It's a start/moa with 1st swaged 224's

[Forrest r]

Actually I was a bit surprised, didn't expect any moa groups for awhile.
A little background:

After Sandyhook I sold everything I had in 223. I'm talking firearms, brass, dies, bullets, sr primers, the works. As prices started drop I bought a used set of lee (2 die set) reloading dies and scrounged up some range brass. From there I bought a set of swaging dies off of Artful. So now I have brass, dies and bullets, I already had allot of different rifle powders,so I bought some primers and a cheap 223rem bolt action to plink with. Fin feather fur had (actually still do) a sale on savage axis rifles with heavy bbl's & accru-triggers and a 4-12x40 scope for $349 with a $50 mail in rebate.

So I bought a cheap rifle and put a $500+ target scope on it and took it to the range. At 1st I only shot 20 rounds thru it checking for function and cleaning/breaking the bbl in as I shot.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/savageaxisII_zps2trpk9tm.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/savageaxisII_zps2trpk9tm.jpg.html)

Today I took it out to play around with it a little, loaded up 5 rounds to season the bbl and 20 test rounds using my swaged 62gr hp's, mixed range brass and 20 year old wc846 pull down powder that I've had less than 1/4# laying around. While not the greatest 100yd groups by any means, that $300 beater did manage to barely make a 5-shot moa group.

Some bullets I swaged and the savage's 1st test target.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/223inch_zpsdhnxwfcr.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/223inch_zpsdhnxwfcr.jpg.html)

That group is pretty much 1 inch no matter how it gets measured.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/223inchmeasure1_zpsrt3pkx8v.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/223inchmeasure1_zpsrt3pkx8v.jpg.html)

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t242/forrestr-photo/223inchmeasure2_zps3oawq8tm.jpg (http://s162.photobucket.com/user/forrestr-photo/media/223inchmeasure2_zps3oawq8tm.jpg.html)

It surprised me that a cheap rifle with a total of 25 rounds down the tube at that point it shot the 22.0gr moa group with nothing more than mixed range brass and old pull down powder and some home swaged bullets.

I bought 1000 pieces of good once fired brass, just haven't had time to process them. Once I get some of those done I'll break out the 6 or 7 different rifle powders I have on hand so I can see just how many mistakes I can make trying to shrink the groups down.

It sure is nice to be shooting these home swaged bullets. Somehow they seem to make the holes in the paper look better than the holes made from store bought bullets.:bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2:

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Very nice!

[hardcase54]

It just gets better from here.

[anotherred]

Awesome feeling, isn't it.

[Utah Shooter]

Sweet. It really is an awesome feeling. ^^^^^

[Forrest r]

Those groups are nothing to write home about by any means. It just surprised me that the combo of a cheap unaltered rifle & cheap dies/brass/old powder and my 1st attempt at making bullets with those dies did as well as it did.

As with anything, accuracy comes at a price, I'm just looking for a moa plinking load. Hence, the cheap rifle and components. I still need to rewire the 220v plug so I can use an old kiln I picked up ($40). I have a bunch of 22 jackets that I've re-rimed along with piles of 9mm and 40s&w cases to anneal.

Little by little, just wanted to share with the swagers here that provide/help/support anyone that wants to ask about or try swaging bullets. I know it doesn't look like much, but it's a start. I can see all the reading & listening will pay off.

thank you

forrest r