Load development and bullets made from 22lr brass

[BT Sniper]

Had a customer contact me regarding the accuracy of the bullets he made in his BTSimple dies. Customer didn't provide any load data info but his inquire did lead me to the load development I did when I was testing the BTSimple dies and bullets these dies make.

In my testing I found that a difference of just a grain of powder or less can make a big difference on the potential accuracy of bullets made from 22lr brass.

Test gun and load info....

223 Rem, Savage action, CBI 26" 12 twist barrel, FC factory primed brass, Tac powder, 55 grain BTSimple bullets made from 22lr brass, 110 yrds, 50 degrees, light winds, 1500' elevation, shot off portable shooting table.


https://i.imgur.com/IwaovEml.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/RLCbfqkl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/2o3L5PPl.jpg

Notice how 25.0 grains of Tac powder shot better than 24.5 or 25.5 grains did and imagine if I would have settled on the poor 24.0 grain load with no development.

This was testing with just one make of powder and the 55 grain BTSimple bullets made from 22lr brass.

I have always been surprised and impressed with the accuracy I was able to obtain with bullets made from scrap brass, but I have also found they may be picky about which loads they prefer.

Here is a group from same gun, same day and same bullets using 24.0 grains of H335

https://i.imgur.com/T3p661Cl.jpg?1

If you're not getting accuracy as good as what you can get from typical factory bullets from your bullets made from 22lr brass a little load development may be all you need, you could be less then 1 grain away from some of impressive accuracy.


Good shooting and swage on!

Brian

[BT Sniper]

Here is an example of OAL seating depth load development,

20 practical (20-223rem), Savage action, 26" 11 twist CBI barrel, LC brass and CCI 450 primmer, TAC powder

Here we have OAL (seating depth) testing of my 41.5 grain 20 cal bullet made from 22lr brass.

Distance of this testing was done at 200 yrds.

OAL 2.175"
.025" jump to the lands

https://i.imgur.com/s3MPH4pl.jpg


OAL 2.225"
.025 jam into the lands

https://i.imgur.com/Pd8TY0Xl.jpg


Look what happens when this bullet was seated to

OAL 2.200"
bullet ogive just touching lands

https://i.imgur.com/k8LBf0Ql.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/y1VT5vkl.jpg

That is a 5 shot group at 200 yrds of 1/4 MOA!

Again.... I believe bullets made from scrap brass have every potential of being just as accurate as commercial made bullets. But I also believe they may be a bit more sensitive to the what loads they like.

I have all sorts of examples of bullets made from scrap brass and the accuracy potential gained from a little load development. My 30 cal testing was nearly 2 MOA from bullets made from 5.7 brass until I started testing OAL then I found the sweet spot and posted groups under 1/2 moa and some smaller that will take a pic for you all to believe. Then there is some testing I did with 300 grain .375 bullets made from 223 rem brass that gave me a three shot group at 100 all touching, or the 50 bmg made from 7.5x55, 6mm from 22mag....etc..... or a long load development thread I have here posted on my 6.5mm bullets that went from over 2MOA to 1/2MOA all due to the brand of primmer used (pics were posted of all these feats in threads buried here in the swage forums).

Point is, if you want accuracy with bullets made from scrap brass or bullets made from commercial jackets, the "go to load" that worked for one bullet might not work with the bullets you make, some load development will be necessary.

Good shooting and swage on!

BT

[BT Sniper]

Here is some various groups from 22 cal bullets made from 22lr brass shot from same gun mentioned above. Standard reloading precautions apply with regards to mentioned loads in any pictures or mentioned in this thread. These hot loads shown below were safe in my bolt gun but potentially would not be safe in semi auto. Always work up your loads carefully watching for pressure signs.

52 grain 9s bullet @ 3520 fps
https://i.imgur.com/DFukyygl.jpg?1


52 grain 9s bullet at 3075fps
https://i.imgur.com/IMyVJ2bl.jpg?1


52 grain 6s bullet at max load
https://i.imgur.com/ftvJZLwl.jpg?1



Swage on!

BT

[wywindsor]

I never had TAC powder shoot very well. Same type of groups with factory bullet. Usually one load that shot well was all. I switched to CFE 223 and have much better groups over a wider powder charge.

[deltaenterprizes]

Interesting information! Thanks for sharing!

[AndyA]

Great info! I would like to see any changes from a different powder.

[Willbird]

This is why folks seek out combinations that have wider accuracy nodes. That way the normal velocity variations from the environment do not push the load off the node IMHO. Ball powders if I recall right are often said to have narrower nodes. The Hodgdon Extremes are my first look for powders when I am searching. Some of the Reloder series are made by Nitrochemie and have good properties as far as temperature sensitivity goes too.

Some folks look at POI when doing ladders, but others look at velocity, they are looking for patterns where increasing powder charge seems to increase velocity less per 1/10 of a grain. Graphed out I suppose we would see sort of a stair step pattern where each velocity node is nearly a flat line.

[ofreen]

My experience with RF jacketed bullets is they like to be close to the lands. Also, while I like TAC, I’ve had best results with heavier than 55 grain bullets in .223. I like X-Terminator in Ramshot powders for 55 grainers.

[CWME]

BT,
I would expect the barrel twist to play a role in the accuracy equation too. Pushing a 22LR jacketed bullet out of a 1-7 twist will be vastly different that a 1-12 or 1-14. Your customer could be driving the bullet too hard for the given twist of their barrel. Just another thing to consider mentioning to your customer.
Squirrels can't tell the difference if shot with a 3000fps load vs a 3500fps load. Yeah, the splat factor isn't there as much, but they are still dead.

[HandsOff]

I find that accuracy suffers above 2800 f/s, though I'm running a 18" 1:8 twist barrel. I ended up making to 62gn (7s) and my rifle likes them a lot better, but I don't know if the simple kit is capable of that. I'm using 24.5gn of H335 SW AR-Plus (AA 2230-ish) and AA 2230 with swaged 62 gn and getting sub MOA.

[BT Sniper]

Yep, twist rate plays a big factor in the ability of these bullets holding together.

My simple set will make any weight 22 cal bullet within reason, just requires more or less lead, I can, and have supplied custom molds for various weight bullets for the simple set, 62 grains makes a good bullet in the simple set as the jacket is 100% full.

[GONRA]

GONRA sez - Listen to BT SNIPER! !!

[Littlewolf]

I have one of the 62gr simple sets and out of an AR with a 24" 1/7 barrel golf balls at 673yrds is quite doable

[Littlewolf]

side note the 20" m16A2 service rifle point target rating is an 8" circle at 500 meters with 62gr fmj M855 ball