The search for the elusive .22 bulk bughole

BwanaDave

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So the winter rains are here , works been almost too busy and the boats built and on the trailer. What to do? well the local 100yd range is deserted most days and over the past year my appreciation for the lowly .22lr cartridge and the handy little rifles they're chambered in has come back in a big way. It started with testing what was available in the Terrace Wallmart for accuracy and has slowly morphed into the quest for cheap bulk ammo accuracy. I dont compete, own any competition caliber rifles or even have a good reason to pass this on other than it may interest some of you who are cheap like me.

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Initially I had good results with the win 333/555 rounds available at the Wally Mart, slightly poorer with the Win xpert & dynapoint but still far, far superior to Federal bulk pac and American eagle in my 2 cz's. I spent some time reading on Rimfire central and decided I had to try some cci blazer and and somehow got onto a thread about resizing / reforming .22 bullets with some of the bump dies available.
Well one thing led to another and in the early fall I sent a money order away for a DRock kit with two different forming spindles, a hollow point and dished hollow point.
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Canada ammo fixed me up with some CCI Blazer, I dug up some remington golden bullets and a few other types and away we went.
Immediately it was clear at least to me that these bump dies actually do work , with measurable improvement in some rifles and no real measurable improvement in others ( read norinco here)
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So , it wasnt long before I decided to try the Neil Waltz die that actually fits in the reloading press with a little 22 shell holder and offers both a hollow pointer and a spindle to make EPS tips like eley tenex so they say, Ive never seen the stuff but supposedly according to Mr Lantz its supposed to increase accuracy.
Oh well , I handed over the cash and ....
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I've been using unaltered ammo for a control and then experimenting on different amounts of upset/reforming in order to try and improve the accuracy of my cheap bulk ammo. My best results have been with CCI blazer and Win bulk 333/555. For me at least these things actually do deliver in the accuracy department and the wicked looking hollowpoints make a satisfying smack when they hit something. So it wont make bulk into match ammo but IMHO it does make better bulk ammo. Conditions were a bit windy yesterday when these were shot and I'll admit I wasnt shooting my best but you can see the difference between the control group at the top left and some variations on the theme with the lantz die. Shot @ 50 yds
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Great i was looking at one of thease now i have to spend the money do you have a rim gauge and a scale to test it harder

No, I havent bothered to weigh each round or measure and sort by rim thickness, I could I suppose but it would kind of defeat my purpose. I just wanted to make better bulk ammo more suited to potting rabbits or ditch chickens reliably and dont want to go investing a bunch of time in trying to make match ammo out of the stuff, I've been able to identify what works in my two rifles and have fine tuned this cheap stuff to the point where I dont experience flyers, five shot groups are consistent and both rifles are shooting as well as one could expect with high velocity .22lr.
You could sort / weigh/ inspect and measure rim thickness if you wanted to pursue this till you drove yourself nuts I suppose but it might be a bit of fun, if it was just about group size I'd start with standard velocity stuff and experiment with it. I plan on using CCI Blazer in both my cz's (speer/cci with the dark bullets, not the federal made stuff) its cheap , consistent ( actually very consistent from my testing approx 400 rounds) and a 40 grain bullet.
I have a new marlin xt-22 coming either tomorow or next week and will try and take some pics of the process with it as I go along, I plan on shooting 3 groups of unaltered control ammo and then 3 groups of various stages of modification with the 6 types of rimfire ammo I have on hand and will try and post the results. Who knows , it may be like the norinco JW-15's that didnt respond at all either better or worse.
 
You should try weight sorting . It can make a great difference in group size .
CCI ammo seems to have the best most consistent weights , until you get
into the high price stuff .
 
I wonder if its actually the hollow tip helping accuracy or the bullet getting slightly buldged during the process making for a tighter fit down the bore?
 
I wonder if its actually the hollow tip helping accuracy or the bullet getting slightly buldged during the process making for a tighter fit down the bore?

I'll take some pics of the process this weekend if I have time, the driving bands are compressed and the material is forced outwards, Neil states the finished diameter is .225 with his tool , depending on the amount of hollow point you want it can shorten the bullet considerably.
 
This is all pretty cool to me. I have a strong passion for rimfire shooting. It's cheap and a heck of a lot of fun. Kinda cool making more accurate rounds of out this cheap stuff. Will stay tuned in for the next results. Thanks!
 
I had a bit of time tonight to snap some pics for you cheap bas_ards !!

first up the DRock tool, dished and regular hollow points done with CCI Blazer and an unaltered round in the background
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Next is the Neil Waltz tool , pic shows the two forming tips and shell holder, cute.
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some pics of the Waltz bullets , from acceptable to overdone for illustration purposes
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the EPS tips are in the back row , varying degrees of upset
Waltz HP in the center
and the two Drock offerings up front.
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If anyone is interested in how the new marlin xt-22 faired, well its no CZ, but for a couple hundred bucks its not bad.
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I took it to the range with an old weaver K-4 on it , got it on the paper and proceeded to flail away. I cleaned the rifle beforehand but never stopped to clean it between ammo types or even shoot 5-10 rounds of the new ammo before shooting groups , so its really not the best testing but I was in a rush.

Here are the CCI Blazer results, control unaltered on top. Waltz EPS in the center , Waltz RNHP on the bottom Shot @ 35 yards
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Win xpert hp Bulk pack
Control unaltered on top ,
Waltz RNHP on the bottom.
Obviously not enough testing to draw conclusions on but it does appear to be promising, hopefully it shoots a little better and settles in with use more experimenting required!
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Very cool. Thanks for posting. I'm looking forward to getting mine as soon as it clears the border. With the weather we've been having though, I might have to wait until spring to do any testing with it!
 
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