Cast .22 Heeled Bullets?

[Josh Smith]

Hello,

I'm looking for some way to cast .22 heeled bullets for custom loading rimfire ammo.

I'm not having much luck in finding a mold, though Corbin, I believe, talks about swaged lead bullets.

Is anyone aware of anyplace that sells 40gn LRN molds?

Thanks,

Josh

[Mk42gunner]

Josh,

I think you will need a custom mold for this. Where are you planning toget the primed cases from? I think the ammo factories quit selling primed rimfire cases about a hunderd years ago. Or are you going to buy loaded ammo and pull the bullets?

Robert

[Josh Smith]

Hello,

I can prime fired cases, but newly primed cases are back in production.

Mostly though, this is for playing around with specialty subsonic loads.

Thanks!

Josh

[Jack Stanley]

Would a gas check shank of a normal bullet work or is it the wrong size for what you need ?

Jack

[82nd airborne]

How cost effective does it end up being?

[Josh Smith]

Would a gas check shank of a normal bullet work or is it the wrong size for what you need ?

Jack

That depends. I only need the heel to be about .20" vs .224".

I don't know how thick these are..?

Thanks,

Josh

[Josh Smith]

How cost effective does it end up being?

I don't know. It's purely experimentation, so I've not weighed that as a factor.

Josh

[82nd airborne]

Very interesting, Id like to know more as your experiment progresses.

[smlekid]

I'm on the look out for a mould like you describe for loading the 297/230 morris please post if you find one!!

[Mk42gunner]

Would a gas check shank of a normal bullet work or is it the wrong size for what you need ?

Jack

The gas check shank from a Lyman 225438 would not fit into a fired long rifle case. I tried it today.

Robert

[Larry Gibson]

Check with Rapine Moulds, they make odd stuff like that.

Larry Gibson

[garandsrus]

Joshua,

A relatively cheap option might be to modify an existing mold similar to what Catshooter has done. The top of the mold was milled away and replaced with a new piece of material having the correct shank diameter. Catshooter did this to add a gas check to a mold that wasn't gas checked if I remember correctly. What you are doing should be very similar, just a longer reduced shank.

Here's the thread: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=68205

John

[w30wcf]

Joshua,
30 gr. heeled 22 caliber bullets can be purchased from North American Arms
http://www.naaminis.com/naac&b.html
scroll towards the bottom of the page

I bought some of these bullets but have not had a chance to test them yet.
I wish they or someone offered 40 gr. heeled bullets.

I have reloaded 22 L.R. cases with the Ideal/Lyman 225107 bullet and the gas check shank fit perfectly. The bullets were given to me by a distant friend. I do not have that discontinued mold and ebay prices typically run $100+.

I do have the Lyman 225438 and the NEI 45 gr and the heels of those 2 bullets also fit perfectly into 22 l.r. cases (neck flared slightly). The problem, though is that the oal is too long to feed through my Marlin 39A and the chambering in my bolt actions is a bit difficult due to rifling interference.

So.....I shortened the 225438 bullet in my lathe and recut the heel. I am planning to make the mold modification to produce the bullet as cast.... pictured in the below photo.

My interest is duplicating the early late 1800's b.p. 22 l.r.

middle - 225107
right - 225438 modified 42 grs

w30wcf

[Josh Smith]

Thanks, w30wcf!

Josh

[seppos]

I just wonder would the Lee bator also work..
Maybe it requires longer freebore..

S

[captain-03]

Interesting -- just got a bunch of 22LR stuff from a friend ... thousands of primed cases and 40 - 45gr boolits .. was wondering what I could do with them? You got load data? How about seating / crimping? Do they make dies ... ???? so many questions - no answers ...

[Mk42gunner]

Captain,

As I understand it, they didn't crimp the .22 Long rifle cartridges until repeating actions were made for it.

To crimp, you might be able to use a collet arraingement, or modify a cheap set of wire stripping pliers. No guarantee on either method.

Robert

[Josh Smith]

Hello,

I had no luck with modifying wire crimpers.

Ultimately, I found that there' no real reason to put a crimp on it.

For the NAA Mini Black Powder, the factory recommends a black powder charge OR 1 gn of Bullseye.

The stuff they use in regular factory rimfires is faster than BE, so that should be safe.

I have fired everything in the range of .5gn to 1.5gn of whatever they put in CCI cases. Looking at the 500fps or so from 0.5gn to the 1235fps or so from 1.5gn, it looks like the pressure spikes really, really fast, as would be expected.

I wouldn't push it more than 10% over, if that. And that's hard for me to resist doing, because I reload the .45acp primarily and am used to a slightly flatter pressure curve.

Good luck!

Josh

[w30wcf]

Captain,
Here's what I do....
I open the case mouth slightly using a Lyman 22 "M" Die.
I charge the case then seat the bullet with a H&I .228" sizing die.
Finally, I run the cartridge nose first into a .225" Sizing die using my Lubrisizer.
I have not found a need to crimp the bullet in place since the bullet heel is a pretty snug fit.



I wonder where your friend found those 40 gr. swaged .22 bullets(?).

w30wcf