Crazy .22 reloading question.......

G

G-DOG58

New member
I just got into the Rimfire bench rest, this is not a sign of a high IQ!
It seems that there's a bit of Voo Doo in this stuff. Maybe that's just my excuse for my poor results....... ; - {
I'm surprised that nobody offers 22 shooters the ability to reload. I would have thought that the high end 22 guys would have come up with a way to custom build ammo in order to get that perfect sweet load.
If you could buy brass, then play with powder and bullets like we do with center fire it would be helpful, I think!?!?!?!?

Has this ever been available?
 
The way a 22lr bullet works is a lot different.
Im pretty sure at the bottom of the case you have touch powder instead of a primer, then gun cotton instead of gun powder.

Im guessing that the price vs gain would be to low for it to be worth it, when really the price of 22 match ammo isnt that high when compared to the cost of centre fire match ammo.

I reckon if you really wanted you could pull the projectile out of a 22lr case and replace it with a 223 or a 222 or 22 hornet projectile and see if that makes a difference.
 
How would you get the priming compound into the rim?

The .22 long rifle is (I believe) the last of the rimfire cartridges currently available as factory production. In the past, companies made rimfire cartridges in a wide variety of calibers, but those have generally been dropped in favor of boxer or berdan style primers. It's the primer that makes a cartridge reloadable. Punch out the primer, install a new one and most of the work is done. Simply add powder and seat a new bullet.

You can't do that to a rimfire cartridge without the machinery to add priming compound to the rim. Then you've got the added complication of removing the firing pin strike from the previous firing.

Most rimfire shooters try as many flavors of ammo as they can to find the one that shoots the best in their rifle, then they go buy a bunch of that particular lot if they can find it.
 
AFAIK, it's possible to reload rimfire ammo, but it's definitely not worth the hassle - it's difficult, and time-consuming and in the end, won't have the accuracy or reliability of factory ammo.

And did I mention it's dangerous to boot? The priming compound is held under the soft rim, and can ignite during the loading process.
 
As Mr. Borland notes, handling the priming compound for rimfire ammunition is dangerous. You have to handle blocks of moist compound that can still go off if not treated nicely.

It is, after all, a primary explosive. It goes boom, unlike smokeless powder, which just burns when it's uncontained.

Getting the priming compound in the rim is doable, but there's always going to be some residue left from the previous batch, and that can make getting it distributed evenly a real chore.

Then there's the spot on the rim where the firing pin hit. Not only is it depressed (how are you going to iron out those depressions?), the case has also been significantly weakened at that point.

All in all, not a great deal of reason for reloading rimfires.
 
If you could buy brass, then play with powder and bullets like we do with center fire it would be helpful, I think!?!?!?!?
Click to expand...


Then loading your own ammo would be the answer, not reloading. You would just buy the primed brass, then load the powder and bullet to the correct specs. I doubt there would be a cost savings for the bulk 22 market, but maybe for those in competition like G-DOG, it would work out.

If you can't find the pre-primed brass, and bullets anywhere, you could become the founder of Rimfire Reloading Corp.
 
The .22 rimfire is a different diameter than most centerfire .22's. It's generally a couple thousandths smaller, which won't be an insurmountable problem, but it's there.
Pulling the bullets out of the cases would be a little difficult for the average "joe"... possible, but not really a safe thing to do.

Plus, the .22 rimfire has had countless money and time thrown at it, in the form of research and development, to come up with the "nth" degree of accuracy, in Match ammo. It's fairly expensive, but the ability to put bullet after bullet in the same hole doesn't come cheap.
The odds of ANY home reloader being able to create better, more consistent match ammo are simply astronomical.
 
spanishjames,
Thanks for the correction....LOADING, not reloading is really what I meant to do......

I would have thought that by now, someone would sell a live, primed 22/rim fire case that we could use to reload. There would have to be different bullets and power available too. Again, then we could build them to work in our gun. I was not thinking of reloading used rim fire cases.
I seems like the ability to play with seating depth alone would be very helpful.

I've already got into the game of trying ammo and hoarding what works, I hate doing that, but what else can you do?
 
It had been attempted, to a high standard, and then abandoned. As has been stated, loaded rather than reloaded. Years ago Bill Brawand, a long time BR shooter/bullet maker and codeveloper of the Swindlehurst action started with securing primed cases and the ability to load them with jacketed, benchrest grade bullets. The excercise was abandoned when virtually every 22 sanctioning body changed the rules mandating factory manufactured ammo using lubed lead slugs.

I guess the point was not to see how modern we could make rimfire BR but how good we can make it with the adversity of "classic" rimfire ammo.

I've been doing it since the BR50 days, now shoot primarily the IR50 game spending most weekends consuming vast quantities of $15/box .22 ammo.:eek:
 
G-Dog, I imagine that anyone very interested in rimfires has asked your question.

I would pose a follow up crazy question: How difficult would it be to fit a 25 caliber barrel to a rifle and make a .22lr rifle function with 25acp?

If I understand re-loading voodoo correctly, it is difficult to get very consistent subsonic velocities out of .22 hornet.
 
I assume because it does'nt have anything to do with the 22lr. It's the grandfather/ uncle of the 5mm mag/.17HMR/17CCM, take your pick.
 
There have been people that have made centerfire brass to the same dimensions as a 22LR case, then reloaded it for matches. It worked, but it was so much trouble that they never repeated the experiment. High quality match ammo exists. Tight bore barrels exist. Rimfire benchrest actions exist. If you want to shoot rimfire benchrest, build the rifle and use the right ammo, and you can win.
 
Hello, GDOG58. Your idea has merit..only your about 100 years too late. When off-hand gallery matches were popular around the turn of the century, big name gunsmiths like H.M. Pope, Zischang, Schoyen, were turning out fancy off-hand schuetzen rifles in .22 short & L.R. At a quality gun show, I came across a cased Pope Stevens with all the tools. Also, there were a couple of boxes of Peters .22 L.R. marked "Empty-Primed. in case was a small nose-pour single cavity Pope mould for casting a 40 gr. heeled bullet. This outfit was built around 1903. Not sure what powders they were using..probably a fine grain black, or perhaps bulk shotgun, or one of the early Lesmoke powders. This practice was carried on up into the 1930's by prone shooters, who still were not satisfied with factory accuracy. You might find it interesting over on www.openrange.com Some of those guys have obtained primed brass and are handloading with cast bullets and black powder! for authentic cowboy rimfire fun.:D
 
The .22 rimfire is a different diameter than most centerfire .22's. It's generally a couple thousandths smaller, which won't be an insurmountable problem, but it's there.
Click to expand...

I don't know where or how this rumor got started, but it's wrong. I'm sitting right here with a very accurate L.S. Starrett micrometer and three different brands of .22 LR. They all measure in at .224---dead on. The problem for reloading conventional bullets is that the OD of the case is also .224. This would cause a definite oversize bulge in the reloaded cartridge.

Oh, and my apologies if the groove diameter of a .22 rimfire barrel is smaller than .224. I didn't slug my barrel to get this measurement. jd
 
I
don't know where or how this rumor got started, but it's wrong. I'm sitting right here with a very accurate L.S. Starrett micrometer and three different brands of .22 LR. They all measure in at .224---dead on. The problem for reloading conventional bullets is that the OD of the case is also .224. This would cause a definite oversize bulge in the reloaded cartridge.

Oh, and my apologies if the groove diameter of a .22 rimfire barrel is smaller than .224. I didn't slug my barrel to get this measurement. jd
__________________
"We're all dummies, just in different ways." Old Okie Philosopher
Click to expand...

You need to use a proper tool, first of all. >22 rimfire barrels vary but are going to fall, generally between .221-.223 not .224. If you've ever used a crowning tool that uses a fitted pilot in the bore a cf .224 pilot will not fit in any .22 rf barrel ever made.
 
There have been people that have made centerfire brass to the same dimensions as a 22LR case, then reloaded it for matches. It worked, but it was so much trouble that they never repeated the experiment. High quality match ammo exists. Tight bore barrels exist. Rimfire benchrest actions exist. If you want to shoot rimfire benchrest, build the rifle and use the right ammo, and you can win.
Click to expand...

The first one I know of to do so was COL Charles Askins wildcat the 221 Askins. http://www.colt22.com/askins.html

The rules were changed almost immediately after he won at Camp Perry to make the "minimum caliber" for the centerfire portion of the event 32 caliber or larger...

Jimro
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top