Has anyone shot .224" bullets in a 22Savage Hi P. rifle, that can report on its accuracy, or lack of?

I have been offered a good deal on one, but the lack of .227" bullets is stopping me from lifting it.

If memory serves, Ken Waters did the experiment and reported good accuracy, but I am not sure where he wrote about it and if I can find it.

Thanks in advance,

BBerg

Some information, including comments on the Waters article.

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/22_hipower.htm

Bruce

Thanks, Bruce.

This is a spare inter changeable barrel in 5,6x52R -the European version of the 22 Savage Hi Power- for a Blaser K95.

It is of modern manufacture, accurate with RWS factory ammo, and has no headspeace issues.

BBerg

http://www.hornady.com/store/.227-22-CAL/

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=190205

Thank you, Natman. I know about Hornady, Norma and RWS manufacturing .227" bullets but such a narrow choice does not satisfy me completely and wanted to try others, specialy more modern and soficticated bullets.
BBerg.

BBerg, I shoot and hunt coyotes and other small game with a couple of Savage 1899's in 22 High Power. My bullet of choice is the .224 Sierra 63 grain semi spitzer. They shoot very accurately in my rifles. I use 22 grains of RL 7 in a Norma case for a velocity of 2800 fps. You could probably get a little more velocity since you are loading for a modern, and likely "stronger" gun. In order to seat the .224 bullet firmly in the .227 sized neck of the 22 HP, I run the sized case into a 22-250 die and neck size it only. You could also replace the expander button with one that is .224 and see how that works. I know of other shooters that use a variety of .224 bullets in 22 HP. The Hornady .227 bullets are too long to stabilize in the rifling of the old Savage rifles. By the way, the Ken Waters article is excellent and believe it or not, still relevant even though it's decades old. You can find the article in the book "Pet Loads" still being printed by Wolfe Publishing.

thank you very much for your post, mw406, that is exactly the information I was looking for...

have you had any experience with Barnes or any other monolithic bullet?

BBerg

BBerg, By replacing the expander button with a 224 button I have had good luck with the 70gr. Speer, 63gr. Sierra, 50gr. balistic Tip. and 55gr. Rem. bullets in an old Savage 99. By good luck I mean they shoot as well as some old Speer .228 bullet I have and generally better than the 70gr .227 Hornady. This is not a real accurate rifle with the best groups runing around 1.5 inches at 100 yds. I started by simply removing the depriming stem and expander button from my die sizing the case and and using it that way. Bullets seated easy with a good chamfer, but did have to deprime in a seperate step with a univesal deprime die, saw no change in accuracy when I started using the 224 expander but did eliminate the extra step to deprime.

CIP specs give slightly different dimensions for these two cases. Be sure to use appropriate European brass. I have to wonder if the reports I've seen of ".22 Savage" brass cracking has to do with using the slightly undersized 5,6x52R brass in loose .22 Savage chambers.

G.S. Custom makes all copper .227 bullets.

I will, as 5,6x52R brass is available here in Europe.

I like the GS's very much, the only problem being their availability.

Sorry, didn't read the other posts before responding.



I used Speer 70 grain and Sierra 55 & 63 grain bullet out of a 20" Savage 99
when .228 bullets were unavailable.

You will need to take out your expander or neck size the Savage case in
a .22/250 sizing die.

Accuracy with iron sights was about as good as .228 bullets

You just have to try them in your rifle, some 99s do very well with them and some don't. My brother used one for years as his deer rifle and his shot .224 bullets in about a 3.5 inch group as a rule, good enough to kill a deer..but the .228 bullets shot about an inch with irons at 100 yds.

Some of the inaccuracy problems is with the take down mod. 99s that have shot loose over the years. The bullets get blamed for this sometimes.

The 22 Hi Power is quite a good killer on deer size game if you don't try and reach out there too far.