Full metal jackets out of spent .22 cases

They're OK for plinking, but not overly accurate. There was a fellow in Canada, that was collecting thousands of range scrap and turning them into .224 size bullets. I tried several sizes and wasn't impressed.

That same fellow, Calhoon, is in the states right now and for years has been trying to promote a .19 calibre. Not with much success though.

bearhunter
 
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A guy I knew years ago, was making his own .224 bullets out of .22 rf cases.He gave a half dozen or so to try, but I never got around to it.If I can hunt them down, maybe I should load them up and try them out.I guess I should load them fairly light though, I heard from various sources over the years , that they aren't terribly solid and will disintegrate at higher velocities.Any using these confirm this?
Scott
 
I loaded them up to max and down at starting point in the 223 rem. I shot literally hundreds, at least 1000, no problems with separation. I bought a thousand from James Calhoon at an early Lumby gunshow, when he was still out of Calgary. There was also some kind of tin? plateing on the jackets, that looked like it was applied after swageing. All of the bullets still had the fireing pin dent on the base, and I think this is where the consistancy issues arise, with the dents acting like rudders.

They were ok for gophers out to 150 m, after that, they were very inconsistant. There was also an extraordinary amount of fliers.

bearhunter
 
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There was a write up in Shooting Times (I think that was the mag) about the same thing. Seemed like it was pretty costly ot get into for what you needed to buy on top of the regular loading gear...
 
I read an article about someone who was making these. It's a really interesting idea but for the cost of the equipment, the time involved and the material costs you could buy some cheap Winchester 55gr bullets and get better results.

Velocities also had to be regulated because the thin brass jacket was more prone to coming apart at high speeds then a thicker commercial copper jacket. Perhaps the tin-plating bearhunter was talking about solved that problem. I'm interested in the price per 100 at which they were purchased?
 
i have an article on this. the gear runs about 600 US.

the jacket is thinner than commercial jackets so separation can be an issue and they tend to foul quite quickly.

spent case donation was important.. both in the source of the case and from what firearm it was fired in.. for the firing pin dent reason.

a very good read. i'll post the source when i can dig up the issue.
 
Ok, I dug them up, and took a couple of quick pics.I also did a little reading at the Corbin site and they suggest keeping these things under 3200 fps, I guess that'll be a pretty light load in the ol .250, huh?
Anyway, this is what they look like, they're slightly tarnished, but should be ok.I figure after about 15 years in my reloading desk they really don't look that bad.
Scott

22homemadeli9.jpg



homemade2ov3.jpg
 
I shot 2-3 thousand of these out of a 222 I had years ago. They were Ok out to 250, but there was usually a flier in a 10 round group that was unexplained. Pretty devastating on dirt pigs though. Never experienced any unusual amount of fouling. Regards, Eagleye.
 
Katana said:
There was a write up in Shooting Times (I think that was the mag) about the same thing. Seemed like it was pretty costly ot get into for what you needed to buy on top of the regular loading gear...
Click to expand...

It was an OUTSTANDING read-up on bullet swaging, but I'll agree 100% that the startup costs were more than prohibitive for most... still, should such projectiles no longer be commonly available in one's area (the author - was it Lane Pearce? - cited shortages in .223 projectiles on his local shelves because of the Iraq conflict) it'd be the early bird who got the worm.

-M
 
I think .222/.223 would be the ticket with these bullets, but I don't shoot enough any more to realize a big enough cost savings to eat the cost of the equipment to make them.
Scott
 
The guy at Corbin's upped the price to over $700 this year. :(

Wanted to get one to allow for more shooting of the AR but will have to wait for a while at that price. :(
 
caseings to bullets

My friend made me several thousand 300gr JSP in 44 cal
from 40 s&w casings they fly beautiful , very accurate hold togher great.
you need to take temper out of the fired casings first
and being brass they have more friction drag like Montana Golds
He also swagged me some linotype bullets that although measured the same dimentions as normal hard lead weighted only 265 grs, we surmized this was to the higher tin content.

supermag
 
My experience with the rimfire case jackets was similar to what's been posted. I loaded up a hundred or so for my .222, then went back to Sierras. Accuracy was OK out to 100, (nothing like a MK though) but beyond a 100 accuracy dropped off quickly. I didn't notice that they fouled any worse than anything else, but I had a very good barrel on that rifle.
 
With the spent cases worth $2/lb why bother? Sell them and get something you can count on and has a ballistic coeficient that has been rated. IMHO of course. I have about 20lbs of the stuff so far and when the pail is full it goes to the scrap yard. A 20l pail weighs in at about 30lbs so take the money and run. Woo Hoo!
 
bearhunter said:
They're OK for plinking, but not overly accurate. There was a fellow in Canada, that was collecting thousands of range scrap and turning them into .224 size bullets. I tried several sizes and wasn't impressed.

That same fellow, Calhoon, is in the states right now and for years has been trying to promote a .19 calibre. Not with much success though.

bearhunter
Click to expand...

Jim dropped the recycle rimfire bit years ago, cups are all new mfg. They make several calibers but the .19 is the mainstay in 3 chamberings. 19-223, 19 Calhoon and 19 Badger. He custom builds rifles for these chamberings as well, his work is top notch. Not much success? he's looking for investors/partners to expand the business as they are being run off their feet. Last weekend I managed to drag him away for a day of blasting varmints in the Bear-Paw mountains Montana with his trusty 19s. More info at w ww.jamescalhoon.com
 
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