224 Bullet OAL- from 22LR casings

[steady1]

Okay guys, I loaded up some cartridges to try out my new bullets. OD .2235, & sized casings measure up right, too. I used my old standby of OAL for reloads in past of 2.215". The bullets are not tight in the neck afterwards.

Question:Am I seating these homemade bullets too deep? Speer 62 gr are longer and I see these 22LR cased bullets are short.(.705 or so). A friend says bump it up to 2.250 to see if that helps. He thinks my neck tension is good since it takes some effort to seat the bullet. that would make the bullet base fill the neck better.

Any other advise?

[Lizard333]

With my swaged 224 bullets I use the lee factory crimp die. Nothing even comes close. Best crimp I've found. I had problems with mine till I started using the FCD.

[onomrbil]

What does "not tight in the necks afterwards" mean? Can you move the seated bullets in/out with your fingers? If you cannot move them with your fingers and are going by what you feel when you seat you may not have a problem. The thing you are looking for is consistent neck tension. You could try a die that uses a neck bushing to get the correct tension or reduce the diameter of your expander button to achieve the same thing. Have you tested any of your new bullets on paper? If you get good results they are fine. If they are all over the paper and you think it is because they are undersize, you may want to try bumping up the diameter a bit in the core seating process.

Have you checked to see what seating depth puts your bullets at the lands? That's an important bit of information and varies with different bullets and different ogives. It is quite possible that your seating depth is fine even if it seems a bit short. Your rifle will tell you when you have that dimension right. Shoot some and observe the results: you may be pleased.

[fredj338]

In my AR, everything gets loaded to 2.250" OAL. My bullets are shooting sub 1.5MOA in my 20" hvy, as good as 55gr FMJ plinkers.

[steady1]

22RFJ bullets are shorter than commercial bullets. The olgave half the length of the bullet. I must seat the bullets higher in the neck and not exceed 2.250. I was seating them too low and they would not grip in the properly sized neck tension.