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

It's not a bad idea, but since you already have a rimfire bbl, I'm not sure what you gain. I have a Bullberry Bee barrel, and I wouldn't trade it. But I also wouldn't seek one out.

Faster twist than 1:14 not required with cast bullets. I have Lee Bator mould that casts 55's, and they stabilize just fine in the Bee at rimfire speed, sans gas check, in re-smelted range scrap alloy. In fact, they shoot more accurately than my rimfire. Since I have the stuff already, they are cheaper to shoot than rimfire, and I get about 12-1250 out of a 55gr slug. Titegroup, Unique, Red dot, Blue dot, Clays, all work slicker than cowshiit for what I've described. Charges 3-5 gr w/o gas check.

I only have the Lee mould in 22 cal, but with a gas check and harder alloy, like coww, you can step on it a bit. Quench them, and step harder. So far, accurate loads have barely gotten to 2k with Unique and BD, but I've not experimented much, and haven't hardened the alloy further.

This is not a bad bugout set-up, as 5000 cast up and tumble lubed is about 40 lbs. Still have to have powder, dipper, priming setup, minimal sizing, etc. Casting equipment and a couple hundred lbs of lead feels good to own when I ponder the future availability of components.

Don't see the logic in replicating what you already have, ie the .22 LR. If you want to simplify the project, try some .310 diameter round balls in the .30-30. Start with 3.0 grains of Bullseye and work down. Put a card wad under the ball, straighten the case neck but do not crimp. LR primer or LP if you prefer. Tumble lube with ALOX cut with mineral spirits about 10% by volume. I get about 750 fps with that load using a 180 cast 311041, you'll probably see somewhere around 1100 fps +/- with the start load and round balls.

Use caution, check the bore before shooting the second round if the previous report seems the least bit unusual. Mouse fart loads have been known to leave a bullet in the barrel.

Yeah the RB loads in 30/30 are a kick in the pants. Really ideal for kids, or just the kid in you. I followed Digital Dan's outline there except for the powder. I tried Unique, 5gr, and then Titegroup, 5 gr. The Titegroup load shoots them a bit faster. Both are accurate enough for small game at 20 paces out of 14" Contender.

I shoot a lot of cast bullets ranging from .22 cal fiber to .375 H&H. Getting decent .22 cast bullets is a royal PITA. The only alloy that gave decent casts was with pure linotype and even then the reject rate was quite high. Sometimes, over 50 percent ended back up in the pot. The very slightest flaw was reason for rejection and the slightest difference in weight was enough to reject. My loads FWIW was more in the range of a hot .22 WRF.
What I would consider regarding your specs would be the round ball as mentioned of a gallery load for the 30-30. Feeding would not be a problem in your single shot and something in the 100 to 120 gr. range with a light load of Unique. I use 5.0 gr. on my M94 Winchester but at that level is still supersonic. Feeding in lever actions is fussy at best with the lighter bullets borderline in a Marlin and no go in the M94, The 100 to 115 gr. bullets won't deed in the 94 but are borderline in the Marlin. The 120 gr. bullets will feed in the M94 if seated as far out as practical. At least they do in my rifle. None of that is a problem in a single loader. Gallery loads in a 30-30 or any .30 caliber rifle are a lot of fun as plinkers and with a bit of tweaking for your particular rifle make great small game loads.
Paul B.

Pick a caliber you desire.. pick up a 5lb keg of Trail Boss and you are off to the races...

For whatever it might be worth I have shot round balls from a number of different calibers with success. .25, .30, .35 and .44. I like to paper patch my balls for the .44, otherwise it has been Alox lube for the smaller calibers. I shot some loads with the .44 that had two balls and you can probably shoot both your balls thru any caliber with a straight wall cartridge. Maybe you could shoot 3 in a long case like the .45-70 or .38-55 if you have three balls. Some folk use different lubes, it really doesn't matter much with MF loads. Load whatever you got and send your balls downrange I say.

Accuracy will be better than you might expect, particularly with slow twist barrels that are typical of straight wall chambered barrels. Little bit of common sense and a little powder will go a long way to providing precision far beyond what you might expect. It helps if your balls are truly round. Not all balls are created equal. Swagged balls from Hornady are round, but geeze if that doesn't make me squirm a little.

Best of luck,

D

I disagree with that to a fairly large degree. 50/50 WW/Lino is a good mix for .22 bullets if one seeks a bit of snap on the velocity. Softer alloy works quite well in the general vicinity of 1100 fps. Trick to doing that is having your mould and alloy hot enough for say, 30:1 alloy. About 750* will do the trick.

Lyman 225438 44 gr w/#2 alloy. Actually kinda boring to cast.

My role in engineering was mostly waving my hands, talking, drawing sketches, and sitting in meetings.

I had to have an airtight explanation for why everything a team did could not be done simpler and cheaper.

Now that I am retired, I can do stuff just because i feel like it.





How does that round lead ball get a flat nose and get a meplat that seals the gas at the lands?

I mades some dies and put two presses end on end and I squish lead ball into shape.

With 2 grains of Red Dot it pushes a 186 gr 50 cal round ball 600 fps and sounds like a BB gun. It will kill a coon with a body shot. That is 56-50 brass cut down to 0.45" long.

Flyin' ashtray strikes yet again!

Smilin' I am. Minds without guardrails are the mothers of all pearls.

I love it!

As for casting .22 bullets- 'taint no particular trick. I do it exactly like Dangerous Dog Digital Dan does, but I run my pot up around 800º with WW alloy, and switch to a different mold when bullets start looking too frosty, and back again, etc. Very, very few rejects.

I have a .17 mould. Plain base round nose that casts about 9-10 grains. Is that bizarre or what?

DD, That is disturbing.
You could just buy 17 cal pellets.

They are the wrong size. Sad state of affairs, no?

4mm?

Aye. 800 fps +/-

12 grooves, ~7.5" twist. Them Germans were crafty rascals back before the first great war. Maybe still....

A source for ammo etc.

http://www.iss-internationalshootersservice.com/ammunition.html

That looks like the Shire.

Shire? Whazzat?

The place where Samwise is mayor.

Was made in Munderkingen, Germany. Small river town near the Baltic coast. May have misspelled the town but it's close.

Dan, I don't know who is more evil, you or Jim (EvilTwin). That's all I needed to see, a shop, that close, that carries really neat toys.

Ed