Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors .227 bullets for 22HP

I need to find bullets for my 99 Savage in 22HP
Thanks Bill

day late, dollar short, hornady is not producing any more. I sold my cache couple weeks ago.

Check with Buffalo arms, they sell some!

Go on gunbroker and get the 65gr cast bullets from bullet man dan. They shoot great!! I just bought 200 more from him.

There is also Schroeder bullets out of California that makes a good shooting 70gr. Google Schroeder bullets for their number and call them. Steve Schroeder is his name. I use these in my 22HP Ackley improved.

Isn't the stuff Sellier and Bellot makes loaded with the larger diameter bullet?

The 6,5x52R from S&B shoot ok in some rifles. They didnt shoot well in mine. And they are loaded pretty hot.

I don't have a 22 HP but I suppose one could pull the S&B bullets and try different powders - if pus came to shove. Waters reported good accuracy with .224 diameter 70-grain Speer, 63-grain Sierra and 60-grain Hornady Spire Points 224 bullets with Reloader-7 and IMR-3031 and 4198 powders in his 1987 article on the round. He also noted good accuracy with the 71-grain Norma factory load, though I don't know if that round is available today. The rifle he used was a solid frame 99 with a 1.5-4.5 Weaver variable.

PS - I just checked the Norma catalog and they still list a 71-grain 5.6-52 (Savage 22 HP) cartridge. A box of the Norma stuff might be worth a try.

tried S&B, not good imo, checking powder & bullet weights, was not consistent, brass was also inconsistent

I'd pull the bullets, pop the primers and try different caps and powders. Working with "out of print" cartridges sometime calls for extreme measures and as FB2 says, its all "fun and games."

Years ago the NRA published a series of articles that were written out of the White Laboratory that had to do with the variables in components that had the most influence on accuracy. It seems to me that bullet weight and powder charge were at the top of the list. Other factors such as case weight and primers had lesser influences on accuracy. So to sum it up, I think that consistency in bullet weight (and even diameter if you checked it) is paramount in maintaining accuracy. Years ago I used to hand load bulk pack 165-grain Remington Core Lokts and found that accuracy dropped off in velocities that exceeded that of the 300 Savage. I found this strange as the factory loaded stuff always worked well enough. So one boring rainy day I sat down and weighed about 500 of them and found that there was about a 10-grain range in weight variation. Unfortunately sorting for weight didn't seem to help much in this experiment which got me wondering if there was other inconsistencies (such as density or concentricity) in the bullets that were beyond my capabilities of measuring.

As long as our European comrades continue to shoot 5.6x52R's (a popular cartridge for roe deer and the like) there will be people making .228" bullets. The trick is in finding them. Beat the bushes, or do as suggested and buy Schroeders or Buffalo Arms bullets. Or, do as I did and get yourself a bullet mold or two and be free of the vagaries of the market place- cast bullets are wonderful if all you're doing is punching paper, and cost virtually nothing to make. My beating of the bushes over the last ten years or so netted me a few thousand various jacketed bullets- a couple thousand have been shot away and a couple thousand remain on my shelf: Hornady 70 grain spire points, Speer 70's, various weight Sisks, RWS 70's (the very best IMO), and Normas. They are where you find them. Post WTB ads on different forums, and have your wallet ready when they turn up. Be diligent and resourceful and before you know it you'll have enough. (And no, I'm not in selling mode!)

When you start scrounging for gun stuff it is amazing what eventually turns up if you keep on the hunt. Stith mounts used to be like that. In the days before eBay not many knew what they were let alone had any parts or complete mounts. Keep looking or, as gnoahh said, start rolling your own.

What's nice about Buffalo Bore bullets, besides that they shoot well, is that you can get lighter weights than the typical 70 grainer. Speed kills!

Buffalo Arms' 60 grain is particularly sweet. But I'm just a little leery about using them for deer as I found the jacket to be very thin when I sectioned one.

I have a few boxes laying around that I could possibly part with. Let me know if you are interested.