Advise & tips for hi-vel 222 Rem project

[remy3424]

Have cast for handgun calibers, this will be my first rifle boolit attempt. I want to have a load to shoot pairie dogs out to 150 yards or so. I have a 225646 DC GC mold, gas checks & a 225 sizer. The help I see me needing most is the alloy mix. I have WW, soft lead and 40 tin/60 lead solder. I read an article a few years ago about high velocity & low pressure, they talked about needing a HARD boolit. What do you guys think for a mix of what I have available. Do I need to water drop these or and heat treat, haven't done any of that yet for my handguns. Any powders, loads or lubes that work for what I am trying to accomplish will be appreciated. If someone has done or is doing this, I would love to hear from you. If there are existing threads on this help me out, I struggled finding much info on this.

[runfiverun]

look in the castpics section, beagle has an article there that is most helpful.
just scroll down from here and click on it.
i use an alloy of 4% tin and 6% antimony i waterdrop them but doubt it adds anything.
greg in malad uses 80%ww's and 20% linotype for his alloy.
i would think that ww's and 1% tin waterdropped would be plenty hard enough.
it is in my other rifles, and if shooting little critters i think i would up the softness by adding some soft to the mix.
your Bbl's twist rate is gonna make things easier or tougher too.

[Larry Gibson]

remy3424

I'm prone to push cast bullets to HV. The 22 Rem is an excellent 22CF for this, especially with a 14" twist. Suggest sizing as large as the "as cast" diameter allows. I use a .228 sizer to crimp/seat GC and lube my .227 as cast bullets. I also use Javelina lubeas in test after test it give better accuracy at HV. Make sure the GCs are seated square on the shank. I prefer an alloy in the 18 - 20 BHN range that is AC'd. I use linotype/lead at 80/20. In the M788 .222 and a couple others i let slip through my hands I was able to push cast bullets (225438 and 225462) to 2400 - 2500 fps and maintain 1.5 moa with 10 shot groups. Most shots were going into 1 moa. A 223 Rem with 14" twist will do the same. Many a ground squirrel has bit the dust to that load out to 150 and sometimes 200 yards.

Larry Gibson

[largom]

I shoot the 225646 boolit out of my Rem. 799 at 2400 fps. using an alloy of 55% lead and 45% WW with a little extra tin [lead free solder] added. Sized to .227, lubed with FWFL, Win. 748 powder and 1/2 gr. Dacron. Does wonders on ground hogs.

Larry

[beagle]

With the babbit alloy I mentioned in the articles on the .223, you can get pretty good accuracy at velocities up to about 2,800 FFS. I haven't tested any past that.

I hope the 225462 works for you. It didn't for me but every barrel is a different case and I eventually settled for the 22-55-SP at .225".

Good luck on it./beagle

[frnkeore]

Beagle,
Can I get your load? I also have the 22-55-SP and a 222 Rem but, haven't put them together yet. The 223 load shouldn't be but about 1 gr higher than a 222.

Frank

[runfiverun]

i'm using 24.5 grs of I-4895 in my 223. with the rcbs 55gr
primers/seating depth did make a difference for me also.

[remy3424]

Thanks for the input guys. It looks like I need to buy some lino and/or maybe some mag. bird shot to stiffen things up. I will try the WW with a pinch of tin first and see what happens. Not sure what lube I have in the 450 now, it works well with my handgun calibers, maybe try it before buying a different lube. Looks like these small calibers are like most everything else, almost everyone does it differently.