Bullets made from 22 LR cases

[GLWenzl]

From the first time I read in the Hornady reloading manual about Joyce Hornady starting out making his bullets from 22 spent cases I had always wondered about that…

I still know nothing about the process but can imagine that a punch pushes the case through a die that zips off the rim???

At anyrate I had a few bullets show up a while back. Not really enough to load develop but I figured that the 22 Hornet with lil gun and a LFC would be as good as anything… Two shot through the chrony indicated that they was going to run around 3085 fps and these 39.5 gr bullets would shoot just a tad bit high and to the left of where the CZ Hornet is sighted in at.


A few laid out to look at, they are not polished but I did polish one up later and they look pretty neat…

These are not just plain jane bullets, they are like the varmint grenades and as bad as I want to section one I chose no too so I could have enough to test out on some varmints….


As you can see I have different types of cases but still remain within a tenth or so of each other…


With bullet prices on the increase and plenty of old tire weights and spent 22 cases on hand this has me thinking about rolling my own...

I am very grateful to have been able to see these things first hand (it doesn't take much to get me very interested in things when it comes to gun stuff) Thanks George!!!

[Bayou City Boy]

Hi, Gary:

Both Joyce Hornady and Vernon Speer got into the bullet making business using 22 LR cses for jackets. In addition, Corbin makes a die set for doing this.

I'm not sure how good accuracy is as I've heard mixed reviews, but it certainly might be something to consider.

Hope all is well in NE, buddy....

-BCB

[Alan in GA]

Don't know why I did, but when I was about 10 years old [about 47 years ago], I started saving spent 22 LR cases. They just seemed to 'neat' to let lie on the ground after a fun hour of plinking.
I would think it lots of fun to make bullets from them now. If I remember, one has to soften them by annealing before you can iron out the rim with dies.

[georgeld]

Gary:
The bullets were from Mighty Thor, but, the idea was my request.
After he'd sent me a small sample of each step of the process to see how it all works. I'll tip him off to come look at this picture.

Remember, he sent about 100 of them, I sorted them all by wt on my bal scale. Just happened to be more of them At 39.5gr than anything else. Since I'd offered a test of this idea. Figured IF I'd pass them around to a few others, that would give more guns and maybe better shooters, test results sooner than later. Turns out, you're the first to get around to loading them.

These are the first of the type I've seen that still had a groove at the rim. Most have been swaged smaller to smooth them up, then enlarged upon swaging the core's in place. I don't see that ring hurting anything at all, and it just might possibly help clean some gunk out on the way thru the bore.

The jackets had been annealed first, like they're supposed to be. That makes them black and ugly.

The dies these were made with are homemade jobs his Dad made many thousands of bullets ago. Sometimes, they do leave scratches on the jackets too. Same as rocks in a sizing die will. You may see some of these with a real close look.

We're all sitting here waiting on the results. Do hope one group will be enough on paper and you'll fix some p/dogs problems and show the results, regardless of how nasty. We're all experienced in such things here.

Thanks much for posting, and you're very welcome.

Just for further educational info. Castboolits.gunloads.com/swaging, One of the newer guys just made some fine looking bullets for pistol. Used annealed .40 cal cases, swaged 'em full of lead, pointed them up with a nice looking HP die. Impressive looking bullets of about 285gr.
He also made some .224"s that are shown too. Well worth a trip over there to take a look at what's possible. Just think how many of these 9's and 40's we could gather up IF there's a good enough reason. Oblama and clinton ARE reasons enough! Check his post out: "Yay, it worked!!" I'd like to hear comments.

There's also several other real good threads, a couple run 5 pages, with pictures. One is about producing our own lead wire for cores. Very educational reading. I've printed most of them out for a note book on the subjects.

[GLWenzl]

Allan, I have an old toilet sitting out by my range and started filling it up with the lil rimfire cases... not sure why, but like you I thought it was kinda neat.

George, didn't get around to shooting today, made a trip to go purchase a lathe and as nice as it was with a BUNCH of tools I passed because the hole in the head stock was only 1".

Thanks for the info, as soon as i get a few minutes i will get a group and then see how they perform!!

[Rickster]

There used to be a guy in Montana who sold these bullets at very reasonable cost. I shot a bunch of them in reduced loads (Hornet level) out of several 222 and 223 Rem rifles. This included 50, 52, and 55 grainers, all of them HPs. I never did try them in full power loads. I was able to coax sub 1 inch groups out of most of my rifles with the reduced loads. From my perspective, their best feature was consistent blow up at low impact velocities. As I recall these bullets would come apart at impact velocities all the way down to 1500 - 1600 fps. I ought to dig up what I have left and use them to fire form K Hornet brass....

[Ladobe]

I had a friend in OR who used to make them. I shot some of them and the diggers didn't seem to mind (IOW dead is dead).

[GLWenzl]

Well I had my chance today and blew it! Had a ground hog at around 90 yards in the cross hairs of my CZ Hornet loaded with these bullets… Set the trigger, had the gh in the scope, took it off safety and as I put my finger on the trigger it went off and hit the dirt just a couple inches low!!! First sighting of the year too… oh well I got him educated…

[georgeld]

ahhh, Gary, newbie flinche's huh? Ha!
Now you've got a challenge to get him next time. That's the fun n game's part of it.
I enjoy playing with the one's that have watched others get whacked enough they know about keeping their heads down. Yet, they've just gotta keep watch so keep popping up and down. Til they think you're not gonna give them a try and ease up a triffle higher and longer. Then when they flip four feet in the air it's special. Don't know whether 'they' enjoy the acrobatics or not.

Tell me about that lathe by e'm ok??

Rickster: believe that was Tom?? @ MFG, MHG or something like that in Malta Mt, right? I got a thousand, and when Mac died, I got about six thousand more he'd made. Am still loading them. He made good looking bullets and I shot them in the .222mag, and now 223 on the same Sako at full loads, about 3000fps is what I get out of 25gr 4895. They do a JOB on p/dogs and not bad on paper. I don't do much hole punching.

[iiranger]

Mr. Corbin, Dave, corbins.com, (Richard, his brother is in the same line of work at rceco.com), has mentioned a shooter who was winning matches with rimfire jacket bullets. Not national matches, but regional, as I understand.

#2). Wheel weights might be a trifle hard for cores. Could break dies. Research and proceed with much caution. luck