Performance of Cast .20 Caliber Bullets?

[GLWenzl]

curious what cleaning up you did. primer pockets, case thickness or the ugly appearance

[harpo111]

you know...trail boss? you would get much slower speeds and not lead your barrel up...I use it a good put to make my 22 hornet into a 22 rifle...45 gr lead bullet at 1400fps is fun. You could get up to around 2000fps with no problem in a 204...would be fun and cheap...have had good accuracy out of my hornet and several other calibers....
k

[TonyBray]

The brass that I got from Schroeder was covered in machine marks. The .22 Hornet brass is tapered, the 5mm isn't. The base of the hornet brass is a larger diameter than 5mm. Once he swages the neck and top half of the case, the base swells just above the thickest part of the base where the primer pocket is. He then loads the case in a lathe and turns the base down to the correct thickness, machines the outer diameter of the rim, and also thins the rim down from the case side.

The brass went through the sizer fine and loaded into my chamber perfectly. But once fired, I almost had to take a hammer to my bolt to get it open. The machine marks were large grooves half way down the case running around the case. Once it got a little expansion, these grooves were like teeth locking the case in my chamber.

I fashioned a stand for my dremmel. I machined the mandrel screw down to fit in the primer pocket and fashioned a tapered plug to fit. I could then put a case on the mandrel, lock it down with the modified screw and used 600 grit sand paper to carefully remove the machine marks. Then I did a final once over with 1000 grit followed by 0000 steel wool.

I tried a batch of them last week and they are extracting fine now. I did cut one of the cases in half length-wise to measure the thickness of the brass where he was machining and made sure I wasn't thinning the brass down to much. I wanted to make sure I left a safety margin for sure. I'm not taking a lot of brass off, more just knocking down the sharp edges left by his lathe.

Next thing to do was to drop each round in to my new Lyman case trimmer and cut them all to the correct length.

In other words, Steve's bolt heads and extractors are awesome but his quality control on his brass leaves a lot to be desired! But at $60 for 100 rds vs $95 for 100 rds at Eagle View and the fact he's semi-local to me, I guess will live with it since I found a way to make it work. BTW, he also makes 2 5mm bullets, a FMJ and a lead tip that will work with the right ogive and dimensions to still fit in the magazine. I'm working on accuracy issues right now with my new stock and once I have that worked out, I will revisit his bullets and report on them.

--Tony

[TonyBray]

Harpo111,

What is Cherios Trail Boss? Is that a lube?

--Tony

[larryinIA]

Originally Posted by TonyBray

Harpo111,

What is Cherios Trail Boss? Is that a lube?

--Tony

Trail Boss gun powder. It looks like Cheerios cereal.

Larry

[Mntngoat]

Originally Posted by Gary in Illinois

That seems to be the problem with cast .204 bullets. I don't know of anyone making moulds, sizer / lubricator dies or gas checks. I guess I should check the bullet casting forums if I really want to pursue this.

Gary

i know a gentleman over on CB that can make you custom sizing dies for your lubrisizer if needed.

ML

[TonyBray]

I have a Lee sizer for my .45 air rifle that works well. I don't size my .38's and pan lube them for my pistol. I don't know how you would lube the 5mm's since they don't have a very pronounced lube groove. That's why I was dipping them in the thinned Alox. I could still use a sizer in .2045 though

--Tony

[GLWenzl]

Wow, sorry to hear about your issues!!! Not to make you feel bad but I honestly have well over 1500 of pieces of Schroeder brass in the 17 CCM and 5mm Mag combined. I also use his 17 CCM brass in a 17 short Magnum (its a CF 17 HM2) and not once do I remember a case sticking in any of the four chambers…. Butt ugly… Oh yeah…. but has functioned flawlessly for me. My heart go out to you, a lot of x-work!



Not a real good pic but a 17 CCM and a 5mm Mag with the nasty m-marks

[TonyBray]

Your brass looks way better than what I got. I'm thinking he either has an apprentice cranking these out now or maybe his old Harbor Freight mini-lathe is getting some runout on it. I have some brass that is so bad it has ridges right up to the shoulder! I will post a pic of some of the brass when I can.

--Tony

P.S. That Corvette is only barely visible in his garage these days and the engine is still on the stand lol!

[harpo111]

Trail Boss is a neat powder. IMR has the formula for loading it posted on their website...measure to seated bullet base...multiply by .7..that is your starting load....simple enough and it works the same for jacketed or cast bullets. Have tried it in several guns and it works. Guys are using it in the 17AH...sweet!
k