RwBeV
02-05-2014, 04:43 AM
For the past year I have been playing with the idea of making 17 cal boolets out of 22lr cases. The idea started with making myself a 22 de-rimming die, I figured if I can squeeze 22 cases to 22cal then I should be able to squeeze them down to 20 and maybe 17. It worked great other than a full length 22 case swaged down to 17 is long enough to make a 45 grain 17 boolet. So after making a set of ring dies to take them down to 17 I made a set of stepped punches that would trim the cases to make a .540 and .635 jacket. The short jacket makes decent 20 to 23gr and the .635 makes 27 to 30gr pills, or at least that's all I tried so far. accuracy has been ok to good depending what 17 Im shooting them out of. I have been able to push all of them to over 4k with out a single lost boolet. I made my dies to fit an old SAS press that works pretty well for a 50 year old press.
http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee481/RwBeV/drawdies.jpg (http://s1230.photobucket.com/user/RwBeV/media/drawdies.jpg.html) Ring dies and punch's.
http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee481/RwBeV/DSCF2157_zps55313e97.jpg (http://s1230.photobucket.com/user/RwBeV/media/DSCF2157_zps55313e97.jpg.html)
Jackets after cleaning in stainless media.
http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee481/RwBeV/17bullets.jpg (http://s1230.photobucket.com/user/RwBeV/media/17bullets.jpg.html)
Bullets before cleaning.
I plan on making a punch to make 17 jackets long enough to make 37gr boolets to shoot out of my 8 twist 17/223AI and see if the will hold up to that RPM. I have used them on ground squirrel's with good results, they are very explosive way more than V-MAX's of the same weight and speed. The 20gr boolets shoot extremely well out of my 17 Ackley Bee. I have only shot one Coyote with the 30gr slugs it went in and made a heck of a hole. Not sure they would make a good fur boolet. If it ever warms up again around here I hope to do some more testing, at least with the 17's I have a set of 20 cal boolet dies on order with H-G that are supposed to be on there way. We will see?
Bob
http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee481/RwBeV/drawdies.jpg (http://s1230.photobucket.com/user/RwBeV/media/drawdies.jpg.html) Ring dies and punch's.
http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee481/RwBeV/DSCF2157_zps55313e97.jpg (http://s1230.photobucket.com/user/RwBeV/media/DSCF2157_zps55313e97.jpg.html)
Jackets after cleaning in stainless media.
http://i1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee481/RwBeV/17bullets.jpg (http://s1230.photobucket.com/user/RwBeV/media/17bullets.jpg.html)
Bullets before cleaning.
I plan on making a punch to make 17 jackets long enough to make 37gr boolets to shoot out of my 8 twist 17/223AI and see if the will hold up to that RPM. I have used them on ground squirrel's with good results, they are very explosive way more than V-MAX's of the same weight and speed. The 20gr boolets shoot extremely well out of my 17 Ackley Bee. I have only shot one Coyote with the 30gr slugs it went in and made a heck of a hole. Not sure they would make a good fur boolet. If it ever warms up again around here I hope to do some more testing, at least with the 17's I have a set of 20 cal boolet dies on order with H-G that are supposed to be on there way. We will see?
Bob