Reloading rimfire cartridges...

Bishopus

Bishopus

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I know, I know--it can't be done. Even Ackley, who will usually tell you 'it's difficult' and they lay out 5 different ways to do said thing, just says flat-out that it's not possible.

Why not? How do the loading companies make rimfire cartridges, and what about their machinery is so crazily difficult to reproduce?

Note that I'm not interested in making a brick, I just want to play with cast bullets and different powder loads in small lots.
 
The priming compound is in a semi liquid slury that dries in the fold while being spun.

Not only is it fracking near impossible to do at home, you don't want to be handling dried lead styphenate in any quantities.
 
Primers... On a rimfire cartridge to fire it you damage it and it's not like the primer is removable..

They spin the new case at high speed to put the priming compound around the edges..
 
I suppose it *could* *theoretically* be done. You'd need some liquid lead staphnate (recipe can be found on the Internet, I'd bet). You'd need to clean/scrape out the residue from inside the rim. Chuck the cartridge in a drill or dremel, spin it, and put a drop of priming compound in.
You'd only get a few load out of each brass, as each firing will add another dent to the rim, and at some pont you won't have any un-crushed rim anywhere. I don't suppose anyone know how much priming compound is too much.


Of course, attempting this would be extremely stupid, and quite possibly illegal (Lead staphnate is a high explosive, I believe)
 
You could buy cheap factory ammo, pull the bullets, dump the powder then go from there. Not sure how you would seat your new bullets though. Maybe someone else has an idea on that?
 
Bishopus said:
Nossir, no I don't... OK, 'because it will kill you' is a pretty good answer;-)
Click to expand...

At some time after the primer shortage of the early 90's Shooting magazine had an article about the making of primers at (i believe) Federal.

What struck me was that in this high tech automated world, the job of filling the cups with lead styphanate was still done by hand. They described the room as having only one operator, who accepted small batches of wet chemical and who would essentially squeege a line of compound over a plate full of holes with primer cups loaded into them.
 
It is (was?) common practise for some competition shooters to pull the bullets from 22WMR's, and stuff a 40gr VMAX in instead
 
Why Not Offer Empty Primed .22 cases?

Bishopus said:
I know, I know--it can't be done. Even Ackley, who will usually tell you 'it's difficult' and they lay out 5 different ways to do said thing, just says flat-out that it's not possible.

Why not? How do the loading companies make rimfire cartridges, and what about their machinery is so crazily difficult to reproduce?

Note that I'm not interested in making a brick, I just want to play with cast bullets and different powder loads in small lots.
Click to expand...

You know, It wouldn't be a huge step for an ammo manufacturer, to offer primed empty .22 cases. :eek:

Then you could play with powder and various bullet weights/dia's/lube combo's/configurations. Maybe get the extreme spreads down and tune them to your rifle. Not have to be held hostage to some factory target ammo, that you didn't hoard and is now unavailable.

NormB
 
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