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Jack Stanley
12-19-2009, 10:58 PM
I'm thinking about a bullet mold primarily for my Kimber .223 Remington rifle and an outside chance at feeding a Hornet rifle . I see that LBT offers a fifty grain bullet and while it might be a touch heavy for the hornet , I've not had to load for one as yet . The .223 will likely be loaded somewhere between sixteen and eighteen hundred feet per second .

I've cast with a two cavity Lyman ( that I don't have any more ) with less than positive results . They shot OK with the bullets that I accepted it was just a pain to make a pile of them . The LBT molds I have work really great but the smallest is a thirty caliber . Does anyone have experience with the .22 molds from LBT ?

Thanks , Jack

garandsrus
12-20-2009, 01:08 AM
Jack,

I really like the RCBS 55 gr boolit. I can send you some to try if you are interested. It's not hard to cast with the mold. I use straight linotype.

John

madcaster
12-20-2009, 01:16 AM
Jack,NEVER sell that Kimber of Oregon gun!I had a .222-TD 1420 was the serial number.It was a fabulous shooter.
VERY foolishly sold it.:cry:

felix
12-20-2009, 01:33 AM
Agree, 100 percent. That is one fine rifle. I bought my dad a Super America and it was passed on back to me through his will. ... felix

Jack Stanley
12-20-2009, 09:34 AM
Jack,NEVER sell that Kimber of Oregon gun!I had a .222-TD 1420 was the serial number.It was a fabulous shooter.
VERY foolishly sold it.:cry:

It's a safe bet that my estate will dispose of it after I'm gone but untill then ....Not only is it a great shooter , it's a left hand rifle , a two digit serial number and the clincher ..... a companion to the left hand rimfire Kimber I bought in the eighties .


Jack

outdoorfan
12-20-2009, 11:15 AM
I have one of Veral's .227-66 molds (two cavity). With 50/50 ww/soft they
come out closer to 70 grains. I wish I could push them hard and fast in my Savage .223, but I haven't found the right combo yet. The 1-9 twist doesn't help. However, at 1800-1900 fps it is sub MOA with the few tests I did. My only regret was not getting a bigger meplat (for hunting). The meplat on these is right around .1

They cast quite well, especially if around 1% tin is added.

Jack Stanley
12-20-2009, 11:33 AM
Thanks Outdoorfan , Primary use for the mold would be general blasting in a bolt action .223 rifle . Secondary would be a friend that has a hornet and if hunting came up I was thinking I could flatten the points for the few rounds needed . That's why I was considering the fifty grain bullets .

The two cavity mold I had was painfully slow or I was to fussy about what to accept . Thinking about one of Verals four cavity offerings to use with the wheel weight alloy buy that just came in .

Jack

35remington
12-20-2009, 02:21 PM
Depending upon how cold it is outside, what the mould is made of and how hot your alloy is as well as how many nooks and crannies have to be filled in your tiny .22 bullets, wheelweight alloy can be an extreme challenge to get good fillout of the bullet.

In some cases, like with the 225438 and 225415, wheelweight alloys just ain't gonna work outside, even in an iron two cavity mould. Not for me. In a four cavity aluminum mould with a lot of surface area to bleed heat, additional issues may arise as the bullet volume dimensions are miniscule compared to the sail area of the aluminum blocks.

In contrast, the two cavity aluminum 22 Bator mould works just fine on a reasonably warm day with wheelweights with good fillout.

If the mould has a lot of sharp edges and heat bleedoff is a real possibility, better up the ante from wheelweights.

HORNET
12-21-2009, 01:02 PM
Jack, 50 grainers should work just fine in the .22 Hornet. I run the old 50 grain version of the 225415 out of a 16" twist with 7.8 gr of 4759 and a R-P 7-1/2. A slightly compressed load that works quite well out to 100 yd. Haven't tried it further as yet. Note: milder primers (like the 6-1/2) also work but require a slightly heavier charge with more compression, OAL kept changing on me.

Dale53
12-21-2009, 01:22 PM
My .22's are the Lyman 225415 mould. I have linotype and since the .22's use so little, I have used nothing but linotype to cast these small bullets. As expected, they cast perfect bullets with almost NO rejects.

Most of my use has been with the .22 Hornet and .221 Fireball (in TC's). They will shoot at ½" at fifty yards off a rest (with a scope). I use 3.0 grs of Unique in the Hornet and 4.0 grs in the .221. They do VERY well on squirrels. The flat meplat is a considerably more reliable killer than a .22 LR in a rifle.

I consider the .22 LR not to be a very reliable squirrel rifle. If you use solids, they work fine for head shots. However, sometimes the squirrel doesn't offer a head shot. Then they do poorly unless you use a hollow point - then there is too much meat damage for my liking. The 225415 does MUCH better. I have done better with the .22 LR if the nose is flattened (I use a homemade tool as well as Paco Kelly's tool).

Bottom line, if you want excellent results casting with the .22's and .25's you might want to try linotype.

Just a thought...

Dale53

Jack Stanley
12-21-2009, 06:17 PM
Hornet , Dale53 , thanks for the input .
I am leaning toward the idea of a "better" alloy than I normally use . I can make range scrap do a lot of things but casting tiny bullets may not be one of them . I think I have a couple bars of linotype around here somewhere and I did just get a couple boxes of the modified WW buy I could use .

A friend of mine has the Hornet rifle , he doesn't cast and not sure if he will get into it . When our department went to semi-auto rifles the corporal gathered up all the cast loads that had been used on the indoor ranges for disposal . I've since nearly disposed of all of them using my .223 , since they are such fun up close I'm leaning to making more and helping a friend if I can .

In times past , I would have bought a Lyman mold and went after the project . Recent years of experience has shown me that I shouldn't buy a Lyman mold unless I can cast with it first . Another option would be if my friend from down south starts selling off his mold collection . I've never had a problem with LBT in the larger calibers and they offer a fifty grain so I'm thinking I can run the pointy ones in the .223 and flatten the nose a little for the hornet . I would need a softer alloy to do that though I guess .

Jack

badgeredd
12-21-2009, 06:28 PM
Jack,
Have you looked at BRP little 47 grain boolit? It is similar to the Lyman 225438 but has some meplat instead os the roundnose. If I recall correctly Bruce developed it for the 22 Hornet and as a light boolit for other 22 centerfires. I know it works out of my 22 SuperJet rifle at about 2500 fps with 50/50 ww/pure with about 5% nickel babbitt added.

Edd

Jack Stanley
12-21-2009, 06:37 PM
Edd , I guess I'll hafta claim ignorance ..... I've never heard of a BRP .

Jack

badgeredd
12-21-2009, 06:48 PM
BRP is one of our Vendor Sponsors and Bruce (BABore) is a member of our forum. Look it up in the Vendor sponsor Forum. I believe the updated list of molds in in the thread from BRP.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=58620

Here's his link.

http://www.brp.castpics.net

Edd

HORNET
12-21-2009, 08:47 PM
Jack, FWIW, I run most of my .22's out of 50/50 WW & Lino. I have run some out of WW & 1.5% tin and they work well to moderate velocities (~2100 fps).

Jack Stanley
12-21-2009, 08:56 PM
Hornet , I don't intend to look for velocities any higher than that . Ever since I passed up a chance to buy a Kimber twenty-two magnum left hand rifle ( that looked like it's been dropped out of a truck several times ) I kinda wish I'd bought it anyway . Now that I have the .223 , I think a cast bullet could duplicate the magnum pretty easy . Fifty grain bullets ... two thousand feet per second .... critters beware . [smilie=l:

Jack

35remington
12-21-2009, 09:55 PM
At below 14-1500 fps the 225438 cast of lino or actually nearly any alloy that's reasonably hard doesn't kill very well on tree squirrels when speaking of body shots.

The 225415, as Dale mentions, is considerably better. To flatten trajectory I like to run it closer to .22 magnum speed. If the head is hit at around 1900 fps it will remove it, but a ribcage shot doesn't ruin much meat. A shot through the shoulders will cause some damage from bone fragments, though.

Bull45cal
03-17-2010, 11:16 AM
outdoorfan,

Do your .22 cal bullets you cast 50/50 have a gas check, or are they flat based? I'm working on a .223 Short project, that I think your bullets will work wonderfully with. What is the diameter after casting?