Hello,
I know that the 22 Hi power uses .227-.228 bullet diameter. Can anyone tell me the correct bore diameter? A friend would like to re-barrel one and is looking for the information and possibly a barrel maker to contact.
Any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Got a whole board for savages. Bunch of guys there just itching to help you.

If I were going to re-barrel one I’d use a .224 barrel with a fast twist. You could use bullets up in the range of the original and not have all the headaches of getting one to shoot. Some guys use 60 grain partitions (.224”) in the original barrels and have some luck “bumping” them up to stabilize. Many won’t stabilize the Hornady 70 grain bullets - the Speers usually do better. Problem is both of these bullets have been discontinued so they are hard to find and typically expensive. I have thought many times about re-barreling with a .224” 1:8 twist barrel and shooting appropriate bullets for deer sized game - but have never gotten around to it.

By the way one of the reasons given for such difficulty in getting an original HP to shoot is variation in bore diameter - I have read that bores measured from .2255”-.228”. I have one that measures .226” and shoots pretty good with the Speer 70 grain bullets. Just always thought that if I had a standard .224” barrel I’d have better (and cheaper) bullet options and be more likely to shoot?

PennDog

A .22HP with a .224" barrel would perforce be called a .219 Zipper. The allure/nostalgia of it is because of it's .228 bore. In today's world it represents a challenge for a crafty rifleman to make work. Pac-Nor made fast twist .228 barrels in their pre-fire days, don't know if they do that now though.

Bore diameters did indeed fluctuate a bit. I've owned a few and they had bores that ranged from .227 to .229. I always stuck with .227-.228 factory bullets because I never cared for having .224's rattling down the bores and allowing gas cutting to erode throats, but then again I shot them a lot and reckon that the rare occasional shooter could get away with it as long as accuracy was present.

Bullets are indeed difficult to locate and contribute to the craftiness I alluded to in my opening statement. Recent issue Hornady spire point 70's are still your best bet to find but they're generally too long to stabilize in the marginally stabilizing old Savage 1-12" barrels.* Make a file trim die to shorten them by .150" and they'll be fine. Speer 70's are very good, if you can find them. Likewise old Sisk bullets, but they're firmly in the realm of collector's today. Buffalo Arms occasionally lists them in 55,60,and 70 grain sizes but even they've been pretty spotty the last few years. Reed's Bullets had been making .228 70's but I can't say if they still do (I suspect it is/was Reed's who supplied Buffalo Arms). Regardless of your source, insure that your bullets measure no more than .750" long if you want guaranteed success. (Longer ones that pop up were undoubtedly intended for the European market where the .22HP, known there as 5.6x52R, is still kind of popular. Those guns have much faster twists than our old Savage lever guns.)

I've acquired a metric sh*t ton of .228 bullets in my day, and still have a couple thousand which should see me through to the end. Sleuthing out stashes of old .22HP bullets was for me part of the fun of shooting these rifles. But, the real solution is to glom onto a suitable bullet mold or two and make your own darned bullets. Depends on how crafty you want to be, I guess.

* Elevation above sea level, temperature, humidity, etc. comes into play here with the Hornady 70's. What works for Joe Schmoe at 5000ft. out West on a cold day won't work for me here at sea level by the humid Chesapeake Bay on a hot summer day.

It's amazing how the old lead pot solves everything. It's a good day when my pot is hot.

PM T_Inman he had his 22hp lined to 224.

Gnoahhh is spot on (as usual) and if it’s the allure you want then the original is the way to go - it is certainty fun to get a gun shooting that is a bit “non-conforming” (I have learned much this way)! My angle was more if you didn’t want to go that route. If you do get a .228” bore and the proper rate of twist you’d be fine with the HP!

PennDog

I've handloaded for two .22 HP 99s, and after reading (and rereading) Ken Waters' writing on the them, tried .224 bullets and they shot better than the 70-grain .227 Hornadys--which were actually designed for European rifles chambered for their metric equivalent round, the 5.6×52mmR, which had faster twists.

Got excellent accuracy in both rifles with aperture rear sights, using 60-grain Hornady spitzers and Nosler Partitions. In fact shot quite a few prairie dogs with 'em at ranges out to 150+ yards.

You can read about the details in Chapter 42 of The Big Book of Gun Gack II, "Loading the Savage Rifle Rounds," if you happen to have a copy.

The 5.6x52mmR and the 22 HP Savage differ dimensionally. *Before anyone says "But, but, but...." yes I am aware they are spoken of interchangeably, and guns and ammo are labeled as such. However, the European cartridge is smaller about 1/4" above the casehead and often separates after the first firing in Savage rifles, which have larger chambers.

*Also, Savage HP ammo doesn't chamber well in my BRNO o/u rifle. The biggest frustration is resizing and dies.

You might try RWS bullets. The Europeans use this caliber. Alan

Correct.

My 1899H keyholed everything .224” save the 63 Sierra SMP, which shot patterns, though at least the bullets hit the target going straight. The .228” SISKs shot very well out of it, but are nearly impossible to find so I bit the bullet and re-lined it with a .224” Douglas 1/10.

I haven’t played with it much since then, but it is very accurate now with several different .224” bullets of various lengths/weights. Fun rifle.

Pre-conversion via .228 Sisk

Cutting edge bullets makes 228. I think there is someone else too as I thought about a 228 re-barrel

if i was your friend i would put a standard .224 bullet barrel on the rifle ,reason bullets are common to find and cheaper too.also buy a Lee crimp die for the ammo he loads.

Well, he has a bunch of 22HP ammo is the reason he wants to stay original. Lots of good comments, thanks

i think i will have to un-safe my Savage 99 22 HP and try some .224 bullets the .227 bullets never did shoot well for me . so now i wonder will or would these .224 bullets work better ? i believe Mule Deer . Pete53

Remember, mule deer was talking 60 gr bullets. They would work better in the slow twist barrel giving better velocity than the 227 70gr. Stick to the 22hp chambering and use the 60gr bullets. You can swage your own bullets with dies. A new hobby for you! Talk to more folks that shoot the 22hp. Alan

Yep. The magic bullet length number that I've found to work in my Savage .22 HP's, here at sea level, is .700". That's a general statement because Savage played fairly fast and loose with the consistency of their rates of twist, and based on the sampling of more than a few that have passed through my hands. Generally .750" long will work ok, but .700" is a very safe bet. Don't go by weight even when choosing a .224" bullet, ya gotta go by length even if it means dropping down in weight.

Very few 70 grain bullets of either diameter meet that requirement. I made a steel file trim die to make my bullets conform if too long. It's hard as glass and a file won't scratch it. Problem solved. Even long-assed Hornady .228 spire points work now, albeit with a wide flat nose now.

Shooting a few .224's now and then probably won't hurt anything, but what if the bore is on the sloppy side of tolerances? I would measure that before proceeding. One of my Savage bores was actually a fat .229" groove diameter - would you really want to willingly put .224" bullets through something like that? Heck, the lands would barely grip the bullet as it screeches down the bore! (Given a hard jacket and not enough pressure to bump it up to seal the bore.)