22 Hornet/218 Bee, lead and varmints-Red Mist effect

[The Double D]

Does any one have any first hand experience creating the red mist effect hunting gophers, picket pins or digger squirrels with lead bullets in the .22 Hornet and/or 218 Bee.

What bullet do you use?

[jebb45]

Double D;;;;

Yes, I have had great luck with little silver pills in my .22 Hornet. I have been shooting the .22 Hornet for years. I bought the Lyman molds for the .224 caliber back when no one really shot cast.
I now have the Ruger 77/22 Hornet in blue finish. I started out with the Savage 219 in .22 Hornet. I finally shot the rifling out of the 219, thats when I bought the first Ruger 77/22 Hornet that hit in my area. I have never looked back and I only shoot cast bullets. The mold is 225415, 55 Gr FNGC, with my own lube. I have never had a problem up to 1800 FPS...BANG..SPLATT..... Prairie Dogs, Pocket gouphers, Jacks, Cotton Tails, Squirrels, Turkeys, Deer have all fell to this little silver pill... It just works for me. jebb45

[The Double D]

Thanks Jeb, do you shoot this bullet with or without gas check?

[9.3X62AL]

No rats (yet) with the 22 caliber castings. Mine will fly from a 223 rifle.

I've worked over ground squirrels pretty regularly with castings from 243 and 25-20 rilfes. Velocities run between 1500-1800 FPS. I don't get the "red mist" effect or the disassembly sequence from the castings that occur with the j-words going twice as fast, I imagine impact velocity has a lot to do with the degree of red misting. The varmints are DRT, though--no doubt about that.

[jebb45]

Double D......

I have been using Hornady GC's since I started using this bullet. I bought the mold in 1964, at that time it was marked as "IDEAL", but it has been bought by LYMAN now. I used LYMAN GC's at first but had trouble keeping them to stay on the bullet. When Hornady finally got their checks on the market, I switched and never looked back.
I am a meat hunter and this little pill does just perfect for the job. It will take down Wylee and the next shot take a cottontail without all the meat damage of a real hyper velocity round.

jebb45

[Charlie Horse]

I loaded and shot some cast boolits from my Hornet Contender. It was the 45 gr gas check Lyman mold. I got it used. I haven't shot anything with it yet but it shoots good. I don't see why it wouldn't be a good killer.

[floodgate]

jebb45:

Actually, ALL the loose-block moulds were made by Lyman, starting a couple of years after 1925, when they acquired the name and assets of the defunct Ideal Mfg. Co. (reportedly at the urging of Winchester, who did NOT want to get back into the business of making reloading tools and moulds).

But their main business at that time was gun sights (Lyman Gun Sight Corp.), and they regarded the reloading business as a sideline. They started stamping the moulds "LYMAN" instead of "IDEAL" around 1968, when they were acquired by the "Leisure Products Group". J. Mace Thompson of LPG realized that the reloading tools were the "tail" wagging the gun sight "dog"; ten years later, he took Lyman private again, on the hundredth anniversary of the firm's founding.

Incidentally, the original idea on the gas checks, introduced by John Barlow shortly after 1900, was that they WOULD fall off at the muzzle. But that didn't work out too well, as some would stick and others would fall free.

Trivial, maybe, but interesting, to me at least....

floodgate