A few questions on casting .22 bullets.

[Rapidrob]

I've been casting bullets for 50 years now and have never cast a bullet that was .22.
I have all of the popular alloys in ingots. Gas checks and a SACO .224 die/nose punch.
Several lubes are on hand as well.
My questions are:
For such a small bullet ( 55 grains) is there an advantage to water quenching the bullets?
I plan to load the bullets in .218 Bee, .222 Remington, .223 ,.22 PPC and .22-250.
What velocity is practicable in my rifles? I have loaded store bought cast bullets in .22 caliber to 2,100 fps with good results.
What powder(s) have given you the best results at long range? ( farther than 200 yards)
Do you crimp?
Thank you for your first hand replies.

[lobowolf761]

Checkout the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook. It has most if not all the info you are looking for.

[lobowolf761]

I reload but not these small calibers. Hope I've helped you some.

[country gent]

Water quenching these small bullets may help if leading becomes a isue but on these small bullets the quenching may give a harness thru the bullet that also may become more brittle. These small bullets can be done very well and can be very accurate. Several points to remember. 1) casting these small bullets it is harder to keep blocks hot and to temp. "Overfilling" mould may be needed. As well as preheating blocks on a hot plate. And resting there to maintain temps. A good alloy similar to lyman #2 should be fine. Fillout and form is more critical the smaller a bullet gets also. And last is wieght 1 grn on a 500 grn bullet is 1/2 % but 1 grain on a 50grain bullet is 5%. Finding the lube that works for you is important also.

[luvtn]

1gr divided by 500 grs is .002 changed to a percent is 0.2%. 1gr divided by 50 is .02, changed to a percent equals 2%. It doesn't change the premise, which is entirely correct, that it doesn't take much to screw up a small boolit.
luvtn

[floydboy]

I think you already have the hardest part of shooting 22 caliber licked. I've tried the 223 and 22-250 with good results but a lot of work. Your 222 will make things a lot easier. I water quench mine but don't know if it's needed. My alloy is a 50/50 mix of WW and pure lead with enough tin added for good fill out. Add a little lino if you want them harder. Running too hot probably won't be a problem. If you see frosting slow down a little. I size to .225. My lube is nothing special. I found my best powder is 21 grs of 4064. Estimate FPS at over 2500. I get consistent MOA or close to it. I'm currently using a 225415 boolit and have a couple others to try when I get around to it. I form my own brass out of 223. I'm sure you've heard all the horror stories of trying to cast and shoot 22 boolits and they are mostly true. It was a real challenge for me to find a good load. Took quit a while. I used to weigh my boolits but gave that up. Seems like you will have an occasional flyer despite everything you do. Do sort for any defects and keep the best of the best. I am by no means an expert. Good luck. Keep us posted.

Floyd

[Rapidrob]

I was concerned that the quench would cause the small bullet to become brittle and fly apart as it leaves the muzzle.
My primary bullet use will be the .218 Bee. I will try your load Floyd in the .222
I use Red Rooster lube for my other calibers and so far it works well. I have a graphite lube as well.

[Harter66]

Ive water dropped some and just air cooled some with good results in 222 and 223 . The 222 ran right through 2100 on Unique but I question my Chrony as everything shoots much faster than book numbers except the 1s that hit right on.
The 223 has run 2250 on H4198 ,#41 primers, with the NOE 225-55 fp at 65 gr . Groups were within the groups from the PMC 55 fmj cheap stuff as this rifle is a training aid and confidence builder rather than a match gun . 3" 100 s are good enough and require little work to hit.
The AC boolits were ww@15# + 1 lb of lino . The WC were 75/25 WW -1-20. Both shot well enough and close enough to skip the lino and drop them in a bucket. For lube I use 1 lb of paraffin ,12 oz Vaseline, 3 tbsp STP oil treatment. It's been to 2500 fps . Not bad for Darrs lube tweaked for the desert.

I ladle pour with the mould on the 20# pot and get 7-10 pours before I have to put the mould back on the hot plate .

[upnorthwis]

I found that a .224 sizer is too small. What I do now is just push in far enough to seat gas check and leave rest unsized then powder coat. One of these days I'll get around to opening up my sizer die to .227. Then I can get lube on them and maybe eliminate PC.

[TCFAN]

I use linotype for any 22 cal. boolit shot over 2100 fps. Any thing under 2000 fps. I use COWW straight or mixed with linotype.
In my 222 I have had the best luck with Winchester 748 powder using the Lyman 225415 Hp boolit at 2550 fps.
For my 218 Bee I like the NOE version of the 225107 at about 1400 fps using Bullseye powder and small pistol primers.
I have a few different moulds in 22 cal to play with.........Terry

http://i755.photobucket.com/albums/xx200/TCintheOzarks/Cast%20Boolits/DSCN860322calcastboolits.jpg (http://s755.photobucket.com/user/TCintheOzarks/media/Cast%20Boolits/DSCN860322calcastboolits.jpg.html)

[runfiverun]

I don't have any of those molds.
I only have the rcbs and the HM-2 mold I designed.
I don't mess about with 1900 fps loads in my 22 cal rifles too much I generally go full ocd and head for the 24-2800 fps area.

if you look in the cast pics area there is an article there by jon goins [beagle] titled 'why grown men cry'
there are some good pointers in it that you need to follow to get good results.
after that you need to think about things and make small changes and test your results.
there are also some other threads here with loads and shooting results in different rifles [notably the AR types] but their ideas will help you too.
I use neither ww nor linotype alloy and I do water drop for my H/V loads, for general plinking [and close up varmint shooting] I will use ww alloy [water dropped again]

[bangerjim]

I (use to) cast 224 Lee BATOR's (hate them) until I bought the 5 can brass NOE 55gn FP mold. SWEET!

I use ~12-14 Bhn and PC everything to eliminate smoke an leading (and the imagined need for "hard" lead). Also on "hot" loads I Cu GC all the rounds.

Never any problems except sometimes getting the Cu GC's on......PITA. I put them on B4 PC. tap on with a hammer, then run them thru the sizing die BASE FIRST. Works 99.5% of the time with those teeny weeny ***'s.

I load X-Terminator, ETR7 and TiteGroup according to the books.

banger

[MT Chambers]

My most accurate .22 is the RCBS .22-55gc in my .218 Mashburn Bee but only at 1500 fps. and no higher.

[Rapidrob]

Thank you TCFAN and the rest of you guys. All very good info.
What I did was to cast some bullets out of Linotype and water cooled. I found the bullets to shatter if I struck them with a sideways blow.
Temp change did not help. So, I tried an old idea from the 70's I was taught. I quenched the bullet in automatic transmission fluid.
Bullet is harder with no crystalline structure.
I'll do a range test and see how well they shoot.