what load for primed 22 lr cases?

[preparehandbook]

I am going to be spending some time at the family homestead this winter. Among the projects on our schedule is loading up some .22 lr for plinking.

A relative has a small stash of new, primed .22 lr cases (eley I think)

previously he had filled the cases with blackpowder and hand seated a single buckshot (#F if I recall) that were about 29 grains

As well he has some cast lead slugs that are a 40ish grains and have the proper heel etc. that he has loaded over black powder before. He has a doo-dad he made for crimping the loaded shell.

What we would like to do is work up a smokeless powder load but I don't even know where to start. I was kind of leaning towards researching .25 auto loads, but I don't know if this is really applicable.

What powder works in such small cases?

What's a good starting load?

[mikeym1a]

The .22 was originally a BP cartridge, long,long ago. Remember that the .22RF has a 'heel' boolit. The driving band of the boolit is the same size as the case, so the heel of the boolit has to be a reduced size to fit in the case. I have no Idea what powder they use in .22's. Unique is around #32 on the Burn Rate Chart. Green Dot is #19. Bullseye is #13, and Red Dot is #8. Don't know the capacity of the cases. Have no idea of the factory load. You would be safe using BP. If you use any of these smokeless powders with your primed cases, try them with the gun that you place little value on, tied to a table, and a loonnngggg string tied to the trigger. If the rifle survives, then you might have found a usable load. I would proceed with utmost caution..........

[nagantguy]

Use caution and good luck, please keep is posted this sounds fascinating. Remember to record each step in a notebook, success and failure as this will be critical for further research and development.

[220]

I've only ever loaded 22lr with BP using a 44gr Lyman 225438, seating the reduced shank for the GC into the case and running the whole thing into a .225 size die to crimp.
Loaded like this the OAL means they need to be single loaded into the gun and if you try to eject one without firing you will leave the projectile in the barrel jambed well into the rifling.

[preparehandbook]

The 40ish grain bullets he casts (they could be 38 or 39 grains) when crimped in are within normal OAL for 22 lr.

We are kinda hoping to come up with something that can operate a semi auto, even if we have to mod the gun a bit (lighten the bolt, change springs) as we have a couple of marlin 60's farm guns that we use for plinking. We have been talking for a year or so about modding the pair to function with lower power loads (we have a bunch of old target/gallery loads that are basically 22 long spec [29 grain bullet travelling 1,000 fps] )

For all I know the old marlins may function fine with the lighter loads, and they may work fine with black powder. I neglected to try these combinations.

I am dying to get some black powder loads through the chronograph. Our grandpa swore by the old BP .22 lr loads.

[castaroo]

hi , back in the 80 s we used win 296 in 22win mag cases , 4gr I think behind a 45 gr j word , shot well out my 782 back then ,Roo

[John Boy]

You would be safe using BP.

Agree - 4.5gr of Swiss Null B. Velocity with a 42gr bullet averages 1080 fps. No Swiss Null B? Use FFFFg powder of any brand
Personally, if I was to play loading the cases with smokeless, I wouldn't do it unless I shot the test rounds through a chronograph to equal store bought smokeless rounds.

So with a 'small stash of primed empties' - your work up reloads are going to eat up your 'stash'

[preparehandbook]

What we consider a "small stash" should keep us busy for weeks.

Plus we are going to dig out grandpa's equipment for repriming and reloading .22 lr, With current prices and availability it's worth the time to reload .22 lr

[captain-03]

Going to watch this thread closely ... I have around 10K primed cases and 40 gr boolits sitting here .... needing load data and method of seating/crimping ....

[cpileri]

Could you use the 35% rule w H-4198: that is if 4.5gr Blackpowder is the full load, then 1.575gr of H-4198 would be the smokeless load?
Don't try it unless you know!
i am just thinking out loud and using what i use in BP cartridge loads.
C-

[John Boy]

needing load data and method of seating/crimping

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...highlight=Null

[country gent]

I would start checking case volumne of fired cases. Wieght a 22 case fill with water to mouth and weigh again. Do the same with a 25 acp (closest case in size I can think of). This will allow you to figure the diffrence in capacity. Use a percentage number, IE .22 is XX% of 25acp case capcity. Mulltiply the 25 acps starting load by this number to get an rough Idea of charge weight. Reduce this by 10% and work up. In a case as small as the 22 rimfire .1 grn increments will be alot. In european countries it is common to load 22s maybe a forum based in england, germany, would get the required information.

[preparehandbook]

I think we're going to make a batch of the crimpers. We have two types and I want to see which works better.

[preparehandbook]

After some research it appears somewhere between 1.7 and 2.0 grains of bullseye is a workable load that should approximate factory loads.

The real trick is that most scales have a .1 grain margin of error and the difference between a nice load and an over-pressure load is apparently around .2

[felix]

Take a loaded 22lr apart and measure the powder. If fine grain, use the same in 4756. If flake, use the same in Herco. ... felix

[country gent]

Gem pro 250 Scales reads to and has .02 grn resolution and is around $130.00. I just purchased one it a nice unit

[1066]

After some research it appears somewhere between 1.7 and 2.0 grains of bullseye is a workable load that should approximate factory loads.

The real trick is that most scales have a .1 grain margin of error and the difference between a nice load and an over-pressure load is apparently around .2

That's interesting - I've just been pulling and weighing a few .22's and that seems about right. Standard sub-sonic loads have been around the 1.6 mark and several different types have fine flake powder very much like Bullseye. CCI Stingers, shooting the lighter 30 grain bullet have about 2.6gns of a different powder. Many years ago my competition load for .32 S&W Long was 1.6 gns of Bullseye pushing a 90 grn full wadcutter at around 900 fps.

[Finarfin]

Maybe triple seven.

[CanoeRoller]

Why not load with BP? Experiments show that BP loaded 22 lr's are wicked accurate.

[preparehandbook]

we will definitely be loading some with BP (4.5 -5.0 grains FFFFG [sifted FFFG] ). We are looking forward to seeing if we can get BP loads to cycle an autoloader too.

One of our goals is to come up with a good smokeless load both for running through autoloaders and for our .22lr reloading in general.

since I intend to be reloading a lot of .22lr this year I want to do both smokeless and BP.