Casting 22 caliber Bullets

[johnly]

I have a Marlin 336 219 Zipper to feed, and so I decided that I to try some cast bullets in it. Last night I filled the pot with 10:1 and put the DC Ohaus 22-50 FN GC mold I recently purchased on a set of mold handles. Gave the cavities a light coating of drop out then pre-heated the mold on the top of the pot, and started casting. I had to throttle back the lead discharge rate, but after doing so and giving the mold to come up to temperature, beautiful little 50 grain bullets started dropping out of the mold. I cast a nice little pile of them, and now I just need to warm up the 450 and size and check a few to see how they shoot.

I was somehow under the impression that casting 22 caliber bullets was a difficult PITA, but my first experience has changed my view. :drinks:


John

[GabbyM]

The only thing that gave me trouble with 22's was learning to cut the spur before it set up to hard. If I waited to long the bullet bases would bend out of round. A pot full of lead goes a long ways.

[compass will]

I thought the gas checks would be a PITA, but there not. Just as long as I wear my reading glasses. I had to put my .22-250 load development on hold since I discovered my cheep scope was broke from the factory:roll:

It should ship Wed from BSA.

[jhalcott]

I use the Lyman mold with Lyman#2 alloy for feeding the .223's. The 14" contender likes them with a wrap or 2 of Teflon tape. MY fingers do not work as well as they did when I was a LOT younger. I cast up a 10# pot the first session. I haven't got back to casting more as I still have a pile of them in a peanut butter jar. I only got 1000 gas checks with the mold, and believe there is more than THAT in the jar. I was surprised at the velocity I get along with 1 1/2" accuracy (benched and scoped) .I've used several powders and several guns, 14", 21" and 24". The bullets aren't as fast and accurate as J words,BUT will certainly work for small to medium critters!

[beagle]

You've kind of hit on the key to casting good .22 bullets. Get the mould up to good casting temperature and then settle down into agood casting rythm. Yes, you can distort bases and if too much effort is required to size/seat a GC, you'll bend noses as well.

A good nose first sizer is worth investing in and the lubing can be done as a seperate step. This pays off dividends in the long run.

Nothing hard about casting good .22 bullets if you take your time./beagle

[DLCTEX]

I water drop them and use epoxy to fit the nose punch to size them(Lyman 44 gr. and Lee Bator 55 gr.) to .225. Sure can make a lot with a pot of alloy. DALE

[Bret4207]

I have a Marlin 336 219 Zipper to feed, and so I decided that I to try some cast bullets in it. Last night I filled the pot with 10:1 and put the DC Ohaus 22-50 FN GC mold I recently purchased on a set of mold handles. Gave the cavities a light coating of drop out then pre-heated the mold on the top of the pot, and started casting. I had to throttle back the lead discharge rate, but after doing so and giving the mold to come up to temperature, beautiful little 50 grain bullets started dropping out of the mold. I cast a nice little pile of them, and now I just need to warm up the 450 and size and check a few to see how they shoot.

I was somehow under the impression that casting 22 caliber bullets was a difficult PITA, but my first experience has changed my view. :drinks:


John

May I just say, I am insanely jealous you lucky dog, you! Wish I had that problem.:drinks:

[johnly]

Bret,

I looked for years for this rifle and found one in nice condition in a NH shop and had it shipped to Oregon. I've been told that 22 caliber microgroove rifling is subject to errosion due to the fine rifling lands. It shoots great with jacketed bullets and 4064, but the barrel heats up suprisingly quickly, hence my exploration with cast. 10:1 might be a bit too soft of an alloy, but I'm going to pick up some linotype this weekend and give that a try.

John

[beagle]

The Zipper may shoot just fine at cast velocities.

I've always had better results with GCs in MG rifling and large diameter, hard bullets.

As previously mentioned, I wish I had your problem./beagle

[georgewxxx]

John,

TPIA part usually come into play when trying to put on older odd ball gas checks like Speer's. I've got them in several sizes and most every size has the same under-size problem. Also some of the older moulds have shanks a bit too large also. You were extremely fortunate to have started out with the right equipment....Geo

[Bullshop]

Johnly
Take this for what it is, one mans experiance. I have never ever gotten good performance with 22 cal boolits using straight linotype alloy. For velocities from 1500 to 2500 fps best performance has always come from an alloy that will test in the area of BHN-15.
Like I said not gospel just my experiance, but that experiance is with many thousands of 22's squeezed down a spiral tube.
BIC/BS

[jhalcott]

The alloy I use is a mix of lino and lead OR WW's .I adjust the ratio to get about 14 1/2 to 15 1/2 BHN(a close copy of Lyman#2). I've heard of extreme velocities with this bullet,but thought a harder alloy was needed. I did cast some with straight Lino. They didn't seem as accurate as the "normal" loads. They took a lot more pressure to size the .002" than the softer alloy. My mold drops them at .227". The ~15bhn drops about .226" or less.

[HORNET]

johnly,
What you're going to learn real quick is that you don't cast little piles of .22's because the little buggers are such fun to shoot that you run out real quick. I usually run 50/50 WW/Lino for alloy and run at least 7 pounds of them in a run. As long as everything is running good, I keep it going. Once you figure out the way they want to be run (usually hot and fast),it's not hard to run a big bunch.