Corbin Bullet Swaging Dies have a catalog number that tells you their purpose, and the press size into which they fit, as well as the number of individual dies in the set. Starting with the first group of letters, the type of die or type of die set is described:

• CSW means Core Swage. This is the die which adjusts the lead weight, and turns a piece of cut lead wire or cast lead core into a precise cylinder of the correct diameter, with flat ends. The CSW die is seldom used by itself, but is followed by the CS or PF (or both). Click for instructions
  
  
• CS means Core Seater. This die presses the lead core into the jacket and forms the precise bullet shank. The core seater can also produce a finished jacketed semi-wadcutter bullet or lead semi-wadcutter bullet, by using a nose punch having the desired cavity shape. Click for instructions
  
  
• Pro-Swage. It is a special form of the CS die which is built for use on reloading presses only, and finishes the bullet in one stroke. It is used only with soft lead and may or may not use a jacket depending on the caliber. Only SWC-style noses can be made. These are all type -R prefix since they operate in a reloading press. Example: PRO-1-R (specify caliber, nose, base shape). Click for details
  
  
• PF means Point Former. This is the die that shapes the ogive curve on the bullet. If you want a bullet that does NOT have a step or shoulder between the shank and nose, you must use one of these dies to create it. Forming the nose in a punch cavity always leaves a shoulder (the edge of the punch), which we refer to as the Semi-Wadcutter shoulder. The point form die is always used with a matching CS die for jacketed bullets, and usually with a CSW die for lead bullets. Click for instructions
  
  
• LT means Lead Tip die. This die reshapes a lead tip and gets rid of the distortion produced by ejecting the bullet from the point former die. It is never used without the PF die. The PF die comes first, then the LT die is an option if you want factory-finished lead tips, especially in sharper rifle nose shapes (many blunt or round nosed shapes look OK without using the LT die to clean them up). Click for instructions
  
  
• RBT means Rebated Boattail. Corbin produces a set of dies to produce rebated boattail bullets, consisting of the BT-1 and BT-2 dies. These are used INSTEAD of the usual CS die to seat the lead core. The jacket and core are put into the BT-1 die and pressure is applied to the core with a punch, expanding the jacket and also forming a conventional angled boattail on the base. Then the assembly is ejected and put into the BT-2 die, where the angled base slides past a shoulder or rebate shape. Pressure is applied again, expanding the base section perfectly into the rebate shoulder and producing a gas sealing, muzzle blast deflecting shoulder that adds about 15% to the tightness of the group (compared to a conventional BT bullet). The RBT dies always come as a set of two, called the RBT-2. Click for instructions
  
  
• LSWC means Lead Semi Wadcutter. It refers to a die that combines the bleed holes of the CSW core swage with the nose and base shape punches and the final diameter of the bullet, to produce lead, gas checked, or base guard bullets in a single step. This die cannot produce a smooth ogive bullet: it must produce a semi-wadcutter style that has a small shoulder between nose and shank. It is very popular for paper patch rifle and base guard pistol bullets. It is used by itself, not as part of a set.Click for instructions
  
  
• DDS-1 means Dual Diameter Sizer. It is a special kind of die that takes a finished bullet and reduces the forward portion so it rides atop the lands, guiding the bullet without engraving it. The rear portion of the bullet is left full size so it engages the rifling, like an artillery shell. DDS dies are always used with a finished bullet. They do not make bullets by themselves. They can be used with jacketed or lead bullets. For special purposes, the base is pushed into the die first (making heel base bullets). The die is ordered with a specified nose shape and both diameters. For a spitzer .308, you might order the DDS with as a "6-S ogive, 308 to 300".
  
  
• JRD means Jacket Reducing Die. You would push an existing jacket through this die and out the top to make it smaller and longer. This is used with copper tubing jacket makers to produce the right diameter of jacket from stock tubing sizes. See also Draw Dies.
  
  
• BRD means Bullet Reducer Die. You would push an existing bullet up through this die and out the top to make is slightly smaller in diameter. The maximum reduction that still gives you a good bullet is about .005 inches. You can turn .357 into 9mm easily. Another common use is to turn a .323 8mm into a .318 8mm. But you cannot turn a .429 (44) into a .410 (41) without destroying the accuracy. See also Draw Dies.
  
  
• CTJM means Copper Tubing Jacket Maker. This kind of die forms ordinary copper tubing into excellent hunting quality bullet jackets, rolling the end over to form a base and then flattening it. This is the most practical way to make certain large rifle calibers without turning to hydraulic power and coiled strip. Click for details..
  
  
• BGK means Base Guard Kit. This is a die to punch out a base guard disk from strip copper. You would use .030 thick copper strip, usually 1/2-inch wide. The base guard attaches to a lead bullet base during swaging, when you use a special BG base punch. It scrapes the fouling and leading out of your barrel with every shot you take, eliminating the need for lubricant or hard lead.
  
  
• SDD means Serrate/Draw Die. This is a die that puts shallow grooves along the axis of a bullet or jacket, so it will open up along these weakened areas on impact. SDD-1- type dies can be made in several ways, so they serrate part way and then eject in the same direction, serrate before or after a bullet is made, serrate up to but not including the RBT base, or serrate the entire jacket length from tip to base. See special report on the DRAW DIES page.

SETS OF DIES

In each of the catalog numbers, you will see a letter designation, followed by a dash and a number. The number refers to the quantity of individual dies that are in the set, or in a few cases refers to a special variation on the set. The individual dies for swaging are combined into matching sets to build certain kinds of bullets. Caliber usually doesn't matter: you can specify any caliber in the range for which the system (described next) is built.

The dies that go into each of these sets are the CSW, CS, RBT, PF and LT types. Various combinations of these dies let you make different kind of bullets:

• PRO-1 is a single die to make lead, gas checked, half-jacket, or base guard bullets that have a shoulder. It is provided with your choice of a 1-E round nose, 3/4-E round nose, or Keith nose, and a flat, cup, or base guard base punch. The Pro-Swage dies are capable of up to .58 inch bullets in a reloading press, but only with pure soft lead. These are ideal for muzzle loaders and paper patched rifle as well as most handgun calibers. The .45-70 is especially accurate using a .448 diameter lead bullet with paper patch, or a .458 diameter lead bullet with BaseGuard disk. However, if you need more than three calibers, you would save money and time to use the CSP-1 press and LSWC-1-S dies, which cost less each. The third Pro-Swage die pays for the CSP-1 press, so you may as well buy 3 or more of the LSWC-1 dies and get the press at about the same total price.
  
  
• LSWC-1 is a single die to make lead, gas checked, or base guard bullets that have a shoulder. The base and nose punch can be anything within reason. Hollow base, flat base, cup base, base guard base...any punch can be supplied with the die. The nose can be a 3/4-E, 1-E, Keith, AutoLoader (AL), Conical, Target Wadcutter or Button Nose Wadcutter, or some custom shape. These dies are faster to operate and adjust the weight more precisely than using a reloading press type of swage die. Typical production can be as much as 400 bullets an hour, from the moment you sit down until they are ready to be loaded. (Note that when people talk about cast bullet production, they often forget to mention the half hour of melting pot prep time and the half hour of cleanup and cool down time afterward, plus the time for inspection, lubrication and sizing, which can cut your hourly cast bullet production in half. None of this applies to swaged bullets). Click for instructions
  
  
• RBT-2 is a two die set but it is never used alone. It is simply a set of dies that can be added to any flat base die set, in order to add the capability for making rebated boattail bases. If you already have a flat base die set, get the RBT-2 set and you have both flat and rbt base bullet making capability.
  
  
• JSWC-2 is a two die set, with a CSW-1 and CS-1 for a total of two dies. It can make jacketed OR lead bullets, by breaking up the step of forming the lead core separate from seating the core into the jacket.
  
  
• FJFB-3 is a three die set, with a CSW-1, a CS-1, and a PF-1 added. It can do anything the previous two dies can do, and in addition, it can make smooth ogive bullets without a step shoulder. Standard rifle shapes are 6-S for .358 and below, 4-S for .366 and above, 1-E for rifle shapes having round nose designation except for 600 and 700 Nitro which use 1/2-E blunt round nose. Standard pistol shapes are 3/4-E for round nose and TC for truncated conical shape. Other shapes can be made to custom order. Click for instructions
  
  
• LTFB-4 is a four die set, with a CSW-1, a CS-1, a PF-1 and a LT-1 lead tip die added. This set makes everything the previous three can make, plus nice lead tip bullets. The FJFB-3 die set can be used for lead tips if the tip is round or blunt or hollow pointed: this set is best used when you need a sharp or radiused small nose on the lead tip bullet. Click for instructions
  
  
• RBTO-4 is a four die set, with a CSW-1, the RBT-2 die set, and the PF-1 point former. It makes rebated boattail bullets in open tip or blunt lead tip styles. The CS-1 core seater is replaced by the two-step RBT operation, using those two dies to form the rebate boattail and seat the lead core.
  
  
• RBTL-5 is a five die set, which simply adds a LT-1 to the previous die set (RBTO-4) so you can make both good open tip bullets and good lead tip bullets, at your option. All of them will have rebated boattail bases.
  
  
• FRBO-5 is a five die set, which simply adds a CS-1 core seater to the RBTO-4 set, so you have the ability to make flat base bullets by setting aside the RBT-2 dies and using the CS-1 instead, or making rebated boattail bullets by setting aside the CS-1 die. All of these would be best with open tips, hollow points, or at most a blunt or rounded lead tip.
  
  
• FRBL-6 is a six die set, with all the various dies included. You can make open tip flat base bullets using the CSW-1, CS-1, and PF-1 dies. You can make lead tip flat base bullets with the CSW-1, CS-1, PF-1 and LT-1 dies. You can make rebated boattail open tip using the CSW-1, RBT-2, and PF-1 dies, and rebated boattail lead tip bullets by following with the LT-1 die.

PRESS AND DIE SYSTEMS

In each die set style, there is a SYSTEM TYPE, meaning the kind of press into which the die was designed to fit. There are FIVE system types for Corbin dies. Not all of the dies described previously are made for every system (not every kind of press is capable of making all types of bullets):

• Type -R means the die is for use in a standard slotted ram reloading press only. It will also work in any Corbin press except the discontinued Silver Press model CSP-3 by using the reloading adapter kit for that press. But it will not provide the automatic ejection, self-alignment, or other features of a die set built specifically for the Corbin press. These dies are for use with pure soft lead only and may break if used with hard lead. A limited number of calibers are made in this kind of die to avoid stress on reloading presses. Custom work is better applied to dies made for the far superior Corbin swaging systems (otherwise, it's like putting a drag-racing parachute on the back of an old farm truck; might be considered by some as a waste of money). The types CSW-1, CS-1, PF-1, and LT-1 are made for the reloading press, in certain calibers, but not the RBT-2, DDS-1, or CTJM-1 sets. The EC-1 has been replaced by the PRO-SWAGE die, which does the same job but has larger adjustment range.
  
  
• Type -M means the die is for use in the Corbin Silver Press, Model CSP-3, or the earlier Mity Mite presses built by Corbin. These dies have a 3/4-inch diameter body with a shoulder that takes the pressure and 5/8-24 threads that screw directly into either the CSP-3 or CSP-1 Corbin press rams. They also are for use with soft lead only. You can use them with jackets and even make copper tubing jackets in the type -M dies (up to .032 wall thickness). The largest caliber we make in the type -M is .458 and we recommend that you stay below .366 diameter. The Silver Press is a discontinued model.
  
  
• Type -S means the die is for use in the Corbin S-press, Model CSP-1. It has a 1-inch diameter body with a shoulder to take the pressure, and a 5/8-24 thread that fits the CSP-1 ram. The -S die will not fit into the CSP-3 press because its body is too large to go back into the frame. The CSP-1 press does not retract the die into the frame. The -S dies are also made up to .458 diameter, but they can handle slightly harder lead (Bhn 8-10). When possible, use soft lead because it forms at lower pressure. Doubling the Bhn number multiplies the required swaging pressure by four times.
  
  
• Type -H means the die fits the Corbin Hydro Press CHP-1, or the Corbin Mega-Mite Press CSP-2, or the Hydro, JR. press CSP-2H. These huge dies are 1.5-inch diameter with a 1-inch threaded shank. They handle any hardness of lead that can be swaged, which is almost anything. They can be made up to .800 caliber and even 1-inch bore can be made with a special 2.5 inch diameter version of the die (optional extra cost).
  
  
• Type -X means experimental compound assembly (cyrogenic shrink fit sleeved dies heat treated in exotic gas atmosphere, state of the art tooling which is more expensive than the regular dies but can make such things as solid brass .50 caliber bullets or punch hollow cavities into copper rod and shape them into bullets). These dies fit the X-Press, Corbin's huge experimental high power swaging machine with 2-inch threads in the massive ram. Few people need this much swaging power, and we recommend the Hydro-Press as a better choice for all-around use and versatility. The X-press does not operate the standard automatic jacket strip feeder or JMK-2H jacket drawing system, and is generally built to special order when needed, so there can be a significant waiting period at times.
  
  

You can order a swaging package by sending samples, drawing, or photo of the bullet you wish to make, and this information:

1. Actual bullet diameter (if different from caliber)
2. Whether bullet is paper patched, jacketed, lead, or other design.
3. Weight range desired
4. Type of jacket (if any)
   • Corbin standard (we supply)
   • Your supply (send 10-12 samples)
   • Tubing jackets (CTJM-1)
     • Corbin tubing (we supply)
     • Your tubing (send 2-3 feet)
   • Drawn strip (JMK)
     • Corbin supplies 5, 50, 100-lb
     • You supply (send 3-4 feet)
   • Re-drawn Jackets (JRD)
     • Corbin jackets and draw die
     • You supply (send 10-12 samples)
   • Turned solids
     • Corbin quote for production
     • You supply (send 10-12 samples)
5. Type of core
   • Lead wire (LW-10, and PCS-1 or PCS-2 core cutter)
   • Cast cores (CM-3, CM-4 core mould)
   • Powder metals (specify)
     • Corbin Tungsten (1, 5, 10, 50-lb)
     • You supply (send samples to make 10 bullets)
   • Monolythic solid
     • Soft lead (LW-10 or cast core)
     • Alloy lead (send 10-12 samples)
     • Copper (send 1-2 foot sample)
     • Brass (send 1-2 foot sample)
     • Other (specify, send sample)
6. Nose style
   • SWC or WC shouldered (LSWC-1)
     • Standard shape outline
     • Custom shape outline
     • Integrated conical HP
     • Splined, other special design
   • Ogive curved (PF-1)
     • Standard pistol shape (3/4-E, TC)
     • Standard rifle shape (1-E, 6-S)
     • Custom shape (specify)
7. Tip design
   • Lead tip (LT) (specify shape)
   • Open tip (OT) (core below jacket)
   • Hollow point (HP) (punch, in CS step)
   • Full Metal Jacket (FMJ)
   • Other (specify)
8. Base design
   • Flat base (FB)
   • Dish base (DB) <= .1 cal.
   • Cup base (CB) > .1 < .5 cal
   • Hollow base (HB) >= .5 cal
   • Heel Base (specify diam/len)
   • Rebated Boattail (RBT)
   • Custom (specify)
9. Shank design
   • Conventional straight
   • Dual diameter
   • Serrated full length
   • Serrated forward only
   • Other (specify)

Now you should know what a die set does, how many dies are in it, and what press it fits, just from the catalog number! Here are some examples:

• FRBL-6-M .308 8-S means Flat and Rebated Boattail, Lead Tip (and open tip) six die set for the Silver Press or the S-press, in .308 caliber, with an 8-S spitzer ogive for the point form die and matching lead tip punch.
  
  
• FJFB-3-H .458 1-E means Full Jacket Flat Base (open tip or, by reversing the jacket, military FMJ open base) three-die set in .458 caliber with a 1-E ogive (one caliber elliptical round nose shape).
  
  
• LSWC-1-M .400 TC CB means Lead Semi-Wadcutter single die set for the discontinued Silver Press, in .40 caliber, with a truncated conical nose and a cup base. You can change the nose and base punch for $20 each to make different noses and bases in this kind of die set.
  
  
• PRO-1-R .448 PP 1-E CB means Pro-Swage single die set for reloading press, in .448 diameter for paper patching (probably for .45-70 caliber) with a 1 caliber elliptical nose and a cup base.
  
  
• LTFB-4-R .224 6-S means a lead tip and open tip flat base four die set for the reloading press in .22 centerfire caliber with a 6-caliber spitzer radius nose curve.