cast frame press
that cost about $25 at the factory door (and sold eventually
for $100 after jobber, distributor and dealer costs were 
added), we started with the idea of building a press that
would be ideal for swaging from the start, and incidently 
could do very fine benchrest reloading but primarily was a
bullet making machine.

We built five press models, to handle classes of dies for
a range of capabilities, instead of re-inventing each order
and forcing it to fit someone's reloading press.

By making complete systems, we have total control over the
precision and alignment, and are not guessing about a press
with no bearings and a tensile strength of maybe 40,000 psi
versus our presses where every moving part runs in bearings
including the ram, and the tensile strength is in the
180,000 psi range.

Our major markets are for defense, law enforcement
big game hunting, blackpowder and airgun target and hunting,
handgun match and hunting, and of course the ultra precision
high tech R&D work we do for various military labs. Benchrest
precision is inherent in much of this work, because lives may
depend on precise placement at long range. But the benchrest
game, where a person wears his hat backward and sports pink
socks and a certain shape of bullet tip just because last
year's winner did, is not a major market. If that person wants
to try different bullet tips in a scientific experiment to 
find out if it makes any difference, that is what we welcome.
That is what we have done every year for three decades. Facts,
not head games. Firing tests, not firing off assumptions and
opinions (since "everybody" thinks so, it must be right).

Q. SO WHY DON'T YOU LIKE BENCHREST?

A. We love benchrest...the way it was when "The Accurate Rifle"
was written. Back when people were trying to discover what
worked, and what didn't, by actually doing scientific tests.
To be fair, plenty of people still do that. But not nearly
enough!

Q. CAN I MAKE BULLET JACKETS?

A. Yes, you can. In several levels of precision, from hunting
grade to world class benchrest quality. 

You can make pretty good jackets from fired 22 cases. We've
often shot 1/2 inch or less groups at 100 yards with these
free jackets, but you may get flyers from velocities over
about 3200 fps in some guns (thin jacket tends to open up).

You can make good hunting bullet jackets from close tolerance
copper tubing using the CTJM-1 tubing jacket maker kits. Any
of our presses including the smallest hand press can make
up to 458 caliber jackets this way. The larger presses can make
1-inch cannon this way, too.

You can draw factory-quality jackets from copper strip (or if
you prefer, gilding metal strip, though it costs more in small
lots and has no particular advantage), with several jacket
maker kits. The length and size of jacket depend somewhat on
the press (S-Press is limited to the thinner wall and shorter
jackets, all handgun sizes, some rifle lengths, whereas the
HydroPress can make 50 BMG jackets easily).

You can draw benchrest precision jackets from copper strip with
the high precision version of the JMK-2-H jacket maker kit and
the HydroPress. These jackets will rival or exceed the quality
of anything you can buy. The difference is that they are made
individually, one step at a time, from the coil of precision
strip, using a proprietary process that brings the wall
concentricity closer to zero tolerance with each draw, instead
of adding error as the older methods do.

Q. CAN I MAKE SHOTGUN SLUGS, AIRGUN PELLETS, PAPER-PATCH BULLETS?

A. Yes. Corbin makes both very simple, one-step dies for some
shapes and styles, and more complex dies for exotic shapes such
as the helical twist large finned hollow slugs. You can see these
on our web site with details as to how they are made.


-------------------------------------------------------------------

These questions and hundreds more are examined in great detail, with
illustrations and photos, in the Corbin Handbook No.8 and other Corbin
books.

Thanks again for your interest! If you would like to receive a large
package of printed information, price list, and color photos of Corbin
equipment, send $1 to Corbin, PO Box 2659, White City, OR 97503 USA.
---------------------------------------------------------------------


CORBIN MANUFACTURING & SUPPLY,INC.
PO Box 2659
(600 Industrial Circle - Corbin DieWorks)
White City, OR 97503 USA

Phone 541-826-5211 9am-5pm Mon-Thurs.
FAX 541-826-8669 24-hours "always on"
e-mail sales@corbins.com

http://www.corbins.com
http://www.swage.com
http://www.bulletswage.com