Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Reloading Savage 22hp

I Finally found a nice Savage 99H in 22hp. I have read many different articles about reloading and am a bit overwhelmed. What projectiles should I be staring with . I am up in Canada and I have had some offer me Hornady .228 70grn. For a 60 bucks a box. I have read that they are unstable and key hole. I am not sure what other manufacturers make .228 projectiles. I have also read that you can use .227 and .224. Any suggestion would be great
Stefan

I shot Buffalo Bore bullets in the one I played with. Reformed 30-30 cases in a couple three steps.

Being in Canada may be a stumbling block. I have no clue as to what .228 bullets we have that might be available to you. As for the Hornady's, try a couple and see- you might get lucky. If you are at a higher altitude and shooting in cold weather they may well work in your 1-12" twist barrel. If they don't shoot well you can always shorten them by .1" or so by filing their tips off. (Do it consistently with a purpose-made file trim die.) That'll give you guaranteed better results- how much better is dependent on your load, rifle, and basic ability to shoot.

I could sit and give you a list of suppliers but I would suggest starting with Buffalo Arms Co. as Fireball suggested. They offer/offered a wide range of suitable diameter bullets, all of which are a better bargain than $60/box Hornady's. Only trouble is they are in stock on a limited basis. Good luck!

Brass: just reform .30-30's as mentioned, not that big a deal. Or, simply push a .25-35 case into the .22HP die and take it out and shoot it.

Edit: .224's will work, but you'll need to swap out the expander ball in your die for a smaller one or else the bullets won't be gripped in the case hardly at all. Bear in mind though that a lot of powder gas will blow past a .224 bullet before it bumps up in diameter to seal the bore, if it does so at all. That gas cutting can wreck the throat/leade of the rifling if done a lot. For occasional once or twice a year kind of shooting, no big deal but remember Savage isn't making .22 HP barrels anymore...

Has any one used RCBS #10501 dies for the 223 wssm. I have some offer them to me when I posted an wtb add on a forum. He also offered me custom .228 70 grn copper jacketed swaged bullets is there any concerns with using them.

No idea about the .223WSSM dies. Honestly that cartridge is so far out of my wheelhouse that that I'm clueless. I will comment though that whatever bullets you decide to try, confirm that they are .750" or shorter to give the best chance of their performing well. There's a lot of .228 bullets out there intended for use in .228 magnum wildcats and European rifles that really aren't terribly suited to our old Savages.

the actual bore size is .227 of a 22 H.P. Savage , some have mention .224 bullets work just fine in a 22H.P. Savage ? i have always just used my .227 bullets i have a bunch of.

There's variation. I have three rifles with five barrels and slugged them all- two are .227 and three are .228. Throats are pretty consistent though at .229.

.228 was the standard for centerfire .22 barrels at the time of its debut. The .224 standard didn't become popular until much later.