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Thread: 22 Magnum Center Fire feasibility?

  1. #41
    Boolit Master

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    Case capacity is an issue and I have mentioned that a couple of times, this case if it can be economically made will have a capacity somewhere between a regular 22 Mag and a 22 LR so the performance is expected to be somewhat less than a full 22 Mag but better than a LR.

    I have considered Aluminum but while there are suitable alloys of aluminum that will make a strong enough case and still be easily machinable I doubt they would be reloadable to any satisfactory degree, I discussed this with Bill (the engineer friend) and he discounted aluminum right off the bat except for a one time fire case and that seems to be the situation with the commercially loaded aluminum cases. Steel cases may be the best option of all, the 12L14 is a REALLY good free machining steel (it has lead added just for that purpose) and should easily make these cases with very thin yet sufficiently strong walls. Reloading cycles "might" be questionable but even if less than brass it would be a lot easier and more economical per piece to make so it might be a viable alternative. Except for firing a bunch of those disposable Russian steel cased rounds in my Son's SKS I have zero experience with steel cases, however I have a couple of 12L14 3/4" bars and while that may be akin to making a tooth pick from a log I might just have to try a couple of those!
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  2. #42
    Boolit Master Clark's Avatar
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    Ok I found some 5.7x28 brass locally
    Most cartridges are just variants of old ones, but the 5.7x28 seems to be a wholly new cartridge case head.
    The weakest case heads are the 25acp and 10mm.
    The extractor groove gets too close to the primer pocket.
    But they are still good to ~ 50kpsi before the primer pocket gets loose.
    The 5.7, I am measuring 0.251" extractor groove. With a 0.12" dia pocket, that is a 0.0655" pocket wall
    On the 25acp I am measuring 0.244". -> 0.0620" pocket wall
    If these things were linear and accurate and precise [fat chance] that would estimate the 5.7 good to 53 kpsi
    Looks like 5.7 is registered at 50kpsi.
    That would be like reloading the 22-250, 6mmRem, or 270. They are registered at 65kpsi and the Mauser case head is good to 67 kpsi. No room for error.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 5.7 by 28 with 0.251 extractor groove and 25acp with 0.244 in 1-1-2016.jpg  

  3. #43
    Boolit Buddy

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    Wrong, avg extractor cut dia is .255, small pistol/rifle primer dia. .175 , wall thickness at the weakest point is just under .040 and weak is the operative word. these numbers off of a new unfired case.

  4. #44
    Boolit Grand Master leftiye's Avatar
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    It still sounds to me like some Schroeder .22 CCM brass turned down about .004" might be your best bet. Schroeder sells it for about $.60 apiece. It is made from .22 Hornet, and it the correct alloy of brass, plus it is formed and therefore hardened properly. Beyond that it is a rimmed design case offering maximum head strength in this situation where the walls of the primer pocket are thin. Or you could just go .22 CCM with just a tetch of reaming your chamber. P.S. This is what I did.
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  5. #45
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by leftiye View Post
    It still sounds to me like some Schroeder .22 CCM brass turned down about .004" might be your best bet. Schroeder sells it for about $.60 apiece. It is made from .22 Hornet, and it the correct alloy of brass, plus it is formed and therefore hardened properly. Beyond that it is a rimmed design case offering maximum head strength in this situation where the walls of the primer pocket are thin. Or you could just go .22 CCM with just a tetch of reaming your chamber. P.S. This is what I did.
    I would sure test the CCM to death first.....it is the easier softer way .

    22 magnum ammo will not be in short supply forever either.....the rimfire ammo drought cannot go on forever, people are not buying it to shoot it for the most part.
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  6. #46
    Boolit Master
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    Pressure applied by a hydraulic pump is an imperfect guide to what happens under momentary impact. When testing for strength is it likely to be satisfactory, and would err in the direction of safety. Bur brass on steel creep may be a quite different matter. Good loading practices avoid a dangerous pressure wave, but there is surely always a moving pressure wave of some sort.

    One of the benefits of a composite case-head, if it can be made to work, is that it needn't be malleable or ductile, or subject to over-annealing. In, I think the 1990s someone marketed Steelhead cases, not for a long the time, which had a brass tube threaded into, not onto, a turned steel head. It might be that their demise had something to do with removing some of the signs of excessive pressure, which was very likely the main reason for people to buy the things.

    If we simply threaded a brass sleeve over a steel head, I think pressure would expand it off the steel, as I think pressure does with the case-neck off a bullet (making, incidentally, a tested bullet pull measurement less than useful.) Probably the best way would be to thread the head with as fine a 6mm. or similar thread as you can get, expand K&S ¼in. tubing just enough to slide over, and then swage it down to fit in a chamber diameter die - your chamber - which will cut the thread into the tube. Then you heat i

    If you could get every size of case down to the same clearance in the chamber, that amounts to a whole lot more circumferential stretch in a quarter-inch diameter case than in the five-eighths inch Martini-Henry. Still, I wouldn't necessarily give up on a case turned entirely from one of the difficult grades of brass, though. It would surely drill or ream in the lathe, with one blade opposite each cutting one, and as I said, a toolpost grinder would make smooth and accurate work of the outside. I'd drill the primer pocket and flash-hole undersize, and expand them with a turned steel punch in a fly-press, or an improvised device to use in a large engineering vice.

  7. #47
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ballistics in Scotland View Post
    Pressure applied by a hydraulic pump is an imperfect guide to what happens under momentary impact. When testing for strength is it likely to be satisfactory, and would err in the direction of safety. Bur brass on steel creep may be a quite different matter. Good loading practices avoid a dangerous pressure wave, but there is surely always a moving pressure wave of some sort.

    One of the benefits of a composite case-head, if it can be made to work, is that it needn't be malleable or ductile, or subject to over-annealing. In, I think the 1990s someone marketed Steelhead cases, not for a long the time, which had a brass tube threaded into, not onto, a turned steel head. It might be that their demise had something to do with removing some of the signs of excessive pressure, which was very likely the main reason for people to buy the things.

    If we simply threaded a brass sleeve over a steel head, I think pressure would expand it off the steel, as I think pressure does with the case-neck off a bullet (making, incidentally, a tested bullet pull measurement less than useful.) Probably the best way would be to thread the head with as fine a 6mm. or similar thread as you can get, expand K&S ¼in. tubing just enough to slide over, and then swage it down to fit in a chamber diameter die - your chamber - which will cut the thread into the tube. Then you heat i

    If you could get every size of case down to the same clearance in the chamber, that amounts to a whole lot more circumferential stretch in a quarter-inch diameter case than in the five-eighths inch Martini-Henry. Still, I wouldn't necessarily give up on a case turned entirely from one of the difficult grades of brass, though. It would surely drill or ream in the lathe, with one blade opposite each cutting one, and as I said, a toolpost grinder would make smooth and accurate work of the outside. I'd drill the primer pocket and flash-hole undersize, and expand them with a turned steel punch in a fly-press, or an improvised device to use in a large engineering vice.
    The textbook that I posted that from (I consider it a textbook) was addressing how to calibrate the strain gauge....so his findings were perfectly valid. And they would apply to low pressure loading most of us have seen that never push the case back onto the primer (people refer to it as primers backing out) and leave cases smokey because they do not seal. If your strain gauge is over the chamber as his was....your pressure readings cannot possibly be valid .

    The one maker of pressure tracer equipment shows flat topped pressure traces, and speaks of how dangerous a condition they are exposing....the barrel is permenantly yielding with each shot.

    A RCBS primer pocket swage could be used to final form primer pockets, the one made to remove crimps. I have mashed them into a berdan pocket in some carcano brass once .
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  8. #48
    Boolit Master
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    There are aluminium alloys as tough as the best brass, but they present about the same difficulties in machining, and perhaps aren't as readily drawn either. The only one I have seen was a flare pistol cartridge, but they have been used, I think by Speer, for fairly modest powered handgun loads. It is probably cheaper than steel when manufacturing costs are taken into consideration, and much cheaper than copper. So if there weren't any snags I think we would see a lot more of it

    There isn't much doubt what happens with a cartridge case, regarding tensile and yield strengths. People flirted with solid metal, non-expansive cases for centuries, and none gained any kind of popularity. What did was the case which is expanded by the gas pressure to seal the chamber. With the minute tolerances used by benchresters it is just possible that it might spring back to its original dimensions for quite a number of firings. But all cartridges for ordinary use are stressed beyond their yield strength.

  9. #49
    Boolit Master Clark's Avatar
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    In, I think the 1990s someone marketed Steelhead cases,
    Casull was doing it. Randy Ketchum was doing the hybrid steel case head/ brass body.

    I have used strain gauges to measure torque on jet engine starter generator test bed. They work on a simple structure and/or a calibratable system. I do not consider rifles eligible on either account.

    If the case head is the weak link, the pressure of the threshold of extractor groove expansion should be the same across cartridges; e.g. 22-250 to 35 Whelen with large Boxer primer pockets are the Mauser case head. This threshold I have found to be between 73kpsi and 78kpsi in Quickload when velocity predicted matches velocity on chrono. In 2005 I got Scott Sweet to calculate Von Misses yield pressures for 65.3 ksi C26000 H06 brass on Mauser case head primer pockets shows yield at 76,577 psi. VM for belted magnums at 79,597 psi. VM predicts 86,427 psi for the 223 case head. Rimmed cases and 6mmBR cases primer pockets are not the weak link.

    I handload 65 different cartridges and have overload worked up many of them. If you do this enough, you can see what is going to happen without doing it.

  10. #50
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by Clark View Post
    Casull was doing it. Randy Ketchum was doing the hybrid steel case head/ brass body.

    I have used strain gauges to measure torque on jet engine starter generator test bed. They work on a simple structure and/or a calibratable system. I do not consider rifles eligible on either account.

    If the case head is the weak link, the pressure of the threshold of extractor groove expansion should be the same across cartridges; e.g. 22-250 to 35 Whelen with large Boxer primer pockets are the Mauser case head. This threshold I have found to be between 73kpsi and 78kpsi in Quickload when velocity predicted matches velocity on chrono. In 2005 I got Scott Sweet to calculate Von Misses yield pressures for 65.3 ksi C26000 H06 brass on Mauser case head primer pockets shows yield at 76,577 psi. VM for belted magnums at 79,597 psi. VM predicts 86,427 psi for the 223 case head. Rimmed cases and 6mmBR cases primer pockets are not the weak link.

    I handload 65 different cartridges and have overload worked up many of them. If you do this enough, you can see what is going to happen without doing it.
    If one applies hydraulic pressure in a controlled fashion....and develops a straight line of values as Mr. Vaughn did, why would it not be "eligible" ?? I'm building my setup for use with a .416 smokeless muzzle loader, there will be no cartridge case.. Others use a commercial unit and get what seem to be consistent results. Using one without calibrating it would not leave me nearly as confident with the variables of chamber shape and barrel profiles involved between different guns, but the maker seems quite confident in it.

    But the case heads of different types and brands of brass cannot possible be exactly the same as far as measuring extractor grooves ??

    https://www.shootingsoftware.com/ftp...%2019%2004.pdf

    Really long article there.....that pretty much says to shelve measuring case heads as in any way useable.

    Personally I seek the highest velocity at the LOWEST pressure, and once in a great while I DO find that, when I do I am very happy . Some factory loadings they actually press the powder into the case to achieve a higher velocity with a SAAMI compliant pressure. I read an article about that practice, I think it was Hornady doing it. It allows them to use a powder that would be "too slow" if the case was filled to 100% density with a funnel, or even what we consider "compression" by seating a bullet.

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  11. #51
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Clark View Post
    I handload 65 different cartridges and have overload worked up many of them. If you do this enough, you can see what is going to happen without doing it.
    From a safe distance when someone else is doing it, with any luck.

    I'm sure your information is good, but the blowup level or non-blowup level also owes a lot to the way a particular rifle supports the cartridges. Almost all modern cases reach their yield point, and with the many factors that can affect pressure, the rather small difference between that and rupture is far too narrow to aim at. So safety depends on limiting the distance the brass is permitted to yield, and where.

    Here is a case in point, and about as threatening a case-head and primer as you are liable to see, although it was done in a remotely controlled pressure gun during cartridge development. The headstamp is .375 H&H, but it was actually necked down for an experimental improved version of the monstrous .244 H&H Magnum. I may be wrong, but I think the friend who had the case and shoulder gauge got them from David Lloyd, who designed the original and his improved 6mm. Lloyd.


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  12. #52
    Boolit Master Clark's Avatar
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    I am an EE, Denton that wrote that article is an EE, and we have debated on and off for over a decade. There is a third EE, Glenn, who really debates Denton more than me.
    My attitude is that anyone can buy a CEA-06-250UW-350 strain gauge, glue them to the outside of a rifle chamber, put a Wheatstone bridge around it, design a much better instrument amplifier than Oehler just by using modern op amps, hook it up to a garden variety storage scope, and voila, get a trace. The interpretation of that trace into something useful is going to be harder. The book of stress vs strain formulas for complex shapes is by Roark.
    http://www.amazon.com/Roarks-Formula.../dp/007072542X

    I do not think you will find that chamber and barrel taper open ended tube shape as a plug and crank formula.
    I do not think you will be able to quantify the error introduced in how the strain gauge was glued.

    This leaves one with a trace that cannot be directly tied to NIST.
    Another layer of useless comes from the fact that if one did have something traceable and so did have actual psi, what would you do with it?
    The SAAMI registered max average pressures for a given cartridge are fairly off the wall and arbitrary for the advanced reloader. He is more interested in real feedback from the real weak link, the brass.

    I have all that equipment.
    I am not doing it. Two layers of uselessness are enough to make me find something better.

  13. #53
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by Willbird View Post
    If one applies hydraulic pressure in a controlled fashion....and develops a straight line of values as Mr. Vaughn did, why would it not be "eligible" ??
    You can walk through neck-deep water with only a few pounds of resistance, but almost everybody who tries for high diving records at over 170 feet suffers serious injury.

    That article starts like someone postisng on the internet. Of course there is a high degree of correlation between pressure testing (taken during firing) and pressure ring expansion in the case. But that expansion is the beginning of what goes wrong in an accident, or even in once-only use of brass. I'll go with Vernon Speer on its importance.

  14. #54
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ballistics in Scotland View Post
    From a safe distance when someone else is doing it, with any luck.

    I'm sure your information is good, but the blowup level or non-blowup level also owes a lot to the way a particular rifle supports the cartridges. Almost all modern cases reach their yield point, and with the many factors that can affect pressure, the rather small difference between that and rupture is far too narrow to aim at. So safety depends on limiting the distance the brass is permitted to yield, and where.

    Here is a case in point, and about as threatening a case-head and primer as you are liable to see, although it was done in a remotely controlled pressure gun during cartridge development. The headstamp is .375 H&H, but it was actually necked down for an experimental improved version of the monstrous .244 H&H Magnum. I may be wrong, but I think the friend who had the case and shoulder gauge got them from David Lloyd, who designed the original and his improved 6mm. Lloyd.


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    The gun itself is often WAY stronger than the cartridge case. I do not consider a ruptured case and escaping gas to be a "blow up"....or it is a different kind than when you actually break the gun due to excessive pressure. I saw a friend at a shoot have a massive overload in an AR15.....the case head swelled up to look like a belted magnum, and a pie shaped section blew out of the case head where the extractor is, yet the bolt was undamaged and once he got the case our he went back to shooting the gun, and still is today as far as I know. In his case it was reloads from a buddy. Personally I would have retired the bolt and barrel extension...because I want to keep my head attached.

    I saw a 22-250 round out of a 788 Remington that a buddy of my dads did too, he changed his mind after charging some cases, and dumped them out, and refilled with a different powder...but apparently he did not dump ALL the powder out of at least one case. He was using a powder fairly "fast" for 22-250 so there was room for plenty past a maximum book load. Again the gun was un harmed, he had exceeded the pressure limit of the brass but the rifle was much stronger.


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  15. #55
    Boolit Master

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    Quote Originally Posted by Clark View Post
    I am an EE, Denton that wrote that article is an EE, and we have debated on and off for over a decade. There is a third EE, Glenn, who really debates Denton more than me.
    My attitude is that anyone can buy a CEA-06-250UW-350 strain gauge, glue them to the outside of a rifle chamber, put a Wheatstone bridge around it, design a much better instrument amplifier than Oehler just by using modern op amps, hook it up to a garden variety storage scope, and voila, get a trace. The interpretation of that trace into something useful is going to be harder. The book of stress vs strain formulas for complex shapes is by Roark.
    http://www.amazon.com/Roarks-Formula.../dp/007072542X

    I do not think you will find that chamber and barrel taper open ended tube shape as a plug and crank formula.
    I do not think you will be able to quantify the error introduced in how the strain gauge was glued.

    This leaves one with a trace that cannot be directly tied to NIST.
    Another layer of useless comes from the fact that if one did have something traceable and so did have actual psi, what would you do with it?
    The SAAMI registered max average pressures for a given cartridge are fairly off the wall and arbitrary for the advanced reloader. He is more interested in real feedback from the real weak link, the brass.

    I have all that equipment.
    I am not doing it. Two layers of uselessness are enough to make me find something better.
    In my case there is no cartridge case . And I can directly calibrate to at least 15,000 PSI. Not an EE......but I bet I will get some traces . And in the case of a smokeless ML it is the only practical way to have much idea what is going on internal ballistics wise. Wandering off topic here .

    There are myriads of methods to catch samples other than a scope too.....

    I do agree that where there IS a cartridge case I'm very comfortable finding signs of it starting to yield then backing off. In guns as strong and equally as strong as say a 700 Remington. With a sane approach there is no danger there.
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  16. #56
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    Quote Originally Posted by Willbird View Post
    The gun itself is often WAY stronger than the cartridge case. I do not consider a ruptured case and escaping gas to be a "blow up"....or it is a different kind than when you actually break the gun due to excessive pressure.
    Direct breakage of a rifled firearm by pressure on steel. What more often happens, particularly with front-locking bolt actions, is that the case ruptures and the escaping gases burst the receiver ring. There is great variation twice over between one rifle and another, in the likelihood of the brass rupturing and in their ability to withstand it without bursting. Then if the gas escapes through ports or around the end of the bolt without bursting, there is great variation in the harm rifles allow them to do to the shooter.

    I have achieved a double ring bulge experimentally in a shotgun blocked with a couple of 5/16in. nuts wrapped in tissue, an obstruction I could easily move with a cleaning rod. The gases, or rather some part of them, created a bulge by piling up in a zone of very high pressure behind the charge as it decelerated. They then bounced back to the breech and hit the charge again - traveling about thirty inches while the charge had traveled two. This happens because gases are elastic, and like the spring from your ballpoint pen which disappears to the far wall of the room, therefore achieve far higher velocity than the projectile usually allows them to do. They are lighter than the bullet, but energy =MV².

    All cases yield and all modern guns are way stronger than the case. With modern rifled firearms, unless damaged or unwisely altered, it is usually a brass failure that produces steel failure. While this doesn't apply to a smokeless muzzle-loader, I think it is a project best left to large firms with full testing facilities, and best not bought from them when they have done it.

  17. #57
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ballistics in Scotland View Post
    Direct breakage of a rifled firearm by pressure on steel. What more often happens, particularly with front-locking bolt actions, is that the case ruptures and the escaping gases burst the receiver ring. There is great variation twice over between one rifle and another, in the likelihood of the brass rupturing and in their ability to withstand it without bursting. Then if the gas escapes through ports or around the end of the bolt without bursting, there is great variation in the harm rifles allow them to do to the shooter.

    I have achieved a double ring bulge experimentally in a shotgun blocked with a couple of 5/16in. nuts wrapped in tissue, an obstruction I could easily move with a cleaning rod. The gases, or rather some part of them, created a bulge by piling up in a zone of very high pressure behind the charge as it decelerated. They then bounced back to the breech and hit the charge again - traveling about thirty inches while the charge had traveled two. This happens because gases are elastic, and like the spring from your ballpoint pen which disappears to the far wall of the room, therefore achieve far higher velocity than the projectile usually allows them to do. They are lighter than the bullet, but energy =MV².

    All cases yield and all modern guns are way stronger than the case. With modern rifled firearms, unless damaged or unwisely altered, it is usually a brass failure that produces steel failure. While this doesn't apply to a smokeless muzzle-loader, I think it is a project best left to large firms with full testing facilities, and best not bought from them when they have done it.
    That is an opinion....and you are entitled to it . But many folks are very successful with them....and there are more and more makers making "substitutes" that come closer and close to being a "smokeless powder". Blackhorn 209 being just one example. They are designed to bulk up like black powder in a rough fashion.

    I did see a picture of a barrel that split and in splitting it broke the reciever.

    It was one of the Tikka rifles with stainless barrels. Factory rifle shooting factory ammo.

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...k/Dsc00032.jpg
    Last edited by Willbird; 01-05-2016 at 04:30 PM.
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  18. #58
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    I have just been reminded that the Rocky Mountain Cartridge Company turn cases from the solid, at a price which doesn't quite comply with the hope for economy in the opening post, but is a possibility. They don't say whether they use cartridge brass, but it is a possibility. The .22-10 or .22-15-60 Stevens (the latter being a .263in. head) should be adaptable, and it might be that they would do special work on a case that might fine a wider market.

    http://www.rockymountaincartridge.com/products.html

    http://www.ammo-one.com/221560STEV.html

  19. #59
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    I have also dipped into John J. Donnelly's "Handloader's Manual of Cartridge Conversions". He describes soldering tubing onto either specially made heads, or heads from existing cartridges which were turned down (if there is enough wall thickness to allow a half-inch or so length of contact.) I would want the head to have rather more metal in the solid head and wall than all-drawn case usually does, especially if free-turning brass was used. But I can't see that it wouldn't work with turned cartridge brass. A rough finish on the part to be soldered is all to the good.

    Donnelly recommends Brookstone S-01590 solder, with a tensile strength of 25,000 psi. I don't think either the company or the catalogue number still exist. But he mentions a 430 Fahrenheit melting point which is the same as the tin and lead solder which has become much more common in food and drinking water applications in recent years.

    Note that as I said in post 29, there is no direct connection between pressure psi and solder psi. That half-inch of hollow wall on the head will cause gas pressure to press the parts together. Donnelly recommends the technique for black powder, Pyrodex or light to medium charges of powder like 4198. But a .22WRM-sized round could be an extremely good small game one with such loads.

    In this website 230 Centigrade 430 Fahrenheit for the 96.5% tin, 3.5% silver alloy which your local plumber's merchant is sure to have, with the best flux. A eutectic alloy means the combination of constituents which will go straight from solid to liquid and vice versa, without an intervening pasty phase, which is a big help in getting it to flow.

    http://www.azom.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=2377

    Donnelly suggests heating the case on a hotplate rather than with a torch, to reach flowing temperature without excessive annealing. If those are red-hot coiled rings I would prefer to interpose a thick metal plate, or use an oven or electric heat gun.

    He also illustrates the Steelhead cases, and says they were made by the O'Connor Rifle Company, in 06 and Magnum sizes only. They are certainly no longer on the market, but something similar might be useful. The brass part was annealed all over, and screwed inside, not over, the stainless steel head. It is just a question whether we could get away with work hardened brass screwed over the head, but external plus annealed sounds like an impossible combination.

    The normal rule with cylindrical pressure vessels is that the smaller they are, the more pressure a given wall thickness will stand. I don't think you can apply this rule with cartridge cases. When they are small, a .001in. expansion, say, produces a greater circumferential stretching in a small tube than a large one.

  20. #60
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    I have "reloaded" the .22 WMR after a fashion in search of better accuracy. My rifle is a Mossberg 640 from some time in the 1960s or 1970s.

    My method was:
    1. Pull the Winchester FMJ bullets
    2. Weigh the powder charges and determine the average for recharging the case
    3. Resize the case mouths
    4. Expand the case mouths
    5. Recharge the cases
    6. Seat the new bullets

    The bullets that I used were Sierra 40 and 45 grn Hornet semi-points
    I used the original factory powder charge with both bullets.
    I seated both bullets out as far as I could while leaving about .150 bullet length in the case. This was to put the ogive closer to the origin of the rifling.

    I checked the expansion of fired cases. The cases were miked about .100 head of the rims. The 40 grn Sierra gave about the same CASE expansion as the factory bullets. Factory ammo expanded the cases about .001. The 45 grain bullet expanded the case about .003.
    Groups were much improved from about 3" with the factory WW FMJ at 100 yards down to about 1.5" to 1.75" with the Sierra bullets. Not match quality at all but I also tested factory Federal 50 grain bullets and they grouped 4" or worse.

    I feel like this round is in NO way fit to make a centerfire using the factory chamber. The brass simply does not have the strength. I don't really think the .22 Hornet brass has the strength either unless you are going to load reduced loads. Minimum brass for .22 cal might be .30 Carbine, .32 H&R, .218 Bee or similar and none of these are a lot smaller than the .375 diameter head of the plentiful .223 brass.

    However if you proceed be aware of the difference in size between the SAAMI cartridge chamber drawings and the cartridge drawings. The difference between the two is pretty sloppy and there is a loooooong jump from the length of factory ammo to the start of the rifling. With my rifle it was about .200.
    The excessive diametral clearance gave room for the cases to expand .003 mentioned above.
    EDG

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check