Originally Posted by
Bent Ramrod
The first .22 Hornet softpoint bullets were Velo-Dog bullets, turned upside down and reswaged so the exposed lead at the base became the soft point.
I believe Fiocchi still makes 5.5 mm Velo-Dog ammunition. I got a couple boxes from J&G in Prescott, AZ eons ago. I think the shell is the basis for the Cooper Centerfire Magnum rounds, and is practically the equivalent of the .22 Maynard Extra Long.
There was a guy on the old Shooter's site who had developed something he called the .22 Epperson Cricket. (It sticks in my mind that his name was Epperson:-P.) Anyway, the thing that was interesting was that he was able to make the forming and loading dies, and cut the rifle chamber, with a couple of standard chucking reamers. The result was a .25 Auto shell bottlenecked to .22. This, to my mind, would be a much less strenuous rework of the .25 Auto for pretty much the same effect: a "reloadable" .22 Long Rifle equivalent. Can't remember the size of the reamers.