brian1
04-24-2021, 02:53 AM
I have several rifles chambered in 22-3000 or 22 R2 Lovell. I’m finally getting around to trying to make some ammo for them and shoot them. The chambers seem to vary, but I guess that’s normal for a non-SAAMI cartridge.
However, one of the rifles is pretty clearly not of the 22-3000/2R Lovell family at all, and I am thus far mystified as to what it is. It was sold to me by a highly reputable auction house as a "22-3000", but I think they made a mistake in identifying the caliber,
Other than the fact that this rifle came with a seating die that says 22-3000 and a Lyman sizing die that says 22-3000, I can find no markings or any other evidence that suggests this is a 22-3000 or 2R Lovell. The chamber cut for the rim is 0.444” diameter and 0.057” deep. Base diameter is 0.376”. Rim OD for the 25-20 SS parent case is 0.376”, so as you can imagine, any round based on the 25-20 SS is not going to work very well in there. I took a chamber casting, below is a picture of that next to my one and only vintage 22 2R Lovell round. They are similar, but the casting is clearly quite a bit bigger all over. I checked that the bore is .224”, so it is a 22 caliber center fire.
I have studied all my cartridge books, and I have been unable to find out what case this chamber is for. It’s definitely a bottleneck, so that also rules out 22-3000. 22-3000 is a tapered case, and the 2R Lovell is a bottleneck. It’s a bit too small for anything based on a 30-30 family case, like a 219 Zipper or Wasp. The only cartridges I could find with about a 0.440” diameter rim are things like 256 Win Mag, based off the 357 Magnum case, but they are slightly too large in both rim and base diameter, and way too short for this chamber (and wrong bullet diameter)
This is a list of the chamber dimensions:
Rim diameter .444
Rim thickness .057
Base diameter .376
Diameter before shoulder .360
Neck diameter .255
Case head to start of shoulder .1.279
COAL 1.689
This is my one and only 22 Lovell 2R round next to the chamber casting.
281822
And here is the 22 Lovell R2 spec:
281824
And this is the 22-3000 spec:
281825
However, one of the rifles is pretty clearly not of the 22-3000/2R Lovell family at all, and I am thus far mystified as to what it is. It was sold to me by a highly reputable auction house as a "22-3000", but I think they made a mistake in identifying the caliber,
Other than the fact that this rifle came with a seating die that says 22-3000 and a Lyman sizing die that says 22-3000, I can find no markings or any other evidence that suggests this is a 22-3000 or 2R Lovell. The chamber cut for the rim is 0.444” diameter and 0.057” deep. Base diameter is 0.376”. Rim OD for the 25-20 SS parent case is 0.376”, so as you can imagine, any round based on the 25-20 SS is not going to work very well in there. I took a chamber casting, below is a picture of that next to my one and only vintage 22 2R Lovell round. They are similar, but the casting is clearly quite a bit bigger all over. I checked that the bore is .224”, so it is a 22 caliber center fire.
I have studied all my cartridge books, and I have been unable to find out what case this chamber is for. It’s definitely a bottleneck, so that also rules out 22-3000. 22-3000 is a tapered case, and the 2R Lovell is a bottleneck. It’s a bit too small for anything based on a 30-30 family case, like a 219 Zipper or Wasp. The only cartridges I could find with about a 0.440” diameter rim are things like 256 Win Mag, based off the 357 Magnum case, but they are slightly too large in both rim and base diameter, and way too short for this chamber (and wrong bullet diameter)
This is a list of the chamber dimensions:
Rim diameter .444
Rim thickness .057
Base diameter .376
Diameter before shoulder .360
Neck diameter .255
Case head to start of shoulder .1.279
COAL 1.689
This is my one and only 22 Lovell 2R round next to the chamber casting.
281822
And here is the 22 Lovell R2 spec:
281824
And this is the 22-3000 spec:
281825