Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Bullets made from 22 rimfire brass

I thought that some of you would like to see the bullets I've made for my 22 Hornet. They are made from reformed and trimmed 22LR cases. This top pic isn't the best, but you can see what they look like before cleaning.

This is the second bullet I use that is made from RF cases. I also make a 60 grain bullet, which is suitable for 222s and 223s.





These weigh 43 grains and have a standard Hornet profile. My bullet is on the left. A Win 45 grain SP is n the right. Because they are made from rimfire cases, velocity is restricted to no more than 3000-3200 fps - depending on the literature you read. I think it's dependent on the sharpness of the rifling and the rate of twist. For the Hornet though, this is a non-event. I will try them from one of my 222s as well, but will have to stay a grain off maximum I think.

I just got another Walnut Hill bullet press in the mail today and installed it on the far right of my bullet bench. It is the second RCECo press I've bought. They are better than the older Corbin Series II presses IMO. Series II on left.

Please excuse the clutter. I had stuff scattered across the bench when I was mounting the third press.

Been a long time since I heard about this.. A couple friends in past years had bullet swagers (?).. I have never seen the setup to make bullets from rimfire cases.. Read about that years ago also.. Didn't realize the stuff was still available to make them..

There are a few places that sell the dies and equipment. I'm surprised more people don't do it, what with the trouble getting bullets every time there's talk of a government crackdown.

It's pricey to get started, but you're no longer tied to markets, availability or the whims of the government. It's one less thing to worry about when components are scarce.

Years ago, say the late 50's through the 60's and into the 70's, my grandfather made bullets from old .22 short and long/long rifle cases. These were made from the old copper cases, not brass. I still have about half a jar of them. We's cut lead wire and put them in a die. After swagging them, we's remove the top of the die and push the bullet out. Using surplus powder, and these bullets, we could shoot our .22 Hornet or the .22-250, which was a wildcat at the time, cheaper than we could shoot any of the .22 rimfires. We literally shot the barrel out the pre-64, M70 Hornet using these bullets. And killed lots of small game like squirrels with them.
This brings back lots of memories of those great times. E

I believe that's how Speer got his start; waging 22 hulls into jackets.

Vernon Speer and Joyce Hornady both got their start doing this. They worked together for a short time.

It's funny that this part of the hobby has declined in popularity. I realize it's easier to buy bullets, but there's something to be said for making your own. Where I live, we have winter.

I used to buy bullets made like this from MHG in Montana

It is something to consider.. Rather than kicking my .22 brass on the floor of the truck or out the window, I could make bullets.. I have shot a few hand made bullets, but I am not sure if they were made from rimfire hulls.... But the 55 grain hollow points from my .22-250 made crows do beautiful things as they rained back to earth...

That's why Speer started up, if I recall correctly. There was a shortage of copper required to make bullet jackets (WWII), but he noticed thousands of spent 22 cases lying on the ground. Speer got the idea to use rimfire cases and reform them into bullet jackets.

When I was a kid, a couple of guys used to sell them at gun shows at the arena. That wasn't the reason I started reloading, but after I had been reloading for a few years, I went looking for these bullets. I couldn't find any. It wasn't until I was in my forties that I got the equipment.

I think the velocity limitation keeps them from being more popular.
I looked into making bullets that could stand a little more velocity. But, you can about buy finished commercial bullets for the price of the jackets alone.

That's the likely scenario. I don't know how many people own 22-250s or similar, but bullets made from RF cases aren't suitable for this group. You have to load them down to 3200 fps.

The 223 Remington is arguably the most popular .224. With 60 grain bullets, 3200 fps is about the max to which you can load them. I've shot 60s made from RF cases for years from a 223. Because the bullets are shorter over all, 60s also work quite well from my 222s, but the 222 isn't as popular as it once was.

For the 22 Hornet, 222, 223 and 221FB, bullets made from RF cases are a great way to beat the bullet shortages.

I get buckets of spent cases like this. They are mostly Eley, Lapua and SK. I sort and clean them before making them into jackets. One bucket has approx. 45000 cases in it.

I'm not sure how many useful jackets are made from one bucket - my estimate is about 35000 - but I have seven buckets in my shop.



These are the 60 grainers. The line represents where the core sits in relation to the jacket. It's an open tip. The jacket collapses upon entry into game (coyotes) and you have a blunt tip that does the damage.

The 223 is popular, but so are fast twist 223 barrels.

I've found there are 2 kinds of fast twist 223 barrels - those that shred fragile bullets and those that will shred fragile bullets.

That is neat Steve, and I'd still like to do it. I DO have a 12 twist 223 sitting around. Thanks for sharing the info. I thought Corbin was the only game in town for this stuff.

To the best of my knowledge, there are three places that market a 22RF jacket die - corbins.com, rceco.com and someone over at castboolits.com.

Prices and availability vary.

IIRC preceding the Corbin was Smith or SAS in Oregon. Coos Bay, maybe.
I think I still have one of his presses and dies somewhere.

Yes, Dave and Richard Corbin got their start from spending time with Ted Smith. In fact, I believe that Smith sold his stuff to the Corbins. He was older and not in the best health.

Corbins.com is owned by Dave Corbin. rceco.com is owned by his brother Richard. The two split a number of years ago. I do not know why, but it's reasonable to assume it was about differences in how the business was run.

Steve,
I think that's pretty damn cool, I apologize for what seems an ignorant question but, do you think your 60's would splash well inside coyotes or bobcats and not have many exits if they were being shot at reduced load levels in a 1/14 twist 22-250? I'm fiddling around with loads at Hornet and triple deuce up to light .223 vels for hunting loads over a Foxpro at 50 to 100 yds. Hence the question.
Thanks,
BD

I think so. I haven't fired them from a 22-250, but based on what the die manufacturer and others have said, I believe this would be the case.

Because the jacket is so thin, the bullets tend to disintegrate if pushed too fast. At speeds of less than 3000 fps, they mushroom quite well.

Thanks Steve,
That's good to know, with powder shortages such as they are and given what I'm doing, I have found some load recommendations using 15gr. of Blue Dot and another using 35gr. of 3031 that may work. Ken Waters data using IMR 4227 is good though I'm out of it now and currently there's none to be had in my locale.
Are you selling any of your bullets, I'd like to give some a go on western song dogs and cats over my e-caller this winter.
Any other powder/ load suggestions to keep velocities well below 3k are welcome too.
Thanks again,
BD

I don't have plans to sell any at this time. Some friends say I should consider it, but it's summer, I teach at a military technical school, and it's hard to find the time. That, and at the end of the day, I've got no energy left. I want to transition from full time to part time, so bulletmaking might be a convenient way to do it.

I used to market .313/.314 bullets for the 303 British, but there was next to no interest. It's funny, but a few years after I stopped making them, I started getting inquiries, but the interest still isn't there.

WRT load recipes, I'll have something up at the end of the summer at my site.

I envy you your ability to do this. One question that always popped into my head during discussions of this topic is: Do the 'hard' brass RF jackets cause more barrel wear than the home made bullets from a generation or two back? That is, back then those guys were using copper RF cases to make their bullets, which is softer. I remember reading in an old publication (C.S.Landis perhaps?) a warning to home bullet makers to steer clear of brass cases for this purpose and stick with copper cases. Just wondering if that is a valid concern.