5.45 from 22 brass?

[flyguyeddy]

As the title states would it be possible to make 5.45 bullets out of the derimmed 22lr shells? I imagine special dies would be required, of course.

[BT Sniper]

Is the diameter .220?

Anything is possible! I have made 20 cal (.204) from 22lr brass so I'm certain one could make .220 bullets from 22lr brass.

BT

[reed1911]

Actually, the lowest cost thing to do in this case is to simply draw down the .224" bullets. That is unless you can get BTSniper to make you a set of .220" dies for the same cost, but I'm not sure if that is a cost effective possibility for him. You can certainly do it with the .22LR jackets that is no problem at all.

[flyguyeddy]

But dont you always want to swage up not down? So it sounds like a .224 bullet through a sizing die would do it, yes?

[reed1911]

Swaging by definition is going from a smaller caliber to a larger. Drawing is the process of taking a larger caliber and making it smaller. My suggestion was to use the regular dies to make your 22LR jacket bullets and then just draw them down to .220". Indeed, if you are not wanting to make bullets and are just wanting to have bullets available in .220", yes all you need is the draw die which are very inexpensive. I'm not sure if Lee makes a die for it now, if not you can get one from a member here (I don't recall his name off hand, but you can look in the sponser forum and he is listed) or CH4D also makes them in custom sizes.

[flyguyeddy]

Oh ok i was mistaken on the terminology then. Sounds like im set once i get all the dies

[reed1911]

Okay, So what are you planning? Planning to just size down existing .224" bullets or making your own from .22 LR? For the money, you'll be hard pressed to beat BTSniper (he replied above) his dies are of excellent quality, priced well below market value, and tend to be a bit faster to get in hand. Let us know what your plans are and we'll all help out as much as possible. I do have to warn you, making bullets is rather fun when you are making them for yourself. You may find yourself shooting just to gain the brass to re-load with your own bullets. It tends to be like bread, sure the recipe may be the same, but bread from your own oven tastes so much better then store bought...

[reed1911]

Buckshot is the gent that makes the custom push through dies.

[runfiverun]

you draw the jacket down below the final diameter of your finished bullet. [sometimes this takes more than one step]
then you pinch trim the jacket to length. [if necessary, if drawing down in multiple steps it usually is]
then you seat the core
then you use the point from die
and finally a pointing die if you want a lead tip.

[fredj338]

You could certainly get a Lee die, custom shop, or one from Buckshot, & swage .223-.224 bullets down to 0.220". I use a pair of Lee dies to take 300gr 0.429" bullets down to 0.423" bullets, in two steps, for practice bullets in my 404 Jeffery.

[Piedmont]

I measured one batch of surplus 5.45 ammo and the projectile in front of the case was .225" if I am remembering correctly. You might want to measure some different ammo. I wonder if folks are making more work for themselves than they need to by reducing bullets further than .224".