.22 Rimfire Crimping Tool

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carbine85

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I'm curious if any of you guys have ideas for a bullet crimping tool for the .22 rimfire.
Most of the .22 ammo that I have problems with have loose projectiles and there is a lot of bad .22 ammo on the market these days.
I don't want to spend the money on the reloading kit just to get a crimping tool
I'm thinking a pair of wire cutting pliers drilled just undersized for the shell might do the trick.
Any Ideas?
On another note - Stay away from the Remington Golden Bullets. They won't shoot in any of our Semi-autos and they are extremely inconsistent. They should be called Golden Bullcrap. The cases are actually longer making the OAL longer.
 
Changing the crimp on 22 LR will likely not stop the bullets from turning in the case. Take a close look at a 22 LR bullet. Note the heel and how the bullet is made. I have here some CCI Standard Velocity 40 grain LRN bullets, some Eley Club, some Aguila Eley Prime, and some Remington Eley LTD manufactured Target. I can find plenty of bullets that turn in their cases. They all shoot just fine that way. Misfires in 22 LR are generally a result of the priming compound not getting into the rim and it can happen with all brands, at least I have seen rounds fail to fire with all brands. Another reason is light strikes from the firing pin. When you get rounds that fail to fire use a good magnifying glass and inspect the primer strikes.

The infamous Golden Bullets Suck. While my Ruger 10/22 has problems sometimes with the Golden Bullets my S&W Model 17 revolvers have no problem and the strikes are much more pronounced. Matter of fact that Ruger is my only 22 LR which has issues with the Golden Bullets.

Anyway, 22 bullets have been turning in cases since I picked up my first one in 1958 and I don't see it changing anytime soon, again, look at the design and heel of the bullet.

Finally here are the SAAMI specifications for a .22 LR, note the case length is 0.613" -.008" and the maximum OAL is 1.000" -0.050" and that OAL will be a function of the bullet used. Randomly selecting several bullets of those I have laying around I fine zero of the Golden Bullets out of specification.

Ron
 
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I agree that a lot of the bullets are going to spin, after all they are soft lead. I guess I'm looking at from the consistency perspective.
The loser bullets seemed to spread out a little more at the longer distances. You can't tell much at the shorter distances.
The CCI Mini Mags are pretty tight with a few loose ones.
Winchester Super X and Browning have a few more loose ones.
Some of this other stuff I have is pretty loose
 
When you start getting into the Eley and similar everything tends to get more uniform. I played around with this stuff and overall the more expensive ammunition is more uniform. That is to say the case wall thickness, powder charge and right down the line.

I also found that while my Anschutz likes the more expensive stuff my old Remington 510, 511 and 512 bolt guns don't seem to be as fussy. If you were to manage to tighten the crimp I don't see a gain in the results. Have at it by all means as because I don't see an improvement means nothing really. See how it works out for you. I have enough headaches trying to get uniform neck tension on .223 Rem and .308 Win. :)

I experimented with literally dozens of cartridges and concluded the .22 LR is a PITA. Rifle after rifle and handgun after handgun and it was like each gun had its own likes and dislikes. Removing bullets and measuring charge was entertaining and that is where I noticed the more expensive target ammunition was more uniform in charge and bullet weight. Anyway, have at it and post what you find. I would be interested.

Ron
 
I just built my own 22 rimfire crimping die. You cannot buy them. You have to make them. I can crimp them as tight as I want. (I reload 22lr) I can crimp them tight enough that you will practically tear the case before the bullet turns.
 
I just built my own 22 rimfire crimping die. You cannot buy them. You have to make them. I can crimp them as tight as I want. (I reload 22lr) I can crimp them tight enough that you will practically tear the case before the bullet turns.
How did make yours?
 
I made it with a drill and dremel. The hardest part was to make the ridge on the inner part of the die that actually crimps the brass. I had to grind away everything except a thin ridge (that you cannot see) just at the inner tip of the collet. You can see a fine ridge on the pliers type of crimper that I made previously. All grinding by eyeball with a dremel. You can also see that I used bolts. Grade 8 bolts. for the dies. I use high speed steel whenever I can but it is hard to get and expensive when you get to like a half inch in diameter. So I use Grade 8 bolts and just make new ones when they wear out. Actually if you want to experiment a 22 Hornet crimping die MIGHT WORK. It has a bit of a larger diameter but for the price you might want to experiment with it. If you do I would be very interested in the results. I was going to get one to crimp 22 mag which I am going to be reloading soon.
http://leeprecision.com/factory-crimp-die-22-hornet.html
 
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Carbine85 I hope you have facebook. Otherwise you cannot see the pictures. I don't know any other way of posting them. Do you?
I have FaceBook and this is what I get:
Sorry, this content isn't available right now
The link you followed may have expired, or the page may only be visible to an audience you're not in.

My guess is that the content is only available to your friends on FaceBook.

Ron
 
If you start leading your swaging your bullets too small.

If your having a misfire problems take a bore brush and clean the end of the chamber real good using a drill. Lead and residue can build up there and keep the 22 cartridge from seating on the rim like it should. Also depending on your chamber and which brand of bullets your using you may find a mismatch. I had some ammo that ran 0.0005" larger and caused problem in one of my guns. This same ammo ran perfect in the others.
 
If you just want to tighten up bullets the collet crimper is what you want. Those pliers crimpers are very finicky. You can only do one squeeze with them and since the brass length varies a tad bit in length, you may get a slightly off the mark crimp line. If you try to crimp it again it just gets looser from stretching the brass. With that die I actually ended up with a lot of bullets that would spin in the brass. Even though they were crimped quite deep and would never come out, they would turn quite easily. If you are serious about this I would check out the Lee 22 Hornet Crimping die. The crimping part itself can be taken out of the die. Then, (in my opinion) you can cut the "slices" in the die a bit wider making it able to crimp a bit narrower, giving you a nicer die than I have been able to make. Then you can just chamfer the inside of a couple of bolts for the other parts of the die and go to work with it. Since it took so long to grind that crimp part with the cuts, I myself am going to go that route in the future. It actually took me about 50 hours with 3 failed previous attempts to get that die made. The pliers work but again you have to get really skilled with them to do it right and even then you will get a lot of bullets that will turn in the case.
 
Thanks for the tip, Blue68f100. I will keep that in mind. Actually I have gone to an entirely different process of swaging. My old method was slow so, I went and reengeneered my swaging process. Foolishness! I have worked on the swaging die for MONTHS now and have finally gotten a good die to work with. I do swag them narrow because the final stage of my reloading process has a knurling of the bullet, which actually from .222" to .225". That makes the bearing surface very soft for the depth of the knurl which makes a very good tight fit into the rifling. When I get the bugs ironed out I am hoping to be making ammo that is superior in accuracy to any manufactured ammo. (HOPING!)
 
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