Am just going through the motions of acquiring a Savage 99 F C.1927 in 22 Hi-Power. Can anyone steer me in the direction of trimmers for this one? I have a wilson trimmer , but cannot find a shell holder for this cal.
All advice welcome.Thanks in advance
rob

The base of the .22 High Power is the same as the base on a 30-30 or 25-35. The 25-35 is the easiest brass to swage down to .22 HP, but with a great deal of care 30-30 brass can be used. It helps to run the 30-30 brass through a 25-35 sizer die first. Use a good sizing wax, and use it sparingly. Check the neck thickness on re-formed brass for saftey! Hope this helps.

Contact Wilson. They should be able to provide a shell holder for your trimmer. I have one (admittedly pretty old) stamped .22 Hi Power. I don't see why a .25/35 shell holder wouldn't work just as well since it's the parent case for the .22 HP and the design of the Wilson holder grips the case by the body not the neck.

HiPower's that I make out of .30/30 brass (what a pain in the butt!) get annealed before loading and seem to last a good long time. As an aside I've found that Hi Power brass made from W-W .30/30's are a bit longer lived than those made from .25/35's. Could be my imagination. One source of brass that I shun is both Norma and S&B. The smaller head diameter of the Euro-spec'ed stuff contributes to very short case life.

22 Savage High-Power = 5,6x52Rmm ?

.22 Savage HP= 5.6x52R in name only. Modern 5.6x52R cases are several thousandths of an inch smaller in diameter forward the rim. Enough so that cases swell dramatically in most vintage Savage rifles they're fired in. Add to that the fact that Norma and S&B stuff is loaded fairly hot makes for very short case life in a Savage. A non-reloader who wishes to fire his HP and hunt with it occasionally is well served by the Euro stuff. A rifle loony/handloader isn't.

What a classic rifle and caliber. I have a lot of respect for those that keep them up and running.

It appears that obtaining brass is going to be the real challenge with this rifle/I love reloading , but don't have time for annealing brass.
I'll just have to suck it and see.
rob

S&B sells 22 Savage Hi-Power loads for less than $20.00 per box. You can buy new brass from Norma. Huntington's die Specialties carries it.

Hornady sells bullets for a reasonable amount.

RWS sells brass and bullets via Reimar Johannsen.

Do Not try to make brass from 30-30 brass.

The best bullets are from RWS, the Hornady's can tumble sometimes (I have seen it, but have not had it happen in my rifle).

Grafs and sons has both loaded ammunition and brass.

Check the Prvi Partisan line as well.

You can buy loaded Norma ammo in both soft nose and solid varieties.

It is still a very useful little cartridge. Check various brands for rim thickness and diameter. Both of those can be easily changed to suit your particular rifle.

Lawndart, you said

quote:

Do Not try to make brass from 30-30 brass.

Would you please explain why not?
Thanks!

Having gone through all the hoops of making 30-30 brass into 219 Zipper brass (shudder). I imagine there is an intermediate form die ($). You will need to hacksaw (32 teeth per inch) off any excess length. You will need to ream the necks. If the rim has too great of a diameter for your rifle, you will have to turn that off on a small lathe. If the rims are too thick for your rifle, you will have to thin them on that same lathe. When the chunk of brass finally fits in your chamber, you will be on your own for working up loads because your internal case capacity will be considerably less than purpose made brass.

It all comes down to what you wish to do with your time.

You can order a 100 count bag of Norma brass and have it in a few days. If a friend is coming up to visit, or vice versa, you can have five or ten boxes of S&B, or Prvi Partizan loaded ammunition. If RWS imports into Canada, you can get five boxes of their excellent loaded ammunition, or just get the brass and bullets separately. (BTW, the RWS bullets are the best presently made for this cartridge.)

JMO, but when there are four different brands of brass and/or bullets readily available for reasonable prices (there is a spread of the prices), why spend all that time converting 30-30 brass.

Not now, but when I am healthier, I plan on making some bonded core bullets for this caliber. They will be modeled after the RWS bullet; they will just stay together in one glob of gilding metal and lead.

Whatever you decide, good luck.

LD

Thanks to all for the wealth of feedback. I picked up my rifle yesterday.Bluing is around 95%. The action is nice and tight as is the metal to wood.No wobbles anywhere. The open sights are gone and the barrel may have been cut back a wee bit.It is about 20 inches now, at a guess.
To take apart,once the fore end is removed,does the barrel just turn in the direction of the arrow, or is some other step in between that I'm missing?
I've ordered S&B factory for it as plain brass comes in at around $2 a piece and the loades stuff is around 80 cents a round. I have a F/L die for it and a half box of hornady projectiles.
Once I've put a few rounds through it I'll work up a mild load and leave it at that.
With the current restrictions on exporting from the USA, I cannot purchase brass State-side and we are being robbed blind here.
I cannot wait to run some ammo through it.I will keep you posted.
Thanks again for your help
rob

Harry Caldwell killed Tigers in India with a 22 Hi Power...

When he thought he needed a BIG GUN he stepped up the the 300 Savage...

Anytime you go on a big cat hunt , you are most welcome to use my rifle! I suppose that cats are rather thin skinned, still having stood next to a full grown male Tiger....... one has to question either his sanity or level of intoxication!
I think I'll start with rabbits and work my way up to foxes.
rob

I have made many 219 Zippers (VERY similar to the 22 HP) from 30-30 and 5.6x52R brass, also Improved Zipper with no problems. Have also resized Improved Zipper brass back down to standard Zipper with no problems. Sometimes takes an intermediate neck die for the 30-cals to get down to 25-28 cal, then a FL Zipper die pass, trim and neck-ream.

Annealing case necks by hand takes less than 1 minute each, actually closer to 30 seconds each. Neck reaming WILL make for more accurate ammo, at least in my experience it does.
Regards, Joe

The first RCBS form die (for 219Z from 30-30) forms the body taper, leaving the neck alone. You could probably do the same with a 32-40 FL die. A 7-30 Waters FL die might work for an intermediate neck die.

I use cheap FL dies (usually loose and cheap at gun shows) sawed-off with a carbide hacksaw blade, for neck reduction. They might cost $5 each. Easy to get one for each caliber.

But you can skip all that by just using the 219 FL die on 25-35 brass, then trimming.

Forming 22HP should be the same.

Bruce

I repeat, if you are loading for a Savage .22 HiPower, avoid Norma, S&B, and any other Euro-spec'ed 5.6x52R brass IF you want to get more than 3-4 loadings per case. That stuff is all slightly smaller in head diameter than U.S. .25/35 or .30/30 brass. The several thousandth's difference isn't enough to trouble a casual shooter, but a serious handloader will find it's enough to cause short case life.

Unfortunately Hornady is the only common purveyor of .227 diameter bullets with their 70 gr. spire point. It is too long to stabilize well in the 1-12" twists of the early Savage rifles. Accuracy is often reported to be marginal, which I can attest to in my experience. 3-4" groups were the norm for me until I made a file trim die to shorten them by .1". Groups shrunk to an average of 1 1/4" after that. I haven't tried RWS bullets (where do you find them?), and wish the Norma 70 gr. semi-pointed bullets were available to handloaders.