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Swaging bullets using 22 LR cases

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01 September 2009, 07:28
303Guy
Swaging bullets using 22 LR cases
A fellow mwmber on another Forum gave me the idea of swaging bullets for my hornet. It took me more than one attempt and after destroying my first die, here is the result.

The formed jacket


The swaged bullet


The sized swaging, using the same die that formed the jacket


Loaded up


The recovered bullet after firing into compacted wet rags


Bullet Weight - 67gr
Powder charge - 10.8gr Lil'Gun
Weight retention - 68%
Penetration - 8 ½ inches (220mm)
No core separation (it's in there).


Regards
303Guy
01 September 2009, 08:42
jcunclejoe
Very nice, I have been using the 22lr jackets to make a 65gr lead tip for my hornet. I'm using 8.5gr of H110. I used them to win a World Championship in IHMSA Field Pistol Production this year in Texas.
They must shoot pretty well.
Nice job.
Joe
01 September 2009, 16:20
James Kain
Hey 303 let me know how your groups turn out.
Did you make your own dies this time?


Disabled Vet(non-combat) - US Army
NRA LIFE MEMBER
Hunter, trapper, machinest, gamer, angler, and all around do it your selfer.
Build my own CNC router from scratch. I installed the hight wrong. My hight moves but the rails blocks 3/4 of the hight.....
01 September 2009, 19:12
jeffeosso
did you anneal them first?
i saw, on a you tube, that dwell time... counting to 3 when locked out, improves results


#dumptrump

opinions vary band of bubbas and STC hunting Club

Information on Ammoguide about
the416AR, 458AR, 470AR, 500AR
What is an AR round? Case Drawings 416-458-470AR and 500AR.
476AR,
http://www.weaponsmith.com
02 September 2009, 04:00
303Guy
quote:
I used them to win a World Championship in IHMSA Field Pistol Production this year in Texas.
That's fantastic! beer
I must confess I will be happy just to get a group. Roll Eyes

quote:
... that dwell time... counting to 3 when locked out, ...
What does that mean, jeffeosso?

I did not anneal this particular case before forming it but it got pretty well annealed during casting the lead in. I was surprized the the nose could form down so far without buckling!

I have only made that one bullet so far. I shall be going to our local club tonight to get fired cases. (And pay my subs).


Regards
303Guy
02 September 2009, 09:08
James Kain
Now only if I could swage them out to .264 DIA in about 140 GR :P


Disabled Vet(non-combat) - US Army
NRA LIFE MEMBER
Hunter, trapper, machinest, gamer, angler, and all around do it your selfer.
Build my own CNC router from scratch. I installed the hight wrong. My hight moves but the rails blocks 3/4 of the hight.....
02 September 2009, 09:31
jeffeosso
anneal the "jackets" before any work is done .. the 22rimfire cases need to be annealed

then, when you have lubed them, and have them pushed into the die, at lock out (all the way down) leave it there for a 3 count


#dumptrump

opinions vary band of bubbas and STC hunting Club

Information on Ammoguide about
the416AR, 458AR, 470AR, 500AR
What is an AR round? Case Drawings 416-458-470AR and 500AR.
476AR,
http://www.weaponsmith.com
02 September 2009, 09:51
jcunclejoe
303guy, the lead supports the jacket and keeps it from buckling or folding.

Depending on the die design the cases may or may not need to be annealed before drawing out the rim. Corbin dies do not need the jackets / cases annealed first. The die set I have they muct be annealed first. A self cleaning oven set on self clean works well with the casings on a cookie sheet. They come out dead soft but a bit ugly.

My 8.5gr load of H110 and 65gr rimfire jacketed bullets shoots around 3/4" at 100 yards with a 18x scope, from sandbags. Out of the Hornet.
Good luck with your project.

James Kain, smoking7mm over on specialtypistols makes about a 117gr 6.5mm out of 22 magnum cases, IIRC it is a hollowpoint. So you might could get it up to a 125gr lead tip or maybe even a 130gr.

Joe
02 September 2009, 19:29
James Kain
quote:
smoking7mm over on specialtypistols makes about a 117gr 6.5mm out of 22 magnum cases, IIRC it is a hollowpoint. So you might could get it up to a 125gr lead tip or maybe even a 130gr.


SCORE!
I think my eyes just popped out of my head.
So if still cannot afford to set up to start swaging, I can possabley set up to do the 6.5mm on my press? I ll have to look up smoking7mm.
THanks


Disabled Vet(non-combat) - US Army
NRA LIFE MEMBER
Hunter, trapper, machinest, gamer, angler, and all around do it your selfer.
Build my own CNC router from scratch. I installed the hight wrong. My hight moves but the rails blocks 3/4 of the hight.....
03 September 2009, 01:48
303Guy
My case drawing die works fine without first annealing the cases but I will try both ways.


Regards
303Guy
03 September 2009, 03:27
jcunclejoe
If you can draw the rims out without annealing then that is great. If you start popping the heads off then you will want to anneal first. They need annealed at some point though. The brass is already work hardened when they are made. If much work / re-shaping is to happen they need to be softened to avoid ruptures and stress fractures.
Good luck, have fun.
Joe
14 March 2010, 04:51
Alberta Canuck
.303 -

Do you have a 6 m/m? If you do, .22 LR cases also make very good 6 m/m bullets.

I bought Corbin dies for both .224 and .243 diameters back in the late 60's or early '70s. (They were selling introductory die sets, complete with core moulds for $100 per caliber back then.) Both turned out very nice bullets for hunting use. I used .22RF fired cases for jackets in both.


My country gal's just a moonshiner's daughter, but I love her still.

25 March 2010, 03:46
DM
I bought my Corbin dies to swage .224's from rimfire jackets back in the 70's, and i think the old rimfire cases are better for that job than the newer ones...

I have made quite a few .257SWC bullets for my 25/20 S&W revolver out of spent shotshell primers. They make a neat lighter bullet, that's perfect for revolver use on small game...

DM
10 December 2010, 08:10
kend
Does anybody other than Corbin make dies for this?
11 December 2010, 12:12
Idaho Sharpshooter
SAS did, back in the early sixties. I made 70+/-gr 6mm bullets out of mag cases. Good for MOA and about half a cent apiece. Reverse the seated core and jacket and make solids for coyotes...

Rich
11 December 2010, 22:33
kend
quote:
Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
SAS did, back in the early sixties.
Rich


Anybody other than Corbin make them now?
11 December 2010, 23:20
James Kain
Has anyone made any 6.5/.264 bullets out of them? I m sure I'd meed to make them from 22Mag cases?

Guys, what is the weight range for your bullets you make for rifles?


Disabled Vet(non-combat) - US Army
NRA LIFE MEMBER
Hunter, trapper, machinest, gamer, angler, and all around do it your selfer.
Build my own CNC router from scratch. I installed the hight wrong. My hight moves but the rails blocks 3/4 of the hight.....
11 December 2010, 23:26
James Kain
quote:
Originally posted by 303Guy:
Penetration - 8 ½ inches (220mm)

You never told us about your media! If I remember right you use wool scraps in your test tube, impact is almost as soon as it exits the barrel in a straight vertical show down into the media?
Is that right? Have you done a test to see how much force is needed to push though the media?


Disabled Vet(non-combat) - US Army
NRA LIFE MEMBER
Hunter, trapper, machinest, gamer, angler, and all around do it your selfer.
Build my own CNC router from scratch. I installed the hight wrong. My hight moves but the rails blocks 3/4 of the hight.....
15 December 2010, 10:12
303Guy
quote:
You never told us about your media!

It's wool furniture padding rolled or stuffed into a tube or can in the tube and water saturated - the idea being to try to mimmick flesh but in anycase, to be consistant.

Here is the wool padding stuff fitted into a health beaverage can then saturated with water. This allowed me to compare expansion and penetration plus asses impact shock with different bullets and velocities with my hornet. Field results on ex live critters confirmed the results meaning that the test tube results came close to real life results, given that strike velocities would be somewhat lower in the field.



Ooh! Look what I found. A 262.5gr cast (and paper patched) bullet fird into soft, fine sea sand (mostly shells). Weight retention is something like 98% !



And the 'test tube' itself.



The insides - loaded with a beverage can of saturated wool padding.



I've enjoyed looking back at some of the stuff I've been up to! (First time in many moons - too many, actually!)


Regards
303Guy
17 December 2010, 02:25
muzza
Tom Turtin in Victoria , Australia has been swaging .22 cases into damn fine projectiles for at least the last 20 years. He is even jammy enough to have sourced cases with a "T" headstamp to produce identifiable projectiles.


________________________

Old enough to know better
17 December 2010, 21:00
iiranger
Richard Corbin, rceco.com, has a die to make jackets out of .22 Mag cases. Then you need the dies to make the bullet of your choice. Up to 7mm per Dave Corbin. 6.5 no problem. Light jacket. Not for big game/ bone busting. Varmints and velocity below 3200, usually works pretty good they say. Luck.
22 December 2010, 05:24
ty_falcon
Making bullets sounded like a great idea,until I went to corbins web site.
803 for the kit and 854 buying the parts seperate. Does a person need the 4 dies?
23 February 2011, 12:57
303Guy
I forgot to say, yes I make my own dies. I never did get to range test these projectiles. I got caught up in paper patching for my 303 Brit and 25-303. Even then I have been out of things for a while. Now we can no longer hunt on state land with a 22 hornet (pity - it was dynamite on feral goats) so the hornet will only get used for farm varmint hunting and there I have some 300 55gr Remingtons to use up in this lifetime!


Regards
303Guy
16 November 2011, 11:29
Frank Martinez
I have been making my own "war-bullets", as the old-timers call them for a little while. I bought the Corbin dies for de-rimming. They work without annealing but the brass needs to be clean.
I have been bonding the cores with flux and pre-weighed lead cores so I can shoot them from my 22-250 at closer to 3000 fps. The jackets are pretty thin and make for a really explosive bullet without the bonding. My target animal is the coyote. The final weight on the bullets have been 55 and 60 grain but I have not tested them enough to offer any results.
My core seater is a privately made and very usable die.\
Over on Cast- Boolits you will find several guys who are making their own and for sale dies.
I am looking into a new de-rim punch for 22 magnum cases which can be used for .243 bullets next.
Frank
28 November 2011, 14:26
Wstrnhuntr
quote:
Originally posted by kend:
quote:
Originally posted by Idaho Sharpshooter:
SAS did, back in the early sixties.
Rich


Anybody other than Corbin make them now?


A couple of guys used to make their own dies for making slugs out of 22 cases back in the 1940's. You may have heard of them, Vernon Speer and Fred Huntington..

And those were the very "Rock chucker" bullets ya'll are making that press was named for..

Just a fun lil piece o nostalgia for ya.. Wink

And the tradition lives on..!

tu2
25 December 2011, 10:18
Frank Martinez
Kaine dies are available now made by Dan R.
BT Sniper is hoping to have his available right after the first of the year.
05 January 2012, 07:56
James Kain
quote:
Originally posted by Frank Martinez:
Kaine dies are available now made by Dan R.
BT Sniper is hoping to have his available right after the first of the year.

I know. But the challenge and the education in the development is part of this project.



Disabled Vet(non-combat) - US Army
NRA LIFE MEMBER
Hunter, trapper, machinest, gamer, angler, and all around do it your selfer.
Build my own CNC router from scratch. I installed the hight wrong. My hight moves but the rails blocks 3/4 of the hight.....
29 January 2012, 12:51
wonderwolf
I just finished up a new 16 cavity fixed core mold for casting cores for my set up. My first mold was a 2 cavity mold adjustable up to 1 3/4" just for S&G realy. But once I found the proper size core for the majority of the ones I make I set it at .800" and left it there. This new mold has 16 cavities all .800" deep and .185" diameter. Seeems to work well so far, nothing says production like 8x boost in speed. Beats paying what Corbin wants for molds thats for sure. I think I have $5 in this mold all together, not counting the cost of the new to me Bridgeport mill


Yes you can shoot it...No you can't have it...Yes I will hunt you down if it turns up missing
31 January 2012, 18:46
Antietamgw
quote:
Originally posted by wonderwolf:
I think I have $5 in this mold all together, not counting the cost of the new to me Bridgeport mill

The things we do to save a buck Cool 'Course it's the tooling that gets expensive!


Keep your plow and sword, know how to use both.
19 June 2012, 10:54
Joe Writer
De-rim with neck flare




19 June 2012, 11:04
Joe Writer
Die set that I made for my Corbin press, swages 224 bullets.

21 June 2012, 09:58
Antelope Sniper
Joe, I admire your work.

Please let us know how your bullets shoot. I'd be interested in seeing some groups!
22 June 2012, 18:07
Joe Writer
First 6mm samples...

22 June 2012, 18:21
kend
Nice, what weight are the 6mm's?
22 June 2012, 18:32
Joe Writer
They are 65 grain
22 June 2012, 21:38
Joe Writer
Some others with a home made .224 in the centre for comparison;

25 June 2012, 21:41
Joe Writer
The complete set;

26 June 2012, 21:52
Joe Writer
Core cutter


27 June 2012, 06:49
James Kain
I'd love to see how that works. Maybe run a vid on youtube.com showing the hole setup and running one bullet though? Show it off. Good job on those. Did you machine them your self? If so nice job.

quote:
Originally posted by Joe Writer:
Core cutter




Disabled Vet(non-combat) - US Army
NRA LIFE MEMBER
Hunter, trapper, machinest, gamer, angler, and all around do it your selfer.
Build my own CNC router from scratch. I installed the hight wrong. My hight moves but the rails blocks 3/4 of the hight.....
28 June 2012, 12:30
Joe Writer
quote:
Originally posted by James Kain:
I'd love to see how that works. Maybe run a vid on youtube.com showing the hole setup and running one bullet though? Show it off. Good job on those. Did you machine them your self? If so nice job.

quote:
Originally posted by Joe Writer:
Core cutter


Yes James, all my own work!
Highly unlikely that I would do a vid, for one do not own a video camera and do not really have the time. operation is nothing new or special.