Am I the only one who has done this? First you anneal the whole case, then thread your 44 spec. trim die upside down in the press, then push the whole case through the die; cutting off the rim in the process. What I'd like to know is: does anyone know where I can have a bullet mold made up that would hold the jacket in place while casting a bullet into it?

No, I have not heard of this before. My fathers mind tends to wander a bit outside the box and he quite often dips .223 cases into the lead pot and anneals them, then he dips them into the pot and fills them with lead. These make good .38-55 heavy-weight bullets.
Dad does the same thing with .35 Remington cases and shoots them in his .45-70 Browning 1885 Hi-Wall BPCR rifle. I have a feeling I am about to loose a few .44 Special cases.
The .223 cases work quite well in the .38-55 because the case wall is reasonably straight.
The .35 Remington does not work quite as well because the cases are quite tapered and very little of the case engraves the rifling. We have considered necking the .35 Remington cases up to allow more of the case to engrave the rifling but due to a shortage of range pick-up .35 Remington brass the project is on hold.
We have detected no loss of accuracy or any other detrimental affect to the rifle barrel. The bullets expand just like a standard jacketed bullet when hitting the dirt backstop.

EDIT: I forgot what I was doing and intended to add: NEI used to make a mold similar to what you describe. You might contact them at NEI Bullet Molds

On Leverguns.com,, Paco has an article about reaming a mold and putting 3/8 copper pipe in as a jacket.He used in his 375/356 ultra imp. Very interesting.
http://www.leverguns.com/articles/paco/375-356.htm

Never used 44spec. cases for a whole jacket...have cut thin rings from them to use as driving bands (thin enough to work in some standard molds). That is a real pain to get to work right, but has some merit worth looking into....personally, I got real tired of burning my fingers.

Yep..NEI use to make .375 molds that held cut lengths of copper tubing (3/8" is pretty close to .375"), and would guess the concept could be made to work with long lengths of .44 cases made into tubes.

No but have found a good use for the usless 40 cal cases..
they make a good 44 mag bullet..

Let me get this straight, your poring lead into a fired case and using it as a jacketed bullet? What about the fired primmer, do you decap or just leave in place? I wonder if there's a rimless cartrige out there that would work for 7.62 x 54R loading? Would have thought the cartrige brass would be a little rough on the bore.

Yes, de-prime the case and grasp it with needle nose pliers and dip the base into the lead pot for about 45 seconds. Dip the case into the pot and fill it with lead. That’s about it.
The annealed case is quite soft. I’ll take a picture of some .223 case I recovered recently and you will see how they are engraved by the rifling. These open up in the dirt backstop like a jacketed bullet.

I don’t know of any cvase that is ideal for a .30 caliber rifle. The Hornet and .25-20 single shot are a bit small. I have never tried to pull the rim off a case using a form trim die. I don’t believe it would take a lof force to remove the rim from an annealed case.

Well, that's the first I've ever heard of that! I guess on reflection fully anealed cartrige brass is pretty soft. I tried anealing 45 colt starline brass and got it so soft that the lead bullet was crushing the case on seating.

How's accuracy? If I understand rite the bullet shape is going to be wadcutter unless you custom made a mold.

I would think that for the trouble you'd probably be better off paper patching?

In any event interesting reading, never would have thought of it myself. Would love to see some pics before and after firing!

It’s getting late and I am not much of a photographer. I pulled this .223 case out of the scrap bin. This one was fired in a TC Encore barrel. The cases are not cropped or chopped. The base is inserted in the case and the neck sticks up out of the case like a bullet. At one hundred yards groups of less than four inches are common. The cases open up in a similar manner to a jacketed bullet. Some appear to be a classic mushroom just as you expect to see from a conventional bullet. I believe I have some pictures of loaded ammunition around. If not I will get some pictures the next time we load these.

Cool pic, I see how the rifling engaged down on the tapered area. Would have figured that would make it wildly inacurate, but 4" or better groups ain't bad.

I think that if I was after jacketed performance I'd look into paper patching or maybe press forming metal jackets, though firing a used cartrige down range has a serious cool factor.

Thanks for sharing, and I'd love to see pics of loaded ammo.

Thank you Guys. I really like the 223 for 375 jackets, I'll be experimenting with some of them. I'll cut them short enough to fit into a drilled out LEE mold. I first started out using the aluminum Blaser cases but they were crappy. 44 mag cases were too long so I settled on the 44 special case simply filled with lead. A sort of 45-70 wadcutter. Now I've got to go one more step further and cast a whole jacketed bullet. And NEI is willing to help.

Thank you fellas. Ya'll are a real big help! I really like the 223 X 375 idea and the 40 X 44 idea. I've been wondering what the 40 S&W was good for, now I know. I'm trying to put the sprue plate on the bottom side of the LEE mold and make a nose-pour out of it before investing in the NEI mold. NEI is willing to help with the project! Up until now; I've just poured lead into the 44 special case to make a 45/70 wadcutter. They're accurate enough. I've yet to try one in my 458 Win Mag. Anyway thats mainly where I intend to use the homemade cast-jacketed bullets. Whoever beats me to it: My hat is off to you! Anything beats the high cost of 458 jacketed bullets. Swampy

Keep us posted on how this works out.
We just do this for fun. I prefer the Lyman 457122HP for hunting. I have the NEI solid nose gas check version too. I have a 400-grain NEI paper patch bullet mold that is a wonderful bullet in the long barreled .45-70’s.
My father prefers much heavier bullets in the .45-70 but I try to remain below 420-grains.

This is an interesting topic. I'll point out that if you get cartridge brass to 350°C (662°F), it is fully stress relieved. As you raise its temperature still higher, its grain size grows and it just gets softer. Heat the whole case to dull red with a propane torch and it will be very soft, though maybe softer than you really want?

It seems to me, as a person who tends to complicate things, you could take your annealed .44 special case and just seat a very long .429 cast lead bullet into it, then, with a little sizing lube, run the whole thing through a sizing die. If you use a wire brush to clean the oxide off the inside of the brass, you could probably wind a little 63:37 flux core solder around the bullet lube grooves, then set the whole the whole thing into an oven at about 400°F, and after an hour the bullets would be soldered into the cases. Bonded core soft nose bullet. Watch out, though, that solder flux doesn't make it to the case mouth and splatter out. You'll want these things in a steel can while you do this.

Another technique would be to drill out the primer pocket completely and seat a standard, unlubed .429 lead bullet into the annealed case, then turn the thing upside down and cast lead into the drilled out primer pocket. Done carefully, you'll end up with a little teat of lead you can cut off with a sharp blade. World's most robust gas check.