“Converting” 22LR plated rounds to subsonic?

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pat37027

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Hi, all. I’ve been a shooter for decades but have never considered reloading, so I’m wondering if my idea is feasible.

I have a rimfire suppressor on hold awaiting approval by the ATF. From my research, the lead/carbon fouling you get in a rimfire suppressor from LRN or lead hollowpoints is very difficult to clean. Likewise, firing plated rimfire ammo is much cleaner for the barrel and the suppressor.

There are a few subsonic, plated 22 rounds manufactured, but after 3 months of searching almost daily, I have yet to find any actually for sale or in stock. I’ve researched plating LRN subsonic rounds, sort of like you see with old Russian copper-washed rounds, but that appears unfeasible in a non-commercial setting.

Would it be feasible to take existing 22 SV or HV plated rounds, remove the bullet, and reduce the powder load to a subsonic level? I’ve seen countless threads about the difficulty of priming rimfire rounds, but how difficult would it be to remove the bullet, reduce the powder, and replace the bullet? And would you be able to seat the bullet safely, especially considering you’ll be using a suppressor with baffles?

If it were safe, I was thinking I could pull bullets from 100 rounds (or more), dump all the powder, weight it, reduce by some percentage, measure the new amount, and reload the bullets.

Thoughts?
 
I chrono'd some Americorp .22lr advertised as high velocity, 1250 fps. When fired through a Ruger SR22 3.5" barrel, they averaged only 976 fps. If you are using the suppressor on a pistol, maybe try a few rounds before going to all the trouble of re-manufacturing your ammo.
 
Thanks for the reply. My main use will be a bolt action rifle. My understanding is HV rounds will be supersonic through it. SV rounds probably subsonic, but I can't find those in plated, either.
 
Lotta out put of money and time for a negligible return. As in, it'd cost you more than it's worth to set up to reload rimfire ammo.
 
I would just get the suppressor and shoot plated rounds through it. Do a proper search on Youtube and you will come up with videos of people shooting subsonic and regular rounds. For some reason I am thinking that irackvetran 888 posted such a video.
 
I'm still struggling with the idea the thin decorative plate they put on copper-plated .22 bullets would make enough difference to matter. They aren't like the heavy plated bullets sold to hand loaders for centerfire cartridges. At least, not that I've seen.

In principle the idea should work, but because .22 rounds are crimped, it's hard to get the bullets out without scraping them with the mouth of the case. You then have to expand the case mouths so as not to create scraping during seating. And then you have a problem I don't know an easy solution for: you have to form a crimp under the bearing surface of a heeled bullet that is the full diameter of the case. I assume the manufacturers roll it in under the bullet, but a conventional crimp shoulder in a seating die won't work because the shoulder would scrape the sides of the bullet off.
 
You might check out "standard velocity" .22rf rounds as an intermediate step. They are way quieter than the hyper velocity ones in my rifle.
 
I appreciate the replies. Personally, if I thought the bullets could be safely re-seated in the case, I'd look at this as a challenge which might lead me to try reloading centerfire ammo, but as the bullets will be traveling through suppressor baffles after the barrel, I don't want to take any chances.

Thanks.
 
I shoot a lot of suppressed 22LR. PLATED, LRN, HV and Subsonic.

22LR is just plain DIRTY thru a can. Shoot what you can find at a good price and just suck up the cleaning part
 
I've found that theres not much difference between plated and non plated .22 ammo when it comes to leading in my suppressor. After 300 or so rounds in my pistol its time for a cleaning. In my rifles it can go about 400ish.
 
To make 22 standard velocity bullets shoot subsonic the easy way just use a 26" barreled rifle or a 5" barreled pistol.

Depending on the load, 18 to 20 inches is about optimal for velocity with a 22lr.

Jimro
 
I wouldn't over think it, it's all somewhat dirty, that is why they make rimfire cans so you can take them apart.

What are you using as a host? A lot of ammunition that is supersonic out of a rifle won't be out of a pistol.
 
It could probably be done BUT I personally would have a tough time convincing myself that seating a bullet and crimping a rimfire would be safe. But that's just me.
 
I wouldn't over think it, it's all somewhat dirty, that is why they make rimfire cans so you can take them apart.
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+1 on this. I personally don't know much about "cans" but I would think it would be much easier to just clean it then deal with figuring out a way to reseat .22 rimfire bullets. If it were me I would look into maybe getting an ultrasonic cleaner that the "can" could fit in and just deal with shooting whatever ammo I could safely shoot through it. Just my thoughts on it....
 
I appreciate the replies. Personally, if I thought the bullets could be safely re-seated in the case, I'd look at this as a challenge which might lead me to try reloading centerfire ammo
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I don't know squat about suppressors so I will stay out of that area of the discussion but I am a long time, hardcore hobbyist handloader.

Everything about .22LR rimfire (that matters from a handloading or reloading) standpoint is far, far more difficult an non-feasible than any/all/every centerfire round. There are two main things -- the heeled bullet design and the rimfire priming.

The rimfire priming is such that not only is (basically, for all intents and purposes) impossible for us to do or re-do... it's also a bit of an issue in the manner that our equipment physically handles and manipulates the brass cartridge case. Rimfire does not lend itself well to the force we must apply to it.

The heeled bullet design is the one last holdover from a bygone era. These days... all center fire (and .22 Magnum, .17HM2 and .17HMR for that matter) use a standard bullet inside the cartridge case and with .22 Short, .22 Long and .22LR -- the bearing surface of the bullet actually sits on top of the cartridge case and the cartridge case itself is the same or slightly under the bore diameter.

This means that removing a bullet from a center fire (or .22 Mag, .17) is fairly straightforward and is done with no damage to the bullet and no damage to the case. But with a .22 Short, .22 Long or .22LR... you have to wildly abuse either the cartridge case or the rounded heel of the bullet itself.

At the very least, even attempting to break down .22LR ammo will result in either a messed up cartridge case (that you'd need to fix upon reconstruction!) or a very messed up soft lead bullet that would absolutely affect it's flight/accuracy. And here's the worst part...

Handloaders can manipulate these center fire rounds because we have the tools to do so and at the heart of all the tools we use are very simple reloading dies, basically just tool steel that we can run the brass and bullets up inside and impart pressure upon the components.

As far as I know, you can't even purchase such dies for .22LR.

Your plan/idea is, for all but the most extremely able (with expensive tools and a well outfitted work shop) impossible. However, there's at least two things you can take away from this conversation!

1) Grab a round of .22LR right now and a pair of pliers and grab (only) the bullet and rock it back and forth in the brass and get it out of there. With the round apart, you can get a proper visual on how a heeled bullet works and why you likely can't get anywhere with this idea.

2) Handloading is not at all difficult! And it's outrageously rewarding and most of us that do it... love to help others learn to do it also. You only need to spend a few moments in this forum clicking topics, seeing folks ask questions (running the gamut from basic to deeply involved) and then look at all the folks willing to respond with their experiences and ideas.

If you think you will have fun shooting .22LR through a suppressor...
Wait til you see how much fun it is to make all of your own ammo and never buy factory ammo again. (except for the rimfire, of course! ;))
 
Thanks, Sevens,

The bullet reseating was my main concern, and you've answered that question in a thoughtful manner. Much appreciated.
 
TMD,
May I ask how you clean the suppressor? And is it a aluminum or steel variant?
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My rimfire can is an AAC Pilot II. The first baffle is stainless and the rest along with the tube are aluminum. Being aluminum its not recommended to do the acid dip or use an ultrasonic cleaner. Both can destroy the aluminum. I use my ss pin wet tumbler to get most of the lead off then a pick and paitences for the rest.
 
Well scratch my idea of using an ultrasonic cleaner if that can is made of aluminum like TMD stated his is made out of.

I was unaware of aluminum being used to make them, goes to show what I know about cans. Thanks for the correction there TMD
 
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