Plain base for 22-250?

[Lawnjockey]

I am thinking about casting plain base boolits for a Ruger No 1 in 22-250. Anyone out here doing this? What mould and load?

Thanks

Jocko

[garandsrus]

I loaded a RCBS 55gr plain base boolit for my 22-250 and they "blow up" after being shot. There was a cool puff of grey smoke about 10 ft in front of the barrel. This happened every time. The same bullet with a gas check and the same powder charge shot well. I actually loaded up some more that should blow up but haven't shot them yet. I don't remember the powder or charge (it's written with the loads).

John

[Lawnjockey]

I have always shot jacketed through it and it is scary accurate. I have been thinking about doing a .22 CF postal match that requires PB Lead boolits thus the question. Not much out there for PB cast for 22-250.

[kir_kenix]

What is the twist rate on the Ruger? I've had very mixed results with pb boolits in 1/9 twist .22's (.223, .221, .222, 22-250, and a 22 swift). 1/12 or 1/14 have almost all been exclusivley positive with the 22-55-sp converted to plain base.

If you have realistic velocities in mind, and don't mind playing around with charge weights you should be able to get the 22-250 to run pb just fine.

[Bad Water Bill]

My 223 1 in 9 twist produces great GREY clouds when using plain base PB boolits

Put gas checks on them puppies and enjoy. [smilie=s:

[35remington]

If you shoot them at reasonable velocities through a 22-250 the plainbase bullets won't "blow up."

Slow them down.

[AZ-Stew]

Lawnjockey,

There's already a postal match underway. See: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=98998

Regards,

Stew

[AZ-Stew]

If you shoot them at reasonable velocities through a 22-250 the plainbase bullets won't "blow up."

Slow them down.

Exactly. Don't use jacketed loading data with cast boolits. Cast requires reduced charges. High velocities can be achieved, but they require some special techniques, and even at that, you'll never get cast to shoot as fast as jacketed from a .22-250.

Regards,

Stew

[Bullshop]

What makes them blow up? I shoot cast boolits at 4100 fps without blow up and get 1.5 MOA which is about as good as that rifle will shoot anything.
I do this by shooting 22 cal boolits in a sabot from a 30/06. At 4100 fps from a 10 twist and no blow up, why?
I am pretty sure the boolits are being engraved by the sabot because they make flat sided holes through the target paper not round holes.
Most 22/250 will have a 1/14" twist so compared to the 1/10" twist of the 30/06 they will have less torque applied from the slower twist.
I dont get it!

[quack1]

I shoot plain base bullets in my 22-250 and 218 bee. The mold is a Bator that I reamed out the gas check shank to make It plain base. Like others have said, you're going to have to slow down some to get them to work. The 22-250 has a 1-14 twist and the bee has 1-16 twist. I use ac ww with a little tin added for better fillout and Felix lube. I use 2400 powder and keep velocities between 1300 and 1400fps with decent accuracy and no leading. Oddly enough the bee shoots them best sized to .225 and the 22-250 likes them as cast, although the barrels measure the same. Hope this helps.

[kir_kenix]

You need to have realistic velocity and accuracy goals in mind. If its a 1/9, id say 1800 fps should be a realistic velocity cieling without getting into exotic techniques. 1/14 I think 1950 or 2k is deff possible if you cast them hard, fit them to the bore, and don't make them jump too far to the rifling.

Better yet, start in the 1400-1500pfs range, and work your way up from there incrementally. Fit is always important, but its beyond critical with these little pills. Weight sort, and be careful when sizing. Lino may be necessary at the highest of velocities, but WCWW's can be pushed pretty hard and fast with proper fit.

Good luck man, its fun making these .22's shoot well with cast.

[Bret4207]

What makes them blow up? I shoot cast boolits at 4100 fps without blow up and get 1.5 MOA which is about as good as that rifle will shoot anything.
I do this by shooting 22 cal boolits in a sabot from a 30/06. At 4100 fps from a 10 twist and no blow up, why?
I am pretty sure the boolits are being engraved by the sabot because they make flat sided holes through the target paper not round holes.
Most 22/250 will have a 1/14" twist so compared to the 1/10" twist of the 30/06 they will have less torque applied from the slower twist.
I dont get it!

I gotta say, I never thought of that. Wow!

[1Shirt]

Wouldn't mind having a plain base 22, and might someday have somebody open up one of my GC for that. In the meanwhile, for what ever it is worth, I have tried unchecked 22's in hornet and 222, and at vols under 1200 they shot ok, not great, just ok. Above 1200, not so good, and I quite screwing around with them, and gas checked, and accuracy got real decent above the 1200 vols.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[beagle]

As has been stated above, it's a matter of velocity. My old shooting partner shot cast in both the .22-250 and .220 Swift with right good results after I got him to throttle back to about 2,000 FPS. If you want 4K, use jacketed as it ain't gonna happen with cast./beagle

[Bullshop]

beagle
"If you want 4K, use jacketed as it ain't gonna happen with cast./beagle"
Not true. As I said you can get over 4k with a cast boolit when used in a sabot with usable accuracy. I dont understand the why though. Shot from a sabot you still have the high velocity, torque of a 1/10" twist, and engraving on the boolit or more correctly compression marks. I cant figure why the big difference. Perhaps once the stripping starts in the 22 bore it just continues due to the cohesion of the alloy until there is nothing left. With the sabot there is no stripping. I dont really know the why only that it do.
I was able to work up to 4300 fps using a sabot in a 30/06 and a cast 55gn boolit sized but not lubed. They must be sized to .224" to fit the sabot and bottom squarely in it.
I also use the RCBS lube sizer to seat the 22 boolits squarely and completely to the bottom of the sabot. I use a top punch that fits the 22 cal boolit and a .308" die in the press. 4300 fps was the top velocity I could get from my 24" barrel 30/06 but I found best accuracy was at 4100 fps. Strangely enough that is about the same velocity my rifle gets from the Rem factory accelerator ammo.

[AZ-Stew]

beagle
"If you want 4K, use jacketed as it ain't gonna happen with cast./beagle"
Not true. As I said you can get over 4k with a cast boolit when used in a sabot with usable accuracy. I dont understand the why though. Shot from a sabot you still have the high velocity, torque of a 1/10" twist, and engraving on the boolit or more correctly compression marks. I cant figure why the big difference. Perhaps once the stripping starts in the 22 bore it just continues due to the cohesion of the alloy until there is nothing left. With the sabot there is no stripping. I dont really know the why, only that it does.

I wonder if it has anything to do with friction heating of the boolit, bare against the bore, versus the heat absorbtion, or insulation, afforded by the sabot? There is also a difference in that the bare-against-the-bore boolit is actually engraved by the rifling, as opposed to merely being compressed in several locations by the lands through the sabot. No "sharp" edges and minimal disruption of the grain structure of the casting. Just thoughts...

Regards,

Stew

[Bullshop]

That makes good sense though. Friction can cause a lot of heat. Remember the space shuttle that lost one of its heat shields before re entry? Poof! Just like those boolits.
Good thing we cant get all our boolits to go 10 miles per second or they would all go poof.