Borrowed teeny tiny mold to play with

[Alan in Vermont]

Sitting here on my desk is just the cutest little bullet mold. Lyman 225415. Lyman says it's 55 gr. out of #2, my buddy says he thinks it cast at 47 gr. with WW. I was talking to my buddy the other day, something like "Didn't somebody in our old group have a .22 mold?" He said, "Yup, I got it". When I showed up there this morning he had found the mold and the G, H & I parts. So now it's in my hands until I get around to using it.

That sucker is tiny!! He says gas checking it is like putting a GC on a grain of rice.

At some point I'll be casting some to try in Ruger 77-22H. That "some point" will be after I send my pot out to RCBS to get it heating right and get the Hornet to shoot as pretty as it looks.

I'd like to develop a CB load that would yield ballistics somewhere between 22 LR and WMR with minute of squirrel (sp) accuracy.

[TCFAN]

I have two of the 225415. Mine are Lyman Ideal molds both single cav. one is a HP. I use them in a 222 and they work very well. I use linotype metal and run them about 2550fps. The 225415 is a great boolit design in the older molds before Lyman redesigned it. Never have tried the new 55gr. mold.
Good luck in your load development....................Terry

[stubshaft]

You're both right about the weights. The original threw a boolit of 49grs nominal and the newer ones go to 55grs. If you think this one is tiny then try to size some 225107's (37grs). It is also one of the better shooter in my K Hornet (225415) but can be marginal in a 16" twist. I use 11.5grs of 2400, I tried Lil Gun but my barrels don't seem to like it, and it peaks very rapidly for me.

[JeffinNZ]

Here are two Lyman boolits sharing the same cherry number but not looking exactly the same.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v505/JeffinNZ/Shooting%20stuff/224variations.jpg

[303Guy]

You take great photo's Jeff!

[barrabruce]

My K hornet will only shoot with the 40-45 grn jacketed stuff.
Whats the right mould then for it?? The 50's look to long to me.

Do you need gas checks..or what speed can you get down to or up to with straight lino maybe???

Sorry for the high jack
Barra

[stubshaft]

Try the 225107 should throw a 37 grain boolit. I usually cast it out of 60/40 lino/PB and have pushed it to 2750fps out of my K Hornet with a 1 in 14 twist and Lotak lube.

[leadman]

WC680 works great in the K-Hornet with the 46gr Lyman RN (can't remember the #). AA 1680 is about the same burn rate.

I have hit 3,000 fps with this boolit and H110 but not as accurate as the 680 load.

[HORNET]

My 225415 is also the 48 grain version and it's quite happy ahead of 7.8 gr. of SR-4759 and a Rem 7½ primer in my 16" twist barrel. The 225438 (~ 44 grain Loverin) is hard to beat as a general purpose boolit for the Hornet, either the old dirt-grooved version or the newer one. I get good grouping from around 3.3 grains of Unique or ahead of a compressed load of H-4227 that's cruising along briskly. 7.5 grains of AA-1680 was good for accuracy but burned extremely dirty, I don't think it hit enough pressure to burn correctly. YMMV
Barra, I never had any reasonably good results without gas checks on these.

[barrabruce]

Thanks for the input.
I'll have to start gearing up with a mould .checks.. sizer.
Lee Alox tumble lube be o.k. or is it a bit fast for it???
Hell they ain't very big are they!!!!!
Cheers
barra

[Dale53]

I have used the 225415 in both the .22 Hornet and the .221 Fireball with excellent results. It's flat point is considerably more effective than solid .22 Long Rifle Rimfire on squirrels and other edible small game.

My squirrel load is 3.0 grs of Unique in the .22 Hornet and 4.0 grs of Unique in the .221 Fireball (I have both a 10" Contender barrel and a Ruger #3 converted to .221 Fireball).

The last time I shot the 10" Contender .221 Fireball off the bench I got 1/2" groups at 50 yards. This was with a 4X scope. Hunting squirrels with this single shot pistol is a REAL sporting activity (and effective, if you do your part).

Dale53