had my custom center fire 22 mag revolver out last weekend

M

Magnum Wheel Man

New member
1st group was 8 shots of trailboss behind a lead cast bullet... really mild report & bark, groups freestanding, shooting single action from the 4" barrel, at about 30ft was 2.5"...

2nd group was 8 shots of Accurate #9 behind the Hornady 35 grain Hornet bullet... sounded quieter than a normal 22 Mag, maybe like a 22 LR & seat of pants, about the same velocity / recoil as a normal rimfire 22 Mag from the 4" barrel, group was only 1.5" from the same freestanding, single action, 30 ft

thinking I need a new Chrony, after shooting mine last summer ( hate seat of the pants estimates )

but, I was happy with both groups, & my buddy will be cutting me a mold for the lead bullet soon

( for those that haven't caught anything previous, this is a Taurus stainless 4" barrel 22 mag Tracker 8 shot double action, that has had the chambers massaged a little bigger, & converted to center fire, & I'm using lathe turned cases modeled after the Velodog case, about 1/2 were made from stainless, & the other 1/2 from 4140 rod... it custom dies were made also by my retired buddy... this was an expensive job... mostly making all the cases, but gives me a very versitile & efficient cartridge, that I'm just starting to have fun with )
 
Haven't heard much lately of custom small bores, everybody wants the bullet to nudge .50 caliber as close as possible and consume water dippers full of powder. Always like to hear about the "little 'uns."

Bob Wright
 
Hello, Magnum Wheel Man. Steel cases..interesting! Years ago, I turned up some steel cases for old Spencer .56-56 carbine..off-set chamber for rimfire blank as primer.
And even further back..I was in high school..I converted a Stevens .22 rimfire bolt action to centerfire. I turned the rims off fired L.R. cases, & turned up a brass "head" with rim & small-rifle primer pocket. Low temp. silver solder was used to solder them together. I had made up a couple of
40gr. heeled bullet moulds. Cases didn't last too long, however..I probably should have used small pistol primers in that tiny case..but by golly I had a genuine center-fire wildcat..and I proudly asked for rifle primers at the sporting goods. I used Unique powder & I recall the report was quite a bit louder than a high-speed L.R.
Everything was just ducky..until one evening, coming home from a squirrel hunt, I decided to fire off a few in the woods..At the shot..there was a big orange ball of flame right in front of breech! I thought I had a case seperation..this happened sometimes..but no, case looked fine..no burn marks..normal. I fired another..same big ball of flame! and again case looked normal!
This required checking into..Now the I.D. of a rimfire case is .212", small rifle/pistol primer pocket is .175"..difference is .037" so the wall thickness on that little brass "head" was only .0185". Plus the fact, It was red when heated enough for silver soldering..those cases & heads were dead soft. That pocket must have expanded under pressure..funny thing was..fired primers were still tight?
That kind of soured my interest in a reloadable rimfire..I did make a few turned from solid brass cases..but thought the work wasn't worth it..I guess I should have stuck with those! Yours is an interesting project..good luck!
 
my machinist buddy has done many different conversions... in stories like yours, instead of soldering, he typically threads the base of the case & machines steel heads

this gun was something I wanted for a long time... cases were expensive, but I had a couple 100 made... they should last me a while... I've also had a case holder made to anneal the case mouths if needed... the higher pressure rounds do expand a little at the mouth... the Trailboss loads don't require any sizing, so those cases should last a long time
 
Great concept! I like the idea of a reloadable .22Mag.

What led you to designing a custom cartridge instead of converting a 6-shot .22Mag to .22Hornet?
 
...I already have a 22 Hornet revolver, albeit mine is now a fast twist, so I shoot heavier bullets in that, & try to keep the velocity up to stabilize those... this is in reality just a 22 Mag revolver converted to center fire... we went around a couple times in the case design, & decided ( since I also have an antique Velo-Dog revolver & cartridges ) that it would be best to make the new cases slightly larger, so a higher pressure cartridge could not be stuck into an antique gun, at some point down the road, after I'm gone, so the mag chambers were reamed slightly larger to accomodate the new cases... also the cylinder on the 22 mag, is a little shorter than the Hornet Cylinder
 
MWM: Thanks for the info. Do you have any pics of the ammo?

Another ideal small varmint gun I'd like would be a Ruger Single-Six Hunter or medium-frame Blackhawk Hunter in 5.7x28FN. I could see all sorts of usefulness in a sixgun like that.... :D
 
I play with 5.7 X 28 as well... I don't think you could chamber it in a revolver without case "set back" issues

hmmm... no pics of loaded cartridges yet, but here are some of the toys when I brought it home...

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