Any news from Yankeetown?
I'm not making headway on converting a spare M2 Springfield bolt head to centerfire. I really really would like to know how Wotkyns, Whelen, et al accomplished it in 1929 when they altered M2's at the Armory for initial .22 Hornet development. A description of the conundrum would have me talking in circles and it defies my photographic abilities. I already screwed up one very expensive piece of 90 year old ordnance, I need to come up with a better game plan.
Whilst I work around that problem I'm skittering off in a different but related direction with another rifle. When I learned of the recent importation of empty primed .22LR brass again (from Armscor in the PI) I swooped in and ordered a shoebox full (literally) of the things. (Give me a break. It seemed like a good idea at the time. At least Sailor Jerry sitting on my shoulder told me it was...) At $.02 apiece + the cost of a pinch of powder + the free scrap lead, it's still in the realm of Determined Digital Dan's initial premise that kicked off this thread.
The plan is to use these cases in a breech seating venture with my Winchester-Miroku Low Wall .22LR. I have a truly ancient Ideal # 225438 mold which fortuitously throws its bullets with a .218 front bands diameter and .225 base band diameter- I'm thinking that in its pre-tapered configuration I got a leg up in making it fit the rifling as a prime candidate for a breech seating experiment. (For the uninformed but inquisitive crowd, breech seating is merely the cramming of a soft lead bullet up the spout into the rifling leade, and then inserting a charged case into the chamber behind it, and shoot. The seating is done with either a tool incorporating a plunger that is powered by leverage, or a straight pusher. The idea being to start the bullet straight into the rifling, and pre-engrave the rifling into it before the drama of the powder igniting has a chance to skew it.) Bullets to be cast tomorrow out of 9bhn alloy to be ready for the long weekend of range loafing coming up. Powder dippers being prepped to measure charges of Bullseye ranging from .7 grain to 1.1 grain. (I'm bound and determined to do this at the bench without benefit of wind sensitive scales.) I made the breech seating tool today on the lathe- a closely fitted brass plug that's a snug fit in my chamber, with a straight-in push rod. Said plug being .020 longer than a standard .22LR case to put the bullet a skinch forward of the case mouth.
A case full of FFFFg black powder is another distinct possibility, but I'd rather not get into the whole BP cleanup routine here.
It's not a new idea. Target/accuracy buffs were using this trick since before Teddy Roosevelt was President. Slow as hell to fire a ten shot group? Oh heck yes- but what, indeed, is time to a pig?
Dan- what was your solution for a tiny funnel to fill these Lilliputian cases?
Last edited by gnoahhh; 05/20/19.
