Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Single Shots Low velocity reloadable .22 cal.

First let me say what I'm trying to accomplish. I have a old Contender frame I don't use any more and I would like to turn it into a bug out set up in the rifle configuration. Barrel #1 in 30-30 as I already load for it, and have a bullet mold for it. Barrel #2 .22 long rifle. Barrel #3would be a vent ribbed .410 barrel if I can find one.
Barrel #4 Is where I want advice I'm wanting a small case .22 centerfire round That could be hand loaded with 35-40 gr. cast bullets to sub .22 LR. velocities say 800-950 FPS. My reasoning is if .22LR becomes unavailable again I would have quiet soft shooting reloadable alternative available. I'm thinking .22 Hornet/K-Hornet or maybe .221 fireball. What say you.

Richard

Any of those 3, Mr Barsness wrote an article recently about doing just what you are thinking of. Light cast bullets and also round ball. He used .22 Hornet and .223.

if you are thinking bug-out and 22LR not available, then 223 that you can load down, or 222 and some forming dies/cutter.

Wouldn't it be easier to bug out with 5000 rounds of .22 reloads than with lead, powder, reloading equipment, ladles, etc?

That was more or less my idea as well, with the .25-20. Then ran into a brass availability problem. And also discovered that really small cast bullets can be a little fussy to get to shoot well.

Others have made the point the .25-20 is considerably more effective on game that the .22, and I suspect that would be true even with subsonic loads.

The Hornet is popular, but can be a little fussy to get to shoot. Brass has decent availability. The Fireball is very unfussy, and can be made from .222 or .223 brass. The Bee is unfussy, but brass is not available at the moment, except at scalper prices.

I think there is a wildcat named the .22 Flea, which could be described as a shortened .22 K-Hornet, designed to use very small powder charges.

The project is interesting, and may prove a challenge.

Tex, Have you tried to find Hornet brass recently?-Muddy

Bingo. Much as I like my Hornet, a .223 is way easier to feed, with tons of cheap military brass and barrel twist that will support more cast bullet designs than the typical Hornet barrel.

Also, instead of cast, consider buying blems and closeout bullets. Unless you have molds, furnace, and lead in hand, the cost and time involved may make jacketed pretty competitive. I've bought a bunch lately for about .12 a pop or so and could probably do better if I tried. Speer makes a 46gr flat point for the .218 Bee that should thump small game pretty well even without expanding.

Pappy, I want to be as self reliant as possible that means hopefully powder and primers only. And as far as lead I'm sitting on just shy of a ton and adding more every month.

Richard

Have you looked are replacing the 30/30 barrel with a 357 magnum? The 38/357 brass is easy to come by and the 357 will do anything the 30/30 will, out to 250 yards, using less powder. Casting bullets for them is as easy as it can be and you can make very quite loads with a lot more punch than the .22 cals.

Enjoy the search and good luck!

no - don't have one at the moment.

I do have a #1 in .218 Bee and brass is problematic.

This sounds more like a prepper situation than a bug-out. If you bug out, it's not likely you'll pack 4 barrels; one extra max is more likely.

At any rate, the .357 idea is a good one, especially if you have a handgun so chambered. The .221 would be nice, but brass, if available, ain't cheap unless you make it from .223 and it's probably better to just stick with the .223.

Also, don't neglect to look into chamber inserts. With the Contender, you can shoot .22 rimfires in an insert-equipped .223 barrel and pick from several .32 rounds to fire in your .30/30.

Come to think of it, a .32 Fed or H&R barrel would be a good small game caliber as well, cheap on powder and lead. Brass is not too bad either.

Interesting project.

You could drop the 30-30 from the lineup have a lot of versatility with 22rimfire, 223, 410.

The 223 with proper loads is proven on deer etc. It could double as your light load 22 if it ever came to that.

I'd use the .223 rather than the .221, because I don't want to spend time by the fire trimming cases and reaming case necks, a necessity when making .221 from .223.

BTW 223, hands down!-Muddy

Armscor 22 TCM ... new and wild!
Gotta wait to see if this one pans out.

I have a Fireball and it is one of my favorites. Brass hasn't been a problem but I've never considered loading it down.




DMc

For the cost of a 22 cf barrel, brass, reloading dies and bullet molds, you could hermetically seal 5,000 rds of 22 rf and have money left over.

22rf is available again, get a case and put it away for a rainy day.

I would use the straight Hornet with a load of Trailboss, probably around 6-700fps with a 40gr lead bullet. Don't have to measure it, just fill up the case, seat a bullet and shoot. Load it with hand dies and go. You can't get enough into a case to create a pressure issue. Also factor in the Traiboss will work in just about any chambering you've mentioned for a reduced load. If your talking about a bug out rig for a centerfire, having a single powder that will work for all situations is ideal.

If this is something YOU want to do, then I'd look into the .22 Squirrel, based on the shortened .22 Hornet case. It should work well for down loading as you describe, and equal or slightly exceed the .22 WMR when loaded up. However, for a "bug out" gun, I am not sure why you want a single shot? That situation would be conducive to MUCH disorder, where single shots COULD get you killed. Just MHO, though.

As much as I'm an advocate of the .22 Hornet (and a couple other oddball .22CF's), I would have to say in the event of an apocalyptic collapse a .223/5.56 anything would be my choice. With a gov't collapsed out of the way or trying to restore order there's bound to be tons of those cartridges laying around. I could be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time. But I would lean toward arming myself with some kind of really popular caliber that I stood a chance of finding anywhere, even though I would certainly take pains to provide myself with the "fixin's" to load my own, with cast bullets probably.

If I were "bugging out" (fat chance with my gimpy butt, and whereinhell am I gonna find heart meds out in the sticks anyway), I would probably just grab a .22 rimfire and a couple bricks of ammo and hope for the best.