Filing down .22's into SWC's

[uscra112]

Ooops, forgot this thread doesn't have the pictures of my version:

[I'll Make Mine]

Honest, you'll have a much easier time doing this if you start with an old .44 or .45 sizer or seater die which has the large adjuster plug in the top, (i.e. not an RCBS), rather than trying to make it all from a piece of 7/8 all-thread. The threaded plug is already made for you, as is the internal thread in the die. You need the threaded top plug - it lets the punch be easily adjusted, easily exchanged if you want a different nose form, and has a hole already in it for the knockout rod.

I don't doubt this in the least, but I've never owned a .44 or .45 and don't have any dies in that size; I don't even have spares in .38/.357. It looks to me as if I need to step drill up to 7/32" (.219) and then lap to the desired .224-.225 final diameter for my rifle (bump a few cartridges and test the results; I can always lap a little more if they're not accurate), and with something that can act like a shell holder I wouldn't need a counterbore or a rod to eject the shell. Internal threading isn't that difficult; a 3/8" NF tap in a suitable top hole will give the required adjustment and the actual tip forming rod can be mounted into a turned down tip with a setscrew (or the 3/8" NF bolt can be turned to final shape directly).

[Four Fingers of Death]

I'm off to the range later this morning with my son. I will take my old trusty Browning International Medallist and my Paco Accuriser along and have another play with them.

[uscra112]

@I'llmakemine: Fair enough. I've always got piles of stuff lying around because I am addicted to going to estate auctions. Over time I've acquired numerous "donor dies". I also have the advantage of having drawers of chambering reamers around. My die was made with a .22 centerfire throating reamer that happened to be handy. But you can get a .2250" chucking reamer on evilBay for about twenty bucks, and reaming your die will make a hole with minimal taper and roundness error, so I'd advocate that you do that at least.

I have seen a .22RF shell holder included in one of the $150 commercial die kits for this, but making one at home I felt was more trouble than making the die with a knockout rod. Mine doesn't push the swaged round all the way out, BTW, only about 3/8" so I can grab it with my fingers. Guarantees that the finished round won't get ejected into the floor. What you might try is an old trick that kids did with some of the "boys' rifles" of yesteryear. Many those cheapo single-shots had "extractors" that were anything but, so the kid made a little metal fork out of a scrap of hacksaw blade or some such, to slip around the head of the partially extracted case, which let them pull it out the rest of the way. (The less clever kids just used the tip of their jack-knife blade, after they'd broken all their fingernails.) If you design your die so the cartridge isn't pushed in flush with the die face, like mine does, then a little hand tool like that would let you get it back out again.

[I'll Make Mine]

But you can get a .2250" chucking reamer on evilBay for about twenty bucks, and reaming your die will make a hole with minimal taper and roundness error, so I'd advocate that you do that at least.

I have seen a .22RF shell holder included in one of the $150 commercial die kits for this, but making one at home I felt was more trouble than making the die with a knockout rod.

The reamer would be a good investment anyway; with suitable machine shop tricks, it can do about 85% of what one might do with a .22 LR chambering reamer -- it won't cut a tapered throat or rim recess, but those can both be managed with other tools.

I did have an idea of how to make a shell holder; I can easily turn a flat top blank to fit my press ram, and to that I can mount a piece of slot channel (aka closet door track or equivalent) with a quarter inch slot, then add an insert that will support the cartridge base and stop it at the correct position. It won't look like a shell holder, but it'll work like one.

[uscra112]

You've got it !

[Four Fingers of Death]

Would it be possible to modify an existing shellholder? Fill up the rim recess with weld tdy up on the lathe and use a mill I suppose to cut the correct rim rebate? I am not a machinist,just something that popped into my haid!

[I'll Make Mine]

Would it be possible to modify an existing shellholder? Fill up the rim recess with weld tdy up on the lathe and use a mill I suppose to cut the correct rim rebate? I am not a machinist,just something that popped into my haid!

I have neither a welder nor milling machine; not even the tooling necessary to safely or effectively use my lathe for milling (no end mill holder with drawbar for the spindle, no vertical milling slide). If I had a milling machine, I could make a new shell holder that would look like factory made (i.e. round with the slot milled in).

[Para Cassatt]

I ended up buying the Waltz die and hope to give them a try on Sunday. I still would like to find, make or buy another Hanned line LR tool but hopefully the Waltz rounds will make that something I no longer need. I'll post some target pics Monday if they prove not too embarassing.

[JeffinNZ]

I tried to contact Paco but never got a response. At the same time I acquired a mini lathe so made my own tool. What I am not overly comfortable with in respect to the Paco tool is there is no 'stop' for the nose forming punch and the process relies on 'feel' by the user. I made my punches to work with a half collar. The collar stops the punch in the same place each time then once removed the punch drives the round out of the die:



HP and FN bullets:



I have formed a lot of Eley standard velocity. Here is a bullet recovered from wet phone books at 50m:

[Jim]

Nice job, Jeff! Now ya' got me thinkin'. Scary, ain't it?

[uscra112]

That's pretty good, Jeff.

[shotstring]

The old winchester magnum rounds always used to come with flat tips. One of the best small game hunting rounds ever. But as a kid, hunting with our 22's, the regular solid nose always did the job, but if we wanted more expansion we just used the hollow points. If we REALLY wanted more expansion, we just enlarged the HP cavity with a nail for literally explosive expansion. Accuracy did suffer slightly by enlarging cavity, but not that much. When I was young, simple solutions always seemed the best. When people get older, it seems that the more complex the solution, the better. Never figured that one out yet.

[Markbo]

I thought I'd throw in some experience after shotstrings. A couple of Summers ago I was up at the Summer house breaking in a new 10/22 build. I shot about 25 different loads. This is a hunting gun, so I left all the expensive ammo at home, BUT I did still shoot some sub sonic stuff. After all how much energy do I need to kill a squirrel?

Anyway after finding the 5 most accurate loads (all sub 1/2" @ 50yds) I took an Eabco HP tool to them all to see what would happen. 4 of 5 loads showed better accuracy, with 2 of them by 35%! Nothing was changed except drilling out the HP with that little tool. It turned sub sonic loads into killing loads with some real pop because of that HP. Because of that, I took out my Paco tools and started working with them.

Got similar results. My point is you may be very pleasantly surprised by accuracy improvements using these tools. I have the Eabco, Pacos and Waltz die. I use them all and pretty much don't hunt anything without having used one of them. They make a difference!