The saga of cast boolets in 222 Remington.

[castalott]

Another thought. That 61 grain boolet in my 1 in 14 twist was stable in the last load...the holes show it. Go up to the other load at a lower velocity and the holes show yaw. Will this boolet shoot at higher velocities? Hope so..we'll see.


and another view of the expansion..

[castalott]

A funny request... I don't have a google account. The 61 grain boolet was designed by a guy who has a Utube channel elvis ammo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM6lXdRiepk

If someone would let him know about this effort....


Thank You, Dale

[castalott]

More testing... These groups not so good and probably all my fault . Bad cold and bad bench technique...

Use book data..not mine





these two photos are the same load. I shot 4 and thought my bench technique was off. So I shot 5 more at the second target. If I had shot all 9 at the same target it would have looked better.

This is the Accurate 61 grain 'Elvis' boolet of WW sized .225 after 4 thin coats of HiTek. 6 grains of Unique for estimated 1775 fps. This is not a varmint boolet but more of a long range plinker to me. I did shoot this boolet in water filled milk jugs at 25 yards. Straight hole in the front side of #1, moderate tumbling as it entered back of #1 and start of #2. Severe tumbling at back of #2 and start of #3. The boolet was completely sideways here. It changed directions and exited down and to the right of the flight path. So penetration was 2.5-3 jugs (however you want to figure that) and then exit.

If you put the 2 groups together, the group would have been ~7/8 inch with a flyer off the the left in the white. The next warm day shooting some loads will be chronographed.

Should these boolets be heat treated? Will the baking at 450 degrees nullify the heat treatment? Could one dump the 450 degree boolets in cold water and kind of heat treat after the last Hi Tek coating? Anyone know?




This last picture is the Accurate 40 grain I designed. The scope showed off on the target when the extreme left and the extreme right holes appeared in the target. I felt awful and my bag technique was worse. Take out the 2 obvious 'goof up' shots and the group is ~3/4 inch. This boolet begs to be shot into milk jugs. No idea what it would do but it might be nasty.

We'll go on up in velocity until groups just fall apart or leading begins. Several more powders beg to be tried.. 700x is one of them...

last note... These bullets are just visually inspected..no weighing. The loads are thrown with a Lyman powder measure...again no weighing.

[Blackwater]

Thanks, Castalot. You've nearly got me sold on getting a CZ 527 in the Hornet now! You're costing me money, but hey! I forgive you!

[castalott]

I look forward to you doing this with the Hornet. I almost bought a Hornet as it is a cool case but then again I've heard bad stories about making them shoot.

Just remember these groups are at 39 yards... So not as impressive as you would think. But that one load with the 46 gr NOE boolet will take squirrels all day at that distance.

This frugal shooting shows my Scottish blood , I guess. 10 pounds of metal makes a lot of boolets , at least compared to 405 gr 45/70 slugs.

I'm still on the original 50 rounds of brass. How long will it last?

Oh... One last thought..Buy that Hornet & I'll send you a handful of the 40 grainers to try in it.

Are you starting to weaken yet?

Dale

[castalott]

I got out to chronograph some loads today. It was really cold and someone else's chrono but here goes.....


Arsenal 40 grain with 6 grains of Unique I estimated 2000 fps was 2121 fps....

The Noe 46 WFN with 5.0 grains Unique I estimated 1750 fps was 1593 fps...

The Arsenal 61 gr 'Elvis' with 6 grains Unique I estimated 2000 fps was 1775 fps...

I might repeat this in warmer weather to see what happens....

I don't seem to be very good at estimating velocities....

Dale

[runfiverun]

Dale I think OSOK [Charlie] knows elvisammo [or at least knows how to contact him]
he sent him some boolits to test for the hollow point thread, and elvisammo done a video ballistic gel test of them on the U-tube.

[castalott]

Cool.... I'll send him a PM...Thanks!

[castalott]

A rethink of the 40 grain Arsenal boolet:



I have covered the extreme left and extreme right impacts with a quarter to show what I think the group should be. I am sure my bench technique suffered to make at least these two hits outside of normal.

So 7 shots under an inch at 2100 fps. If I could get that down to 10 or 20 shots under 1/2 inch at that distance, I would have my garden pest load. I did shoot this load into a row of water jugs at 25 yards and must say it was not impressive. The first jug puffed a little and the slug exited left of the next jugs.

I'll repeat the test, maybe tomorrow. I am considering making a tool to put a 'dimple' on the nose to help expansion if tomorrow fails. I want a 'lights out' load for these pests. The NOE 45 WFN boolet that shoots so good would be a squirrel load deluxe but more 'zing' is needed for the heavier pests.

I've got Nosler 50 grainers on hand that should work just fine. But that's not teaching me anything about boolets.... They are not something I can make if supply goes crazy either....


Dale

[castalott]

And just for fun I covered those 7 shots with a quarter

[TCFAN]

[QUOTE=castalott;3946623]
I am considering making a tool to put a 'dimple' on the nose to help expansion if tomorrow fails. I want a 'lights out' load for these pests. The NOE 45 WFN boolet that shoots so good would be a squirrel load deluxe but more 'zing' is needed for the heavier pests.


That NOE 45gr.WFN kills pretty good just the way it is.I have used it as my main boolit for my 218 Bee using 11.5 grs. of IMR 4198. I don't know for sure what the velocity is but I would guess it is 2000 or a little less.I have killed all of the common yard varmints around the house as far as 15 to 75 yards or so. Every one that has been shot has been a one shot kill. These include possum,coon,armadillo,groundhog,skunk, and lots of squirrels both grey and fox that keep getting in my apple trees.Altogether maybe 30 or 35 animals just this past summer.I have been very impressed with this boolit. No trouble hitting golf balls at 100 yards from my bench rest...............Terry

[castalott]

That's interesting. What alloy, hardness, lube, and size did you work with? I would guess that is a loud report too....

In short, tell me everything... "Your tale, Sir, would cure deafness!" (William Shakespeare)

[runfiverun]

Dale I think I'm seeing a little tipping there.
it might just be a soft backer board or something else. [like maybe the boolit hasn't settled down just yet]
but the holes look to be just a touch off.

[castalott]

I have to angle the backer to the gun just a little to get the sun on it. The truncated cone doesn't cut clear holes either. I do see a couple that might be as you describe. I've looked really close and I just don't know.

Dale

[TCFAN]

That's interesting. What alloy, hardness, lube, and size did you work with? I would guess that is a loud report too....

In short, tell me everything... "Your tale, Sir, would cure deafness!" (William Shakespeare)

I cast for the 218 Bee using ACWW sized .225 with BAC lube and Hornady or Gator gas checks.The report is loud enough that I use ear protection when target shooting. Just to go out and shoot one shot or so the report does not bother me at all.But I do turn my hearing aids off..............Terry

[castalott]

One shot today of the Arsenal 40 gr custom into water jugs at about 10 yards. This is the WW load that chronos 2100fps with 4 thin coats of HiTek.









This WW boolet weighs 38.4 uncoated , 38.8 coated, and the recovered boolet weighs 36.4 grains.

Impact didn't seem impressive and it made it into the 2nd jug.

[castalott]

I ran some more of the 40 grain bullets (38 gr actually) with 6 gr Unique over 2 chronos at a time...today was a lot warmer... Average = 2157 FPS.

[runfiverun]

that mushroom looks impressive.
I think you have a winner in that arsenal mold.

[35remington]

Try any 2400 or similar powder yet?

[castalott]

I am in over my head. Having a wonderfully accurate rifle and 3 top notch molds helps a lot. My skill and experience are the limiting factor here. I sincerely thank everyone for their help. ( Please continue!)

The 22 replacement effort has evolved into a 3 prong study. I want performance bullets on game at 3 levels- 22 velocity, something approaching 22 mag power, and the best that can be done for a powerful all purpose varmint load- all plain base. All of these loads must have an expanding/ fragmenting bullet. These bullets may be limited to 100 yards effective range ( if that). My shooting skills in the real world would likely limit shots to less than 50 yards...maybe a lot less!

The idea of a 200 yard plinking load with a bullet of better BC seems doable too. I doubt this effort has an end soon although I may drift off to another caliber that needs attention...

Unique powder has been the main one so far. Yes. More powders need to be tried. 2400 and red dot lead the long list. More alloys need tried too.

I am not on the leading edge of this effort but the trailing. No doubt a thousand shooters on this site have already accomplished my goals and moved on. In fact, many of my ideas come from others who have paved the road for me.

My only claim to fame is a good camera, some modest shutterbug skills from the 70s, and a place to post the efforts. I am hoping others share their results. It seems the Australians are ahead of the curve on this and we can't have that. ( Just kidding- I love the Australians!)

So I see this effort as a place to talk to friends I've never met...develop things I've only dreamed of...and share the joy of experimenting and learning something new and useful...

Dale