Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors 22 HP testing at range today

done.

Thanks!

Fantastic! Good juju with that load. My hunting ammo is ready to go, with that same load (using both 70 grain Sisks and RWS H-Mantels).

Great to see these results.Need to get those reloads pulled,anneal the brass,and reload with the .228 Norma's. Gnoahhh can you elaborate on how you shorten your Hornady's please. Wish we could hunt with a HP up here but will have to be satisfied with Coyote or beaver for a Savage grand slam. Does that count? Maybe could have a Cdn. Savage grand slam for those of us in the north.

I use a file trim die, and I made a few for members here over the years. Basically a piece of steel with a .228" hole through it honed so bullets slip fit in it, of the length required, hardened so that a file won't touch it. Insert bullet, file off tip until file glances off the top of the die, done. Repeat until they're all done. Takes about a minute total per bullet- knock out a box of a hundred while watching a movie on TV.

I make the dies out of 1/2" diameter steel and nest them in larger blocks of metal so they're easy to use and allow for lead filings to be easily cleaned away.

Congratulations Inman! Hope to post a similar pic soon.

Nice write up on the range test. I have a 1917H in 22Hi-Power that has a very good bore. I have never had good results with S&B Factory ammo. It shoots Norma and
hand loads very well. I put on a Redfield receiver mounted peep which helps with the groups. I can get 1 inch to 1.5 inches at 100 yards with Norma or hand loads. Double
that size for S&B. I bought 6 boxes of S&B back in 2006 when it was on sale for $8 box. Just to get the brass. However 10% of the brass cracked at the neck on first firing.

Nice Deer!

300S, that seems to be a high percentage!

You know what I do with that stuff? I pull the bullets, dump the powder into the flower bed, de-cap and anneal the brass, re-charge with a sane powder charge and re-seat the bullets.

LOL! That's exactly what I did with the 2nd box of S&B,Gary! 'cept I haven't reloaded the other 20 yet.

So am I to understand that the 70 gr S&B projectiles them selves are decent enough quality? There is a supplier in Canada that sells them for $36 / 100. In my search someone else suggested re-sizing 70 gr..243 bullets in a size and lube die which is apparently available from Lee.

Resizing a non-cast bullet?

That's a new one on me.

I think that as a general rule, the S&B bullets themselves are decent quality. It is just that the twists in most .22 HP barrels doesn't jive with that of most actual 5.6x52R barrels, which (I think) is what the S&B bullets were designed for. It sounds like some .22 HPs shoot them just fine, but most don't, so you may want to try it.

Good luck with it. These .22 HPs are finicky, but sure are fun.

Wow! Congratulations. Nicely done.

BTW - is the .228" 70 gr Speer considered a good choice, for a hunting bullet? I stumbled onto a box of them recently. Mine seem to weigh more like 71 grains.

Guy

Thanks Inman. Never asked but I assumed he was talking about resizing .243 cast bullets. But you know what the saying is about assumption.

Thanks Guy!

As far as the .228" 70 grain speer...I have no idea. Never shot one. Wouldn't mind trying though.

I do know that speer bullets have always impressed me as hunting bullets despite their somewhat low key reputation. I have always had really good luck with them.

I wouldn't try resizing .243's down to .228's for two reasons. First, it would be a helluva grunt to squeeze them through a push through die. Second, jacket material (gilding metal) has more elasticity to it than the lead core does and will spring back ever so slightly after passing through the die (unless that is taken into account when making the die), while the lead won't- causing the tight bond between jacket and core to be maybe not so tight anymore.

Also when you shrink a cylinder's diameter while retaining the same mass/volume, it elongates. That could pose a problem with making .243's into .22 HP bullets where bullet length is already a critical factor with our guns.

I never stuck a deer with the Speer .228 either. I do notice a disturbing phenomenon with those bullets though. While they are crazy good accurate, for me they leave a suspicious blue trail behind them as they fly- a tracer as it were. I noticed this out of each gun of mine. Then, on the target each bullet hole exhibits a little smear of blue-black next to the hole- puts me in mind of a picture of a comet, or like the foot sticking out of a steamer clam shell. Sort of like each hole has a little tail on the paper. I was told that's due to molten lead being shed from the bullet jacket. Weird. I could buy that if I were driving them at extremely high velocity such as from a .220 Swift or .22 Marciante Blue Streak (which was how that wildcat got its name), but this is .22 HP I'm talking about, and I load for it fairly lightly to boot. What that all means is a mystery to me, but that is why I have shied away from using them for deer hunting- I don't want a bullet with a half melted core, if that's what it is, trying to penetrate into the boiler room of a deer. I never observed that phenomenon with any other HiPower bullet.

Maybe Santa will bring me a set of .228 bullet swaging dies for Christmas so I can make my own damn bullets and not have to rely on availability of obscure factory offerings anymore.

I'd buy some...

Guy

Hit the range with 20 rds of 22 HP 23 gr BLC2 and 64 gr "Bullet Man" lead bullets with copper gas check and lube.
I was looking for 2200 fps and I was pleased with the results. Not so please with the standard deviation though. I think I can experiment with some other ball powder (such as CFE 223) to control it.

I was looking for groups, and not adjusting the Lyman 58A. Essentially a 2" MOA at 50 yards...I'll take that for these old eyes. After a fouling shot away from target...my 2nd shot was dang near a bullseye. I almost put the rifle away after that.

Data below. I removed the 2300+ fps on the chrono calculation as it was the only one above 2300 but wanted you guys to see it. Probably a Auto Progessive drop of ball powder that was a .10 of a gr more.

Okay, settled on 22 grains (should get me slightly under 2200 fps) for the old girl.
Hand loaded a few last night.

This is a terrific topic and now has me looking around for a 22HP. I like the idea of casting the bullets and was hoping someone could tell me the Lyman/Ideal code for the bullet mold to use? I did some searching on the web for this and came up with numbers 22835, 228367 and 228391. Are any of these correct or better than the others. Are there additional molds to look for? Big gunshow coming up in December and I’d like to look for a mold, as well as manufactured bullets. I bought 150 Hornady 25-35 cases and a Redding die set. I will of course be looking for a Savage Rifle too. Thanks!

John