Help! Crimp or No Crimp on a .22 Rem. Jet Mag. in a S&W 53 Revolver

[MW3840]

I am in dire need of some professional advice from all you .22 Rem. Jet Mag. reloaders, who reload for the S&W Model 53 revolver. I am beginning the loading process for it, have had it 4 years, but was reluctant to start because of all the bad hype regarding the cylinder locking up. But I am taking the bull by the horns. Is there a need for a crimp in lieu of it is only being a 40 gr. bullet, and setback should not be severe with moderate loads, if neck tension is good? Also, how often should I clean the cylinder and shells with lighter fluid or acetone so as not to have a lockup?

I am looking at going with the accuracy load in one of my older Lyman manuals, which consists of 11.0 grs. of IMR-4227. Has anyone used this load in a 53 revolver, and if so, how was the accuracy.

Any other tips you wise guru's could share would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

[earlmck]

Loaded revolvers for years and hornets for years but just for single-shots, so no experience with little boolits moving forward. Your revolver will soon tell you whether you need to crimp or not, but I'm betting you will need a crimp to keep those boolits in place. Anyway, you are going to find out real quick and then you can be our "resident expert".

[Harry O]

I used to have one many, many years ago. That was before reasonably priced chrono's, so I cannot give you any velocities.

First of all IT WILL LOCK UP. Even with factory loads. Carry a rubber mallet with you. When it locks up, hold the thumb release back and tap the cylinder with the rubber mallet. You won't get it open any other way.

I always cleaned my guns after each use and wiped them down (inside and out) with gunoil before putting them away. That is the worst thing you can do for the .22 Jet. I later learned that degreasing the inside of the cylinder was absolutely necessary before going shooting. My father got me a can of Carbon Tetrachloride (he used it whenever he really needed to degrease something) to spray in it and wipe it down before shooting. The first time I tried it, I thought I ruined the bluing. It looked strange. However, cleaning and re-oiling it after shooting made the bluing look perfectly OK again. I understand that Carbon Tetrachloride is now banned, so something else will be needed, but a commercial degreaser should work. After I started degreasing it before shooting, I had much less problems with the cylinder locking up.

At first, I only shot factory loads. After a bunch of brass accumulated, I tried reloading. Crimping was needed for me. I don't know if playing with (reducing) the neck expander would have given enough neck tension to get rid of crimping. I didn't try that, so crimping was needed. There is not a lot of recoil, but it is much sharper than .22LR, so the bullets can work forward without a crimp.

I never tried cast bullets in it. That was before I did any casting. I used commercially available jacketed bullets. Make sure you get crimped ones. When I started loading with recommended loads, I had cylinder locking problems again. I reduced the load until the problem pretty much went away. I don't know what the velocity ended up, but it was still a lot more than the .22LR. Of course, this was also before "hyper-velocity" .22LR's. BTW, the .22 Jet/.22LR converters are worthless. Difficult to use and much less accuracy. I used the S&W Jet with centerfire only and a S&W Masterpiece for .22LR.

Accuracy was good with the S&W and the .22 Jet, but it was more trouble than it was worth so I eventually got rid of it.

[JMax]

I even have a couple of jet hammers in my parts box in the basement from the days when I was a gunsmith.

[dondiego]

You have an S&W Model 53 Rem. Jet Mag revolver and you are still shooting it? Good for you!

[MW3840]

dondiego,
By your comment, do you mean to infer why would anyone go through all the trouble to getting it to shoot? Or because some would consider it a collectable? I am at the 'collectable age' myself, and want to remove that .22 Jet itch from my bucket list.

[Bent Ramrod]

I never crimped mine. No recoil, and the bullets are too light to have much inertia. The .223” bullets I mostly loaded didn’t move in the shells.

Somebody had slightly roughened the insides of the chambers of mine. Not enough to interfere with extraction, but enough for the shells to slightly grip and not set back. I wiped the oil out of the chambers before firing, and made sure there was no case lube in the shells, but didn’t do any extreme degreasing. No setback, and no hard extraction either.

I shot it until I got tired of the earsplitting detonations and sent it to S&W for a .22 LR cylinder. Makes a great .22 rimfire.

[243winxb]

For more powder choice. http://stevespages.com/222p_1_40.html

[badgeredd]

I have a 22 Jet in a Contender so my advice on set back would be a guess more than from experience. IF I were lucky enough to have a 53 in my possession, I would down load it with cast bullets at slower velocities. From what I have read many times, degreasing is absolutely essential. I would lightly crimps my rounds too. Good luck with you endeavour.

[Nueces]

I had a nice one briefly and had read all the warnings about case setback. When shooting the few factory rounds I had, I degreased the chambers and cases with alcohol before loading and found I had no setback at all.

But, boy howdy, did that thing yell!

[dondiego]

dondiego,
By your comment, do you mean to infer why would anyone go through all the trouble to getting it to shoot? Or because some would consider it a collectable? I am at the 'collectable age' myself, and want to remove that .22 Jet itch from my bucket list.

I made that remark because the firearm and the ammo is quite scarce! I have never fired one and that is saying quite a bit. I still shoot my old, collectibles occasionally. You are a lucky man! Hey, just noticed that you are from around Saginaw! I could come help you shoot some of that ammo!

[John Boy]

Here's a diagram of the caliber ... http://www.dave-cushman.net/shot/22_remington_jet.html

I would put a factory crimp on the reloaded cases

[Soundguy]

I would lightly crimp as well. I reload 218 Bee for a bolt rifle and the rounds in the magazine will set back from the near non existant recoil because the brass at the neck is so paper thin that there is almost no neck tension by just seating them.

Your brass neck thickness is probably only .014 at the projectile, if not thinner. And depending upon the brass quality and spring back, retention tension just from sizing may not be enough.

[mdi]

IIRC; didn't someone design an "improved" chamber/case that pretty much eliminated setback?

[Nueces]

IIRC; didn't someone design an "improved" chamber/case that pretty much eliminated setback?

Yes, the 22 Super Jet was one such design. Looked like the north end of a 223 round.

[Harry O]

I don't know about other people's experience, but I tried to make cases out of .357 Magnum brass with the dies I used for reloading. No success. I believe that at least one and maybe two intermediate steps would have been necessary for it to work. I tried alcohol for degreasing the chambers like mentioned above, but without much luck. It helped a little bit. That is when I went to Carbon Tetrachloride. That worked.

I did not have a chrono at the time (late 1960's-early 1970's), but my subjective impression is as follows. When I started handloading, it was with recommendations in magazine articles at the time. They seemed to be more powerful than the factory loads. They also locked up the cylinder even with degreasing. I started reducing the load until I did not have much problems with locking. When that was reached, it seemed to be about the same or maybe just a hair less powerful than factory loads. After finding a load, and degreasing regularly, I had very little problem with locking. HOWEVER, it never totally went away. Every once in a while one would set back and lock things up as long as I had it.

It has been 40 to 50 years, so I do not remember the details of the load. I seem to remember that I was using 2400 powder and 40-45gr jacketed, flat-point, soft-nose bullets (with a cannelure - crimping groove). I think the bullets were made for the .218 Bee. I have often wondered if a shortened .22 K-Hornet would have been a better cartridge for S&W to use.

This is not my only experience with a bad/difficult .22 centerfire. I had a Savage 99 takedown in .22 Savage Hi-Power that was just as much of a headache. Read Ken Water's article on this one if you want to see how difficult it was. Here is my article on it:

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/22_hipower.htm

[denul]

My 8&3/8" 53 works fine with 45 gr jacketed bullets, 2400, and never seems to stick at all. I've had good luck making cases by annealling .357 brass before single pass resizing. The extremely light recoil, with intense, concussive muzzle blast takes some getting used to, and quickly can revive an old flinching habit you thought you had fixed while shooting heavy big bore magnum loads.

[MW3840]

A big 'THANK YOU' to all of you for all the information you've been sending. And please keep them coming. There is no such thing as too much information, contrary to what I'm told from time to time.

I haven't been this excited since October, when my wife and I were walking across the pasture, coming home from the neighbors Halloween party dressed in a cow costume. I, being bigger, was in the front, and my wife in the rear. The neighbors bull came running up, snotting and snorting, and my wife asked "What are we going to do? I told her I was going to start eating grass, but was I her, I would brace myself.

[Bent Ramrod]

I lucked into the forming dies for the Jet, and made some out of .357 Magnum brass. They didn’t last for many reloads, especially the nickel-plated stuff. Fortunately, I’ve always been able to find enough original Remington .22 CFM or Jet brass to run mine. The cases, especially at the mouths, are very heavy, and it’s rare that I lose a case.

I always full-length resize. Alcohol doesn’t dissolve hydrocarbon oils very well at all. There are still some spray brake and electronics cleaners that have trichloroethylene in them, and that’s what I use for degreasing stuff. Read the warnings on the cans till you find the real thing, and avoid breathing it or getting it on your hands. Good acetone, that evaporates without leaving its own oily residue, is a good second choice, if you can find some.

I am eternally grateful that I got a job soon after acquiring the Model 53 that required hearing protection. Before that, I found loud explosions exhilarating, but I got used to wearing earplugs at work and started taking them to the range as well. To that I owe my ability to hear anything quieter than factory whistles and rock music “turned up to 11.”

As I recall, firing the Jet wasn’t so much a loud noise as it was the sensation that somebody had put a tenpenny nail in my ear and smacked it home with a baseball bat. Even with earplugs and earmuffs together (recommended) I still feel that overpressure wave on my face, compressing my sinuses like a deep dive off a board used to do. No recoil; the target (or what remained of it) still sat on the sight picture after firing, but, as mentioned, an insidious flinch-producer nonetheless.

[FISH4BUGS]

I had an 8 3/8" 4 screw Jet many years ago and hunted woodchucks with it. Had a blind hold drilled in the top strap under the rear sight assembly for a scope to mount on it. Shot it a LOT.
Degrease the cylinders. Period. That is the only issue.
But yes, it did ROAR! Always fun to shoot at the range.