Best way to pull 22lr bullets...

Take an old pair pliers that you don't love and heat them up cherry red and let them cool slowly - annealed. Mic the 22 projectile and then choose a drill bit that is say .005" to .010" under. Put pliers in a machinist's vise and drill a hole so that it centres on the pliers jaws. I'd dimple the centre with a punch, I'd also start with a .125" bit and move my way up in two more steps. Clean up any burrs. Test on a 22 LR cartridge. You can re-harden the pliers and temper them if you plan on doing this a lot.
 
I recall hearing about a guy who figured a system to reload .22 LR, he was at Shot Show 2014 (I think). So he must have had a source for bullets... I know, super helpful right?
 
Use a fine file to file away the brass alongside the seated bullet (should only take a few strokes on each one), once the brass is split on one side it will open easily to extract the bullet unharmed
 
Better to cut straight through the poo and find a fella with a .225 mold and a sizer to cast you up and lube-size a couple lots of bullets to use.

Like as not a 225107, which is a pretty common Hornet bullet, or a 225439, also used a lot in Hornets as well as in bigger cases, would serve well.

Others worth a look are the 225415, the 225262, and, well, pretty much an of the available 22 cal molds. Any of those, which are actually designed to seal in a CF bore, would be better than the rimfire bullets.

For the intended purpose, the only way I see any possibility to start without a damaged bullet, based pretty much on my misspent youth (still on going, I might add!) is to cast or swage your own. Pulling bullets off crimped rimfire cases without damage, isn't going to happen, they use the softest lead they can, to keep the wear down on the machinery. Doesn't make for a real handy source for materials unless you are looking for some split shot sinkers.

Cheers
Trev
 
Use a fine file to file away the brass alongside the seated bullet (should only take a few strokes on each one), once the brass is split on one side it will open easily to extract the bullet unharmed

Creative. I like it. I'll give it a try for gits and shiggles.
 
Use a fine file to file away the brass alongside the seated bullet (should only take a few strokes on each one), once the brass is split on one side it will open easily to extract the bullet unharmed

Creative. I like it. I'll give it a try for gits and shiggles.

Ok yeah nope.

Best option yet, but still mangled the bullet beyond reuse. Also more time consuming than it sounds. A for effort.
 


So I tried a 22 pellet with just a regular small rifle primer. At 20 feet, it had enough oomph to go through one side of a soup can, and leave a good round dent in the other. Basically silent. Working the bolt makes more noise.

I want just a tad more wallup than that. Next I'll try with a 1/4 grain of Universal... we'll see.
 
Low powered 223 loads with 36 grain varmint grenades or light bullets seems like a better idea than a pellet lol but I like me some tinkering as well for fun :)
 
What started as a project to use up some duds, now has my digging around for .22 pellets...

Anyone ever tried .22 pellets with a half grain of pistol powder?

I have, primer wouldn't set it off for me. I cut the case down to about 1/4" long and just use the primer or 1/2 grain of the original powder, that works not too bad. Its hard to get consistent ignition because the next tension isn't very consistent. When we were kids, my brother and I made a die to neck down a 22 lr to .177 caliber. We chambered a pellet gun barrel to fit our new cartridge, and put it on an old single shot 22 to try. It didn't work out very well with air rifle pellets, and the bullets we tried casting were never the right size, so we gave up on that idea. Too bad we didn't have access to proper 17 cal bullets back then. We made our own chambering reamer and sizing die in my dad's workshop, and our bullet molds were blocks of plaster that we melted lead or Babbitt into.
Kristian
 
^ that's some youthful ambition right there!


I'm also wondering about just using magnum primers... just how magnumy is a magnum primer? How much more splode does one get with an SRM?
 
They sell modified cases for using a 209 primer. Found pellets out of my 223 with a regular primer to be innacurate and it leads up pretty quickly and shot minute of paper plate at 20 yards. The few videos on YouTube also showed poor accuracy like I had and I eventually went back to conventional projectiles in light loads.As good as Tits on a bull IMO
223Rem-22Pellet01.jpg
 
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Back from the "lab"...

Welp.... that sucked. The primer only rounds continued to work well. About a half inch group at 10 yards, but the odd flyer would be way off. About 4 or five inches. Pellet must have had a ripped skirt or something.


Next I tried it with a little bit of universal, from .3 grains up to 1. None of them ignited. So then I tried holding the powder in place with a tuft of Dacron. Still nothing. Just unburned powder everywhere.


So now I'll grab some magnum primers and give that a go with no powder. I just want a hair more velocity. If it'll go through a soup can I'd be happy. That's enough wallup for a game getter round.

If that doesn't work, I think I'll skip the shot gun primer option and go with some 35gr varmageddon over 3 grains of pistol powder.
 
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