Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles The Rimfire Alternative

Lead bullets on body shots should be great, especially at low velocity..." eat right up to the hole.."

John

I like the profile of that 44gr round nose. It even looks like a .22 bullet.

The 6 cavity Lee also looks interesting. I have a .355 Lee that casts nice bullets quickly. I might have to check out their new .225 mold as well.

I haven't seen any trailboss lately, but I have IMR 4895 on the shelf, and lately it's been available around here, so that could give me a good place to start.

Thanks all.

The Sierra 40 and 45 gr Hornet bullets are good for reduced loads too. i've worked with with Hercules/Alliant 2400 to get around 2000-2200 fps, approximating a 22 magnum

Accuracy is OK I presume.....

Sounds like you had a great hunt.. May have to head north after I hunt deer this next few days.. Glad you had a good trip with lots of shooting..

You don't need to go north of the MT border, hit that area around Lovell...its crawling with bunnies.

I forgot to mention that this is in a 222 Rem with a 20" barrel.

I was working from 8.5-11.0 grs of 2400 with 8.5 giving around 1800 fps and 11 giving around 2300-2400 depending on the bullet. Three shot groups varied from around 3" down to 0.6-0.8" with the better groups in the 10.0, 10.5 and 11.0 range.

It just so happens that I have a .222 laying around here someplace......

MD - that article was the basis for my experiments, as well as exploring possible sub-sonic loads, but I didn't quite get there with the 40gr bullets.

I got subsonic with Blue Dot, but then BD disappeared from the market. I suspect other powders of about the same burn rate would work, but haven't tried any in the .223, partly because I found it much easier to produce rimfire-equivalent loads in the .22 Hornet.

My Ruger No. 1B shoots the cast Lyman bullet to the top of the post in the Ballistic Plex reticle at 50 yards when the rifle's 3-9x Burris FFII is set on 6x, and sighted-in an inch high at 100 with full-power varmint loads. The powder charge is around 5 grains of 5744, if I recall correctly, and velocity is around 1100 fps.

Unique is pretty good for those real slow speeds....

a Cast Bullet manual is your friend.... tons of good and often overlooked info in those...nothing is high pressure, so you can use jacketed bullets instead of cast and be nowhere near SAAMI max pressure specs...

ya wanna live on the wild side, for subsonic loads in the 223, Hodgdon's Annual Manual lists using TiteGroup and a 55 grain FMJ....talk about double charge potential....3.1 grains...heck I've got more media dust in the case from tumbling probably....

Subsonic loads with a 55 grain FMJ in the 223 from the 2013 Hodgdon Annual Manual....

Trail Boss 4 grains 1074 fps No pressure given
Titegroup 3.1 grains 1064 fps 4000 CUP
Clays 3.2 grains 1060 fps 3700 CUP

there ought to be some fun hiding in there for a few of you guys...

So far Im liking the Trail Boss because you couldn't double charge it...easy to work with...

Found a can of Trail Boss at the local shop.. May try and load some up for later this fall..

Good info.. Thanks..

I've been fooling with .22 centerfires and cast bullets for almost 40 years now. Hornet, R2 Lovell, Max Lovell, .222, .223, and for sh*ts-and-giggles- .219 Wasp. Right now it's mostly with the Hornet. Out of a half dozen .22 molds in my drawer, the one I wish I'd had all along is the Lee Bator.

I have messed with Trailboss but because it takes so much more of it to equal velocities made with Bullseye, Clays, Unique, etc. I don't anymore. Better bang for the buck with the fast pistol powders, IMO, even if extra super care need be taken to prevent double/triple charges.

With the Bator bullet in the Hornet I like either 6 grains 2400, 1680, or Lil Gun- it really doesn't seem to make a difference in my gun. Performance is like a .22WMR, groups less than MOA out to 100 yards. For a more sedate load I switch to an old Ideal 225438 mold 45gr.±, and 2 grains Bullseye or 3 grains of either Unique or Universal Clays.

I only shoot rimfires anymore when I want to make bughole groups with a target rifle. For general plinking/experimentation/hunting I reach for a .22CF and cast loads. I never minded the Great Rimfire Drought as a result.

LOAD UPDATE


I just HAD to mess with things, so tried a couple more loads. The 50 grain Hornady Zombie Max ( aka V-max) and 8.0 grains of Trail Boss in the .223AI looks like where I want to be for awhile







Also got real good accuracy out of some Remington 55 grain HPs...but they didn't feed worth a crap.....

Did you chrono that load? looks similar to what I got with TB.

BTW - found a guy selling a 5lbs jug of TB about a month ago - I'm pretty set for a while. I did notice that the jug was the same size as a 8lbs jug of regular powder, so that shows you how bulky TB really is.

Just for grins, I have a cast bullet load for my 375 H&H with TB. 265gr GCFN @ 1500fps - really makes practice fun!

No, I haven't been able to chrono and have only my eyeball and trajectory to go by, and Im still guessing it in the 1900fps range...


At least trajectory matches up with similar data for .22 cal bullets at that speed.

And performance on game seems to put it right about there too....much more damage than a .22 LR but less than the faster 17HMR...

Cost is the same as 17HMR, interesting.....

Actually cost is less if you use budget bullets...and at those speeds the bullet doesn't matter much....

With Hornady 55 grainers I figure it runs me about $6.25 for fifty....With Z-Max it will be about $7

Tag




Thanks Boys.
Great stuff.