22LR Jackets and Prairie Dogs (Warning: Pictures included)

[Metroxfi]

I know this section is for hunting with cast but I wanted to share this anyway.
I've been swaging 55gr .224" jacketed bullets using 22LR shells and loading them with a medium load in 223rem. In early June we had some relatives from the Seattle area come out to visit and the guy (I think he's my great uncle... not sure, anyways) had always wanted to shoot prairie dogs. He has a Remington ADL 223 he's used for squirrels here and there but never much volume. He brought his rifle along and I supplied him, my dad, and my uncle all with enough 223 loaded with the rimfire jacketed bullets to bring down Armageddon on a P-dog town. I'm not sure of the specifics on every shot but here are some examples of what the bullets will do.

This one was shot by my Dad. He said it was just inside 100yds on all fours facing him.

I snagged this one in the head from about 140yds.







These were all shot with the 55gr .224" bullets made from 22Lr shells and stick on wheel weight lead, my load was an easy 25.0gr of IMR 4064 for just over 3100fps. Obviously shots within 100yds are brutal but I was surprised by the 200yd+ shots, not only that we hit many that far but when we did they were still torn up quite a bit. I used to use Hornady bulk SP and HP 55gr .224" and especially the SP's didn't want to expand much past 150yds, you'd see the impact and watch the dog tumble then scamper back to the hole, none of that with these bullets.

I never really came across any info like this when I was starting to swage so I didn't really know what to expect, I've been doing it for just over five years now and I have to say the kit was worth every penny.

[Scorpion8]

Ashes to ashes, prairie dog to dust.... good shooting!

[brass410]

looks pretty effective to me. properly applied to an appropriate target.

[skeettx]

YES, my 22LR jacketed bullets do the same, well done, well done
Mike

[Swede44mag]

Looks like the 22 recycled boolits are just the ticket for p-dogs.

Tell us what brand of swaging dies you used.
I bought a heavy barrel Savage .223 a couple months ago and would like to make my own swaged bullets to use on p-dogs song-dogs and maybe some crows.

[skeettx]

I have used Corbin, old RCBS, and others.
In reality, much cheaper in time to buy good bullets.
Mike

[telebasher]

Coyotes and Buzzards will eat well later !

[Metroxfi]

Personally I have the die set from Corbins. The kit is a bit spendy, especially when you consider you should have a way to cast cores and possibly the extra expense of a core swage die. It was expensive but in my opinion completely worth it, not only for making an unlimited supply of bullets for my own use but also making bullets for trade. I have a friend that has a few AR's and he shoots a lot more prairie dogs than I do, he just happens to work at a tire shop... it's amazing the amount of Wheelweights a guy can accrue when you have something of value to trade for them.

Telebasher, we were getting swarmed with buzzards towards the end of the day. Honestly though, most of them are eaten by... the other prairie dogs. It's frickin gross to see but makes good bait for more shots.

[Hickory]

I've been making and using these type of bullets since 1981 and have killed many thousands of prairie dogs. If you take your time to get a good base on the bullet they will shoot very well.
I have also used jackets from Sierra and J4 that shoot only slightly better.
Most naysayers don't take the time to do it right.

[Blackwater]

That's something I've long played with doing, but have never pulled the trigger on. Thanks. You just put me closer to following suit!

[nagantguy]

Very Interesting;well done sor this is also on my projects list that seems to get longer by the day!

[dale2242]

I bought 120 lbs. of 52 gr. bullets from a friend that was selling them for the family of a deceased friend of his.
That is over 16K bullets. I completely shot out the barrel of a Ruger M77 223.
My son and I finally shot them all.
We took a heavy toll on the sage rat population in Eastern Oregon.
They weren`t bench rest accurate but would definitely shoot minute-of-sage rat.
We called them Junk Yard bullets.
Mine were made on Corbin dies.
I talked to Dave Corbin and he says dies and a press run right at $800....dale

[runfiverun]

our very own BT Sniper was doing some discount 223 die sets not too long ago.
the other stuff I have got from him has turned out bullets that most can't tell apart from store bought.
if anyone is interested it would be worth their time to check out the swaging section and look at his stuff.

all I know is I was able to keep on shooting my 22 cal rifles through that last mess, some jacketed some cast....

[swheeler]

I would say the expansion is explosive! Blood and guts what's not to like.

[Metroxfi]

My main die set is from Corbins but I purchased a separate core swage die from BT sniper later and i'm glad I did. Weights are within .2gr when I don't match components, they're spot on when I do take the time to pre-weigh the jacket/core combo. I've never had an issue with the firing pin dent, I do discard the shells that I can see daylight through though. Even the "rejects" I get with the little fold on the noses shoots fine, can't tell a difference at 100yds. I worked a load for my Remington 700VTR in 223 with these and I want to say I settled on 20.6gr of IMR 4198, three shot group at 100yds was two holes touching and the third was straight left about a half inch. I played around once when we were in the badlands, I ranged a semi-large rock at 540yds and I wanted to see how the Nikon M223 scope with the BDC reticle worked. Once I found the proper holdover I put about a dozen rounds on the rock. I walked all the way over to it and it was smaller than I thought, about 18" high and 36" wide chunk of sandstone that was pelted with gray spots from the impacts. I realized that it's not too impressive to have like a 20" group at 540yds but I was happy about it, especially with bullets made of garbage.

Taking the time to do it right definitely has it's benefits, I tumble the jackets twice (once before drawing to jackets and again after annealing) in stainless steel media and I also wash the cores in a degreasing solution and rinse well before I put them together so the jackets are clean inside and out and there is no lube between the jacket and core. As BT said in one of his threads, the key to accuracy is properly cleaned components. I've always wanted to buy even a small batch of commercial jackets to try but I've always been happy with the rimfire ones. I also sort my 22LR shells by brand and that makes everything much easier and more consistent, for instance Winchester 22 shells are about 10.0-10.2gr each while the Federal are 10.4-10.5gr each and the federal are also a bit longer. Not a huge difference but it does show in the final product.

Wow Dale, 120lbs of bullets is no joke! This last spring I surprised my friend with an enormous batch of 22LR shell bullets for all his help in getting me wheel weights. A while back I had him pick which headstamp he wanted his bullets made out of, he chose CCI so I sorted out a bucket full of 22 shells that were swept up from an indoor range after a competition and got a heck of a pile of CCI's out of it. It took me a week worth of evenings after work to draw them all into jackets, one evening of annealing and tumbling, a weekend worth of casting cores, a week of evenings to process cores, another week to seat cores, and a final week to form noses. All in all it took me a month but I was able to produce just shy of 6,800 55gr bullets for him. It was sad though, they all fit into a single 50cal ammo can so it wasn't very impressive when I gave it to him but all those weighed just over 50lbs, I can't imagine 120lbs! Id say that'd be a lifetime worth of bullets but realistically it's more like a couple fun summers worth

It was quite a learning curve when I started making them though, got a couple bullets stuck in the point forming die and gave up and let the kit sit for about a year. That's when I sat down and actually thought through the process fully and broke down each step to fully understand what was happening and what needed to happen. Then I started sorting the shells by brand and built a stainless tumbler to clean everything and I started having much better success. I now just take the time to make large batches, it's easier to draw out a couple thousand 22 shells into jackets before moving onto the next step than it is to only do a couple hundred and keep bouncing back and forth to make more. Just make a ton of jackets, then cast more cores than you think you'll need and keep them in sealed containers so they don't get dusty. When you want to make some bullets you have the components already, just assemble! I usually use two molds when I cast, let one solidify while I drop bullets and pour the second mold, so I'll cast say 45 auto bullets with the same alloy as the core for the 22Lr shell bullets. I'll cast with the 45 auto mold and the core mold at the same time, whether I think I need cores or not. That way I always have components for swaging and I also get good, clean sprue cuts on my 45 bullets from letting it properly solidify.

[Metroxfi]

I found this picture from a couple years ago. Shot with the same bullets by my brother. I ranged it at 104yds (I took notes) it was on all fours facing him perfectly, it was between us and the hole and he hit it square in the face. When he hit it I saw some pieces fly upward but the dog just seemed to flop backwards. What gets me it what appears to be an extreme lack of penetration, now i'm not saying it's a bad thing in this case but there are no marks on the ground indicating a deflected bullet. The bullet could have glanced and gone upward and I'd never know it, either way it only penetrated about 3 inches into the dog. I know these bullets are explosive and they dump a ton of energy in a short amount of time but somehow I was expecting it to go further. Again, It's not a bad thing, I'd rather have to much expansion than not enough when it comes to varmints. I just want to give you guys an idea of what these things will and won't do. They'll shred varmints and are great for plinking around, I wouldn't use them on a meat animal or anything like deer or antelope because of a potentially slight lack of penetration. Commercial jackets (which are thicker) and bonding the cores should solve that problem though. Much like any kind of hunting, it's purely situational. What works perfect for one thing might not be right for another, I sure wouldn't shoot an expanding solid copper bullet at a prairie dog and I wouldn't shoot a deer with a bullet like these.

The day we shot this one was a bit of a sad day, there was a herd of cattle in the area that left when we got there. They all left except for a gigantic white bull, he stayed there for quite a while just laying down. After a few hours he tried to get up and walk and he clearly had a broken front leg. We had to track down the rancher and let him know, he said every year he has cattle break their legs in the prairie dog holes. Down in the badlands there are a few skeletons of cattle miles from anywhere with broken legs too.

Very recently, I'm not sure exactly where it happened, some ranchers are being charged with killing several bald eagles. Apparently they poisoned a few prairie dog towns, the dogs died, the eagles ate the poisoned dogs and died themselves. Something many people don't think of, if it would have been some coyotes that died that's one thing but eagles? What about a farmers barn cats? What about you're own K9 friend? Not to mention the slow, painful agony of being poisoned to death. That's why it's more humane to just flip the switch and turn the lights out on the little rat ********... They're dead right now before they even hear the sound of the shot, instead of hours or days of a slow death. At least that's what I tell the people who say it's sick to go shoot prairie dogs.

[dk17hmr]

I shoot them from my 22-250 Ackley for fireforming cases. They work well on pdogs at 3550fps that's for sure.

[runfiverun]

you can manipulate them to act a bit different too.
we went to Nevada a couple of years back to shoot ground squirrels and I spent an entire day filling the hollow points on many of my bullets with a piece of #5 shot.
the results went from woah,, to holy cow did you see that?

[Blackwater]

Capped HP's! They really DO make a difference!

[smilin jack]

We (6 of us) have been using 224 slugs swagged from 22LR brass for several years on jack rabbits, squeaks and the like with pretty much the same results. Most of our slugs are HP.

Russ made a lead extrude die that screws into a 20 pound scrap of 4" shaft stock and uses a 20 Ton air powered shop press to make lead wire for cores. He made a tool similar to a guillotine to make same length cores.

He makes 40 to 78 gr slugs with the 55gr best in my opinion. I use the swagged slugs in the AR, Ruger 77 youth and HR break action with similar results. The bolt and break both have scopes and can regularly hit the 18" gong at 500 yards. They do shoot pretty well.
We all collect the empty 22LR brass for him.