22 Long Rifle Mold

[easy ed]

Does anyone make molds for 22 Long Rifle projectiles ? I have looked all over the net and can find nothing.

Thanks

Easy Ed

[Hick]

Sources I have looked at say that 22LR is 0.22 to as high as 0.224. That being the case, a mold that works for a 223 Remington (or maybe 222 remington?) should do what you want.

[M-Tecs]

As you are aware you needed a heeled bullet for the 22LR

http://22lrreloader.com/design-details/


You can purchase 22 cal heeled bullets here: https://northamericanarms.com/shop/parts/cbb3/

[17nut]

http://oldwestbulletmoulds.com/produ...e-cavity-mould

http://oldwestbulletmoulds.com/produ...ifle-crimp-die

[easy ed]

Thanks to everyone - just what I wanted

Easy Ed

[bob208]

there is an out fit advertising in back woodman mag. they have a mold a loading tool and priming compound for .22 rim fire.

[LAGS]

I bought one of the 22LR reloading tools recently.
It comes with a 38 grain RN mold and a 25 gr pointed mold
The mold is OK for plinking, ans bare bones survial conditions.
I am still playing with the kit, and have had good results.
It is not going to produce Factory Quality ammo.
But it is better than having No 22 ammo to shoot.
I plan to try and make a similar set up for reloading my 32 RF.
The priming compound is Very Dirty, and corrosive, but better than nothing.
You just have to stay up on your cleaning.
So far, the best results have been with using Pyrodex pistol powder.

[Traffer]

Dang I just wrote a long post and hit something that erased the whole thing. There are several threads here that go into detail about reloading 22lr. I have heard that pyrodex is about the worst powder to use. People struggling to get 650 fps with it. I have been reloading 22lr for a year now. Have learned lots. One big thing is crimping. When using smokeless powder crimping is important. I have heard that the kit crimps but I am not sure. I use HS6 for powder. But you will have trouble igniting it without a tight crimp. There are lots of powders probably better than HS6. You can easily achieve normal velocities and high velocities with 22lr reloads depending on the powder, crimp, diameter of bullet, hardness of the bullet, primer etc. Reloading Rimfire is roughly 10x harder than reloading normal ammo. Good luck.

I bought one of the 22LR reloading tools recently.
It comes with a 38 grain RN mold and a 25 gr pointed mold
The mold is OK for plinking, ans bare bones survial conditions.
I am still playing with the kit, and have had good results.
It is not going to produce Factory Quality ammo.
But it is better than having No 22 ammo to shoot.
I plan to try and make a similar set up for reloading my 32 RF.
The priming compound is Very Dirty, and corrosive, but better than nothing.
You just have to stay up on your cleaning.
So far, the best results have been with using Pyrodex pistol powder.

[GrayTech]

Dang I just wrote a long post and hit something that erased the whole thing.

Try hitting "control" and "z" buttons together if it happens again. It will undo whatever your last command was.

[Traffer]

I bought a Lee 225-RF for about $25 on eBay. It makes 55 grain bullets which is too heavy. When I first started I used to cut the bullets down putting them in a "tube" that was just a bit bigger diameter than the bullet that would taper to smaller than the bullet. That caused the bullet to lodge in the tube. Putting the bullet in the tube nose first gave me access to the base of the bullet with a drill bit ("2 drill bit.) That I used to cut the bullet down to 40 grains or less. It has the added advantage of putting a slight cup in the base of the bullet that is also advantageous. However the grooves in the bullets from that mold do not line up well for reloading. I ground a "tunnel" in the face of a small pair of electricians pliers that I used to squeeze the bullet to a smaller diameter at the base allowing me to load these in the 22lr cases. It worked pretty well and surprisingly not really that slow. I have since totally changed my approach though. I now make 22lr bullets by swaging. It took me darn near a year to finally get a set of dies that work acceptably but now I have bullets better than factory made. I also powder coat them.
This is an example of a bullet that I cut down from the Lee 225-55RF mold. These are pics of the bullets that I swage now:

The last few pictures are of the dies that I made to swage the bullets. (You can see a bullet in the heel die portion of the die on the second to last picture.
And the last picture has a bullet in the nose forming die with the heel swaged into the bullet.

Does anyone make molds for 22 Long Rifle projectiles ? I have looked all over the net and can find nothing.

Thanks

Easy Ed

[LAGS]

The referance to the Pyrodex giving Good Results was due to Consistant Ignition.
The smokeless loads were hit and miss unless you added a filler to keep the powder back in the case and keep the priming compound from Fluffing off.
But I got overpressured loads with most smokeless powders and a filler, if I didnt reduce the powder load.
But the pyrodex and a filler worked great.
Fired almost every time.
But with BP or pyrodex, I could almost fill the case and no filler was needed.
For plugging bunnies at close range to put meat on the table, I would rather have a slow bullet then a misfire and scare off the game.
And in a survival situation, you can make BP at home.
But I have not given up on working on smokeless loads.

[John Boy]

Thanks to everyone - just what I wanted
Easy Ed

Ed, if you buy the mold & crimp die - what are you going to do making the reloads: smokless or black powder

For the good of the order, I reload 22LR cases with 4.5gr Swiss Null-B. The velocity equals smokeless at 1030 fps

[LAGS]

I think the original 22 LR load was 5.0 gr of 4F BP
I can not get 5.0 gr in a 22 LR case.
So 100 years ago, the powder may have has a different weight to volume than our modern powders.

[69daytona]

i have a 60gr gas check mold I bought long ago and tried it without a gas check in a 22lr case, it fit perfect, only problem was it needed a crimp and none of my 22s had a throat long enough for the bullet to feed. I sized it to .222 same size as I slugged the barrel.

[w30wcf]

I think the original 22 LR load was 5.0 gr of 4F BP

I can not get 5.0 gr in a 22 LR case.
So 100 years ago, the powder may have has a different weight to volume than our modern powders.

LAGS,

I have seen both the 4.5 and 5 grs of b.p. shown in early catalogs. I was fortunate enough to find a 50 round box of UMC black powder .22 LR cartridges several years ago. They contained 4.5 grs. of b.p.

Swiss b.p. is more dense than other b.p.'s and 5 grs will fit into a .22 L.R. case but testing indicated that 4.5 grs. was definitely more accurate, almost 50% more. As John Boy indicated, we have found that 4.5 Swiss Null B works very well.

No crimp required. (The U.M.C. rounds were not crimped.)

SMOKELESS -
Try 1.5 grs of either Bullseye or Titegroup or 1.8 grs of 231 WITH NO FILLER. They all shot well and produced velocities similar to current High Velocity .22 L.R. ammo. 2.0 / Unique also worked very well.

w30wcf

[LAGS]

I tried the 1.5 of Bullseye, (no filler ) and had lots of misfires like I mentioned.
But with 1.0 gr and a little filler it was more reliable on the ignition.
Then I tried 1.5 with a filler, and had the backs of three cases blow off.
Now to get back on topic, what do those of you with one of these reloaders think of the Boolit or the mold in general ?

[John Boy]

Now to get back on topic, what do those of you with one of these reloaders think of the Boolit or the mold in general ?

Lags, don't own the mold or the crimper - but spent the money for both:
* Will give me a 40gr bullet mold. Now have a custom 42gr UMC match bullet mold from David Mos
* Can remove the heel - should give me a 38gr bullet for 22 Short-40gr for the 22 Long & Long Rifle with the heel
* Have 22 Short - 22 Long & 22 LR rifles - so all reloads are covered for bullet & crimp die
* Crimp die looks like it will work nicely to exclude using the Lyman .025 H&I die
Old West has a strong recommendation in the shooting community - so why be afraid to order a mold & crimp die

Now to repeat: What are any posters going to do with a 22 caliber RF mold for bullets and how are you going to reload them? Why Ask? ... Very few reloaders are going to use it anyway!
There's less than a half dozen handloaders in the US that reload 22 rimfires! w30wcf & myself do more 22 rimfire reloads that all the others put together! Traffer even sent me a modification kit to even make 22LR hollow base reloads. I have a box of 50 done and a To Do comparing them to flat base reloads for accuracy!

[Traffer]

Curious, what kind of filler did you use? I would like to try using filler to save on powder. If I can reliably reload with say 1.25 grains of smokeless powder and have the filler bump up the pressure, I would like to try that. Yes I am cheap.

The referance to the Pyrodex giving Good Results was due to Consistant Ignition.
The smokeless loads were hit and miss unless you added a filler to keep the powder back in the case and keep the priming compound from Fluffing off.
But I got overpressured loads with most smokeless powders and a filler, if I didnt reduce the powder load.
But the pyrodex and a filler worked great.
Fired almost every time.
But with BP or pyrodex, I could almost fill the case and no filler was needed.
For plugging bunnies at close range to put meat on the table, I would rather have a slow bullet then a misfire and scare off the game.
And in a survival situation, you can make BP at home.
But I have not given up on working on smokeless loads.

[LAGS]

The filler was regular Pillow stuffing, I think it is polyester.
I started off just using the stuffing I would pick up off the floor when my dog chewed holes in her toys.
But I also use Corn Meal .
And no, it is not being cheap to try to reduce your powder consumption.
But the load and your needs are most important.
But filler may Boost the Pressure, but I dont know if it relates directly to upping your Volocity in FPS.
But my main reason for a Filled Case was to keep the powder from rattling around and making the primer compound fall off the back of the case in spots.
I need to work on a better primer Binder than Acetone.
Something thay will not let the priming compound turn back to powder when dry.
But still allow the friction needed to let the compound ignight when compressed suddenly.
Any Suggestions ?

[Traffer]

If you are making your own primer gum of arabic will work. It is the stuff they use to hold the paper and caps together on toy roll caps.