Hello folks
First post from a fellow hunter from Norway here.

I have a Valmet 212 double barreled shotgun that i got from my father. It has quite a bit of sentimental value for me. I recently found a combination barrel for sale, pretty cheap. The only problem is that it is chambered in a 12ga/5,6x52R (22 Savage HP) combo. I believe you americans moved on from this caliber, but it is still not uncommon in europe, since it's a low pressure, rimmed cartridge. This suits the breach-break combination guns very well.

I can get factory loaded ammo for this, but not in a very wide assortment. Sellier & bellot and Hornady make .228 bullets for hand loading. The 12ga/5.6 combo will suit grouse hunting performance-wise, but i have reservations against getting this barrel and having a limited amount of bullet brands to play with.

Is it possible to use the .224 bullets in some way? Bullet hold would be an issue, i might work around this in reloading by using thicker brass or sanding down the mandrel. I was wondering if any of you have tried this or heard of such a venture. What would happen to the precision?

Cheers
Trond

doesn't work very well, the 224 bullets sort of rattle down the barrel. there are still some 228's made, but you might have to do a bit of looking for them

Use to load .264 dia. bullets in a sporterized Carcano that used .268 bullets. With open sights I could hit a 9" pie plate at 100 yards every time. You will have to use a smaller expander for sure and possibly some ingenuity. My guess is it would make a good hunting stand up and shoot rifle that would hit within 2" of point of aim at 50 meters.

It is quite possible that a portion of the bullet shank dia. will be bumped up a bit as it is pushed into the rifling creating a fair seal. No objective evidence; just a hunch. roger

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:
It is quite possible that a portion of the bullet shank dia. will be bumped up a bit as it is pushed into the rifling creating a fair seal. No objective evidence; just a hunch. roger

My thought exactly. I might get some oversized 224's and give them a try. I won't be shooting a lot with it anyway, so the 228 selection might suffice.

Rate of twist in your barrel will be the determining factor for bullet selection. Anything faster than 1-12" will stabilize the Hornady 70gr. just fine. Buffalo Arms Co. (Google them) sells several .228" bullets that work nicely for me. They offer 55, 60, and 70gr.

The .22 HP seems to be enjoying a small ressurgence in popularity. Some folks I'm in communication with are swearing by some of the various 60gr. .224 offerings. When I run out of .228's, I'll give them a try. Some guys shoot nothing but .224's and claim equal or better accuracy than with .228's. Go figure.

Don't miss out on that barrel (barrels). You can get bullets for it but you can also swage 224 bullets up to 228. You can also do a crazy thing that I do with my hornet. That is to seat the bullets using a paper cup arrangement and secure the bullet using waxy-lube, which is applied molten to the seated bullet. This will be OK, if not good, for a single shot rifle. It works just fine in my magazine fed hornet. The idea there is to get the bullet to enter the rifling straight and that is what the paper cup is supposed to do. The system requires no sizing of the case or neck either.

Have a look here - http://www.shootforum.com/forum/bulletdb.html
There are 10 .228 bullets listed.

Kev.

quote:

Originally posted by gnoahhh:
Rate of twist in your barrel will be the determining factor for bullet selection. Anything faster than 1-12" will stabilize the Hornady 70gr. just fine. Buffalo Arms Co. (Google them) sells several .228" bullets that work nicely for me. They offer 55, 60, and 70gr.

Yeah. I think the barrel is at least 1-12, since it's mostly the 70 grainers that are used for hunting small game here. Thanks for the heads up on buffalo arms.

quote:

Originally posted by 303Guy:
This will be OK, if not good, for a single shot rifle. It works just fine in my magazine fed hornet. The idea there is to get the bullet to enter the rifling straight and that is what the paper cup is supposed to do. The system requires no sizing of the case or neck either.

I briefly considered paper winding, but i thought it would get too fiddly. Nice idea with the paper cup. It would indeed solve several problems.