Introducing: The .22 ladybug

[2wheelDuke]

That's pretty cool. What boolit is that, an older Lyman design? I should have a small amount of 5.7 brass around somewhere. I'll try to remember you if I find it anytime soon.

[DuaneH]

Could the lathe turning step be eliminated by making the final sizing dia. .241, and letting the case spring back to the desired .247? Then just neck expand before seating the bullet for the first firing.

[NoZombies]

Sooooo................ the new rifle in seventeen caliber is the what? ....... rabid skeeter?

Jack

I was just gonna call it the .17 ladybug, but I sometimes lack creativity...

That is a really good job there.
What if (I thinking out loud here) you took 25acp and necked it down to .17.?
Do you remember the movie "Honey, I shrunk the kids" ?
Would the end result look like a .308 shrunk down to .17?

Probably would look more like a miniature (!) .218 bee. The .17 has been necked down directly before, basically every diameter as small as .10! Bill Eichelberger called his versions 'darts' and they are pretty neat!

That's pretty cool. What boolit is that, an older Lyman design? I should have a small amount of 5.7 brass around somewhere. I'll try to remember you if I find it anytime soon.

Thanks Duke! It's a 225107 that I've been messing with. I've also got a NOE version that I need to pull out and cast more with as well. It's close enough to identical that the bullets fit in each others cavities. The even smaller one is a Mos made mold. 20 grains in a single cavity sue drains the pot a lot slower than the 500 grain 4 cavity I've got...

[NoZombies]

Could the lathe turning step be eliminated by making the final sizing dia. .241, and letting the case spring back to the desired .247? Then just neck expand before seating the bullet for the first firing.

Thank's for the thought, It's one I've had as well, and that's one of the next experiments I'm working towards. I don't have a boring bar small enough to cut a hole under .250, so I've been relying on chucking reamers to make my dies. I should have an answer to that question next week sometime, when my next batch of reamers arrives... I'm planning to try .240,.241, .242 and .243 to see if I can get something where I want it.

[maxreloader]

Great work! I have a couple questions... what kind of die set are you using to resize the brass after firing? Is the chamber reamer going to be available (haha)? Have you tried converting any 22lr long guns to this cartridge? My hat is off to you sir, very well done indeed!

[Rcmaveric]

Awesome. Now i am curious of the process to convert the gun and brass. I have been curious for a cartridge that can cover 22LR versatility for small game hunting.

[NoZombies]

Great work! I have a couple questions... what kind of die set are you using to resize the brass after firing? Is the chamber reamer going to be available (haha)? Have you tried converting any 22lr long guns to this cartridge? My hat is off to you sir, very well done indeed!

Thanks!
I've mostly been using a sizing die that I made in the process, but the brass is strong enough and pressures low enough that it barely touches the brass (unless I'm pushing harder than I normally do) and mostly just punches the primer out.

I don't have a chamber reamer yet, I've cut all the chambers so far with a combination of chucking reamers and have a total of about $25 invested in them... I will probably have a reamer made up once I have everything else figured out, but until I've got a latheless way to size brass, it's not a viable wildcat for most people to mess with. To answer the inevitable questions about the chucking reamers, I used a .251 reamer with a stop to keep depth at .635 (to give .010 for fouling build up etc) to cut the chamber into an existing .22 LR chamber, and a .309 reamer with a .250 pilot (eh... even with the added .001 it was fine) to cut the rim recess to .042 deep, again, using a stop. I've checked the chambers I've cut, and they're all within .001 of concentric, so I don't feel I'm loosing anything with this method.

So far only the contender and H&A have had the work done. I'm working on a couple of other guns, but I don't want to let the cat out of the bag until they're proven. The round works through about 50% of older .22lr magazines I've tried, (and all .22 magnum magazines I've tried) but I don't want to lose any brass until I have a better supply, so for now, I'm mostly working with single shots.

[NoZombies]

Awesome. Now i am curious of the process to convert the gun and brass. I have been curious for a cartridge that can cover 22LR versatility for small game hunting.

Come over some weekend, I'll buy you a beer and answer whatever questions... and let you shoot one

[rking22]

Nice project! I've often thought it would be nice to have a 221 Askins to play with, now I'm really interested. Would be really nice in a low wall..... Too bad Tennessee won't let me squirrel hunt with a cf.

[Jedman]

Nice project! I've often thought it would be nice to have a 221 Askins to play with, now I'm really interested. Would be really nice in a low wall..... Too bad Tennessee won't let me squirrel hunt with a cf.

State laws are funny, Here in Ohio there has never been any limits to legal weapons for squirrels we can use a 458 Win Mag if we want but for deer it took forever for us to now be able to use a straight walled cartridge rifle. I guess if deer could climb trees we would have been OK with rifles before. Jedman

[dverna]

Like I said in my earlier post....nice job. You have a lot of talent!

But with rimfire ammunition available again at less than $.05/round what is the point?

I do not believe this round can be produced on a progressive press and that would be a benefit for plinking ammunition. Just a lot of work and expense to duplicate what a rimfire does.

[rking22]

My interest lies in the accuracy potential and the available bullet shapes. The ability to Taylor a load with a nice fp bullet is intriguing. I have a near lifetime supply of plinking long rifles, but limited target grade hunting loads.
Think of the easy build of a Ruger NO1. No need to move the firing pin

[725]

This is incredible. So much talent, ingenuity, & creativity. Way to go, Sir. More pictures and further up-dates on everything. I put my Tom Clancy & Nero Wolfe aside when stuff like this is available.

[Hickory]

I wonder if Starline would make brass?
Seems like the answer for the lack of 22 rimfire ammo that was during the Zero years.

[NoZombies]

Like I said in my earlier post....nice job. You have a lot of talent!

But with rimfire ammunition available again at less than $.05/round what is the point?

I do not believe this round can be produced on a progressive press and that would be a benefit for plinking ammunition. Just a lot of work and expense to duplicate what a rimfire does.

I agree completely, there is almost nothing this does that can't be either closely replicated or possibly bettered by tailoring your rimfire ammo.

These days, most wildcats are about filling a very small niche, and that's what this one does as well, it provides .22LR performance in a round that I can reload, experiment with different bullets, powders etc.

As I said in the first post, this is to answer the question of what a reloadable CF .22LR would look like. It's also fun!

[Nines&Twos]

ALMOST nothing you say.
But there are some who despise the .22lr for the simple fact you are at the mercy of the ammo companies. Even though the rimfire CAN be reloaded it’s sucky proposition.
I prefer tailored quality over mass volume.
Can’t wait to see it turn a tree rat inside out with an RCBS 55g flat point.

[MostlyOnThePaper]

Sooooo................ the new rifle in seventeen caliber is the what? ....... rabid skeeter?

Jack

.17 Gnat

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[Oklahoma Rebel]

I would love to see this cartridge made, and chambered, in some good single shots!

[17nut]

Thinking out loud:
What about collet sizing the base?
Displaces brass in a more controlled manner.

BTW: The want factor is high with this one!!!

[NoZombies]

Thinking out loud:
What about collet sizing the base?
Displaces brass in a more controlled manner.

BTW: The want factor is high with this one!!!

It's a thought, but I'm not sure I could apply enough leverage to a collet to size the solid head. Sizing the head down on the Corbin swage press is easy, but it was about all the RCII could do. What kind of collet did you have in mind?

I've been very happy with the brass life I've been getting so far. I imagine a couple hundred cases will last me just about forever.