Making .223 bullets from .22LR cases

[RoginaJack]

I've been up to the SSAA Belmont range and there is a shooter that wages his own projectiles from 22mag, cases. Was only shooting at 50 yds., groups were about 1". Very interesting to talk to and I've ran into him a few times there now.

[Bills Shed]

I assume that he is shooting a .243, as they are the most common diameter projectile made from .22 mag cases.
22 mag cases are getting harder to find but there seems to be pleanty of 17 HMR laying around. You can make any weight .243 projectile with them. They are a bit more fiddly as you have to cut the shoulder off before derimming.
It is good to hear that there are more bullet swager getting about. Projectiles are not getting any cheaper.
Bill

[Bills Shed]

To Chriso72
Pm sent

[Tripod]

Just found this Forum and this thread, I have a lot of swaging gear but haven't started swaging yet and was wondering what presses those of you that are swaging are using?

[Bills Shed]

Just found this Forum and this thread, I have a lot of swaging gear but haven't started swaging yet and was wondering what presses those of you that are swaging are using?

I run a Corbin CSP-1, also use it for reloading

Bill

[Tripod]

Just found this Forum and this thread, I have a lot of swaging gear but haven't started swaging yet and was wondering what presses those of you that are swaging are using?

I run a Corbin CSP-1, also use it for reloading

Bill

I have a CHP1 and a heap of dies to do various lead projectiles but as yet I haven't ordered the dies to do jacketed.
Where in Tas are you located, It would be great to meet so I can pick your brains. I am in Oatlands

[Bills Shed]

Just found this Forum and this thread, I have a lot of swaging gear but haven't started swaging yet and was wondering what presses those of you that are swaging are using?

I run a Corbin CSP-1, also use it for reloading

Bill

I have a CHP1 and a heap of dies to do various lead projectiles but as yet I haven't ordered the dies to do jacketed.
Where in Tas are you located, It would be great to meet so I can pick your brains. I am in Oatlands

I will be in you area in the next week Send me a PM with your details and I give you a call to discuss.
Pictured is the 40 gn with a 1E nose, 52 gn with 5S open tip and a 69 gn with the 5S open tip.

The 69 gn was a .22 Mag case derimmed, at .243", then drawn down to .220", and then trimmed to required length.
These are still being tested in fast twist barrels and the shooting ability is still an unknown. By drawing down the case from .243" to .220" it thickened the walls up considerably as I only used a .189" internal punch opposed to the .199" punch commonly used to make jackets. This may lead to inconsistent wall thickness and so poor or no groupings. Will post results as I get them. My theory is that the thicker walls will handle the higher RPM of the fast twist barrels.


Bill

[Oldbloke]

Very impressive Bill.

[Gwion]

Yep. They do look good, Bill.

[Bills Shed]

Got some results in for the thicker jacket, .224, 69 gn open tip, flat base
I do not have a .223 but a mate up the road was willing to test them. I wanted to test these projectiles in a fast twist barrel and so loaded up 15 rounds and three foulers. The rifle is a WFA-1 with a 1 in 8 barrel. Basic case prep was done, uniformed primer pockets, cleaned in SS pins, and flash hole deburred internally, trimmed to length and weighed.
Rounds were loaded with a min book load from the ADI web site of 24.0 gn of 2208. 2208 was used as it was the only powder I had in stock suitable for .223 As I had a dig around in my mystery bucket of old brass to find some cases, I came up with 10 cases that were nickel plated with the same head stamp and weighed to within .2 gn of each other and 5 plain brass cases again within .2 of each other with the same head stamp as the nickel plated brass. The three foulers were various cases.
As the pics show the 10 rounds that had nickel plated brass shot pretty good groups.
The 10 rounds were fired in two groups of five and each group had a flier but the shooter called the flyer in both instances. Group one was .925 and group two is a hair under 1"
Of interest is the third group that was plain brass cases that were loaded exactly the same as the other 10 rounds. That group was just on two inches.
My main aim was to test the projectiles to see if they would hold together in a fast twist barrel and on that note all projectiles made it to the target, there was no key holing.
For a projectile I made out of scrap .22 mag brass that was dug out of my mystery bucket and to get groups around a inch will do just fine. I do not shoot the heavy pills but it is good to know that I can build them and the cost is minimal. It did take a bit of work to start with and the experiments are still being done. I have some being loaded by a bloke in Qld and they will go through a Tika T3.
This is only three groups and by no means conclusive in regards to accuracy of the projectile but it is promising, they held together and I made them.

[Oldbloke]

Id be happy with that. A bit of tweaking might improve them too.

[Tripod]

Groups are measured center to center.

[Bills Shed]

Groups are measured center to center.

You are right, and when you do the maths the numbers sound even better!

Bill

[Elek]

Very impressive Bill.

Second that.

At a glance you would easily think they are factory.