Progress report, .22 Hornet Combination Wolf & Small Game.

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Ugly Sauce

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DISCLAIMER: I have no desire, plans, inclinations or any tendency to shoot a wolf, unless attacked by said wolf. I do not want to shoot a wolf. !!!

I have been casting bullets since forever, but I knew that casting tiny bullets would be a challenge. My first problem was that on the wife's new kitchen stove, it just doesn't get as hot as the old stove, so my melt was under my normal casting temp. This resulted in the bases of the bullets not filling out completely. This was in a round nose, .224" 55 grain GC mold. They dropped from the mold at exactly .224".

So, just for fun, I loaded one case with a newly cast bullet, and just the primer. Expected it to stick in the barrel. However, with hardly any muzzle report, and what sounded like a squib, I broke the action (NEF) and was surprised to see a clear bore. As I did not shoot it at a target, I didn't know if it tumbled or not.

Then I loaded three up over three grains of Unique, planning to load down from there. My "target" velocity that I am "aiming" for is around 800fps. The first shot went exactly to POA at 15 yards, cut a clean hole, but the next two tumbled, and leaded the first inch of the bore badly. !! Dang it. I could tell from the muzzle report that these were much hotter than what I was "shooting" for. !

I then cut three bullets down to a single groove bullet (cut it at the second lube groove) of about 40 grains RN bullet and loaded them over one grain of Unique. Without belling the mouths, these did not seat straight, but did not tumble either. However, they shot into a horizontal spread or group of 3"+, not quite minute of grouse. I may experiment with this load later. If I can seat them straight, they may shoot minute of grouse.

In the mean time, I ordered some bullets from Graff's, I forget if it was a Sierra or Speer, but it's a jacketed 43 grain flat-nose bullet, nice and short, and if I can get it down to 900fps without sticking it in the barrel, (which shouldn't be a problem) I think it would be gentle enough on grouse. I shot some grouse with my .22LR Airlite pistol this last hunting season, with the Winchester 36 grain hollow point load, "normal" .22LR velocity, and they were "gentle" enough. From that three inch barrel I figure the velocity was around 900fps, (?) maybe a bit more, so I think I'll be okay with that velocity out of the NEF/Hornet. I'm going to try it at least before going back to cast bullets.

Thanks for listening, and I'd like to give a shout out to J.Shirley, best moderator in the universe, bar none!!!!
 
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Yeah, wish Aguila would make some. Or how about some CCI .22 Hornet "Quiets". !!! 36 grain RN at 750fps. But most people want more, not less. I guess it's up to poor old me. :(
 
Ugly Sauce Ammo has a nice ring to it... Lol

I wonder how a magnum primer and a small load of slow burning powder would do. Or a heavily buffered load of Holy Black? Ive reloaded off and on for almost 20 years but just to have cheaper ammo to shoot. Never worked up a specialty load yet. Guess you could call me a highly experienced noob.
 
It was a concoction of bee's wax, some oil of which I forget, and some Alox. In proportions I forget. ! However, it's always worked well with other cast bullets black powder or smokeless. I suppose I should switch to something more smokeless oriented.
 
When I was casting bullets, I never considered doing it in my kitchen.

I found an old two burner Coleman stove worked well on the picnic table on the patio. Plenty of heat, and no lead fumes worries. May be a little cold for it now though, depending where you are.

Good luck with your experiments!
 
How are you going about cutting those bullets? I dying to know how you are getting a square, flat base.

It's a bit tedious, but simple. On a flat surface you can roll the bullet under the cutting edge of a thin, sharp blade. With care it will cut them pretty square/flat. Then with a little touch up with a file I can get them nice and square. The only reason I did that was to see if that same bullet would stabilize if shorter, and it did. As a normal practice I would not try to modify bullets that way.
 
When I was casting bullets, I never considered doing it in my kitchen.

I found an old two burner Coleman stove worked well on the picnic table on the patio. Plenty of heat, and no lead fumes worries. May be a little cold for it now though, depending where you are.

Good luck with your experiments!

Have a good hood and exhaust fan over the stove. But with this new stove, the kitchen bullet factory is gone, over, kaput, and I'll have to use the Coleman in the garage. Where I am, Eastern Washington State, it is a bit cold, but I could do it outside if I wanted to badly, I'm a cold weather guy. But I have a big wood stove in the garage and a big kerosene heater, so if I have enough garage projects lined up it's worth heating the garage. Takes about an hour to really get it comfy if it's real cold though.
 
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Progress Report: While I'm waiting for those 43 grain flat-nose bullets to arrive, I thought I would put a new ejector spring in the gun, which I did. This rifle ejected good before, and threw the cases into the next county, but with the new heavier spring, and the polishing of all the parts, it now throws them into ORBIT. !! No kidding. So to test it out I did some more 60 yard shooting. Now before you say it, yes that's an atrocious group for a .22 Hornet. For my purposes, wolf sized target at 50 yards, I'm good with it. I will put the tedious load development into my small game load.

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I'm getting a lot of vertical stringing because I'm using fairly course sights. The sights allow me to hold windage well enough, but it's a little hard to keep the front sight holding elevation. Now before you say: "get new sights", I have found that when you are shooting at small game, in the brush, in the shadows, it's difficult to use fine-sights, and stay on target when the target blends into the background really well. And at 20 yards or less close range, the variation in elevation should be miniscule. That's my theory and I'm sticking to it. !!! Thanks for listening!
 
Oh yeah, it's bad here in Wa., Idaho and Montana. Idaho and Montana are selling wolf tags at least. In Washington state, instead of selling tags, the game department gets in a helicopter once in a while and guns entire packs down from the air after they start killing cattle.

However...I have no desire to shoot a wolf, and if they started selling tags I doubt I would buy one. But I'd be glad that there are others who would!

On my sights, I failed to mention that after I back-cut the front sight, it will hold elevation better. But I don't want to do that until all load development and sighting in is done. Right now the back of the front sight has a curve to it, which makes the top kind of indistinct.
 
I wouldnt shoot a wolf unless i had to. Of course im that way with anything. Reminds me of an episode of MeatEater i watched recently. The host was down in the jungles of South America somewhere following a group of indigenous peoples who recently got a new shotgun. They were hunting MONKEY! It was so weird to see them kill and process it. Then they made a monkey stew and fed the whole group.
 
I wouldnt shoot a wolf unless i had to. Of course im that way with anything. Reminds me of an episode of MeatEater i watched recently. The host was down in the jungles of South America somewhere following a group of indigenous peoples who recently got a new shotgun. They were hunting MONKEY! It was so weird to see them kill and process it. Then they made a monkey stew and fed the whole group.
Best hunting show around, great episode too
 
I think a .22 Magnum would be a little hard on grouse, but I've never shot one with it. If they made a .22 magnum light load, about 750-800fps out of a rifle barrel, I'd get me a Little Badger in .22 mag and never look back!

I don't know if anyone makes a full wadcutter mold in .224". I think it would be tricky to make good bullets. But putting the $$$ into another mold, not knowing if I could get good bullets out of it, and if they would shoot good...not gonna do it at this point.

I'm pretty sure the 43 grain flat point bullets I ordered will work. They are nice and short. The only thing I'm sure of is how low a velocity I can get out of them, before they start sticking in the barrel. That is the question! But, even at .22LR velocity, I don't think they will tear up too much meat. ?
 
Yeah, I would just use a 22 on grouse but I hunt them with a shotgun anyway. I hope you get it sorted out and keep us posted.
 
Right. I guess (I am) what I'm trying to do is turn the NEF into two rifles, a .22LR and a .22Hornet. I often carry a .22LR pistol, and I've taken a few now with my AirLite, but as we all know...a rifle is a little more consistent as far as hitting a small target under field conditions. So the appeal to me is having two rifles in one, one powerful enough to do some defense work, or even take a deer under emergency circumstances, and take small game for the pot also, without too much meat damage, or having aim precisely enough to take the heads of, with lots of flash and bang. Or packing two rifles, which is not an option!

I'm pretty confident I can sort it out. Getting a bullet down to low velocity should not be difficult. There should be no expansion with the 43 grain bullets I ordered, so they should be gentle on small game. You know, I wonder if the 35 grain V-max would even expand at 800fps. ? I doubt it, so that may even be an option if I want/need even a lighter bullet. The 35 grain V-Max must be a very stubby bullet!

I'm thinking that, at worse, my POI with the two different loads might be different. But in that case I can fabricate a short quarter-rib and mount two flip-up-flip-down rear sights, and that will be that. A bit of work, but I like working with files and hacksaws. ! If there is only a minor difference in elevation, I can live with holding the front sight a bit high or low to compensate. A difference in windage, don't want to live with that. But with that big heavy bull barrel, there shouldn't be a lot of barrel harmonics going on.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!!!!
 
There should be no expansion with the 43 grain bullets I ordered, so they should be gentle on small game. You know, I wonder if the 35 grain V-max would even expand at 800fps.

Yeah i would only be concerned with getting the bullet out of the barrel. Expansion in this case is a bad thing. Imagine getting the bullet slow enough to just knock the grouse out and not penetrate at all lol.

A couple more wild hares for you to chase... Back in the day, benjamin made air rifle pellets in 20 cal and 22 cal in a nearly hollow base wadcutter design, it just had a bit of a dome to the tip. Dunno if 22 air rifle is a .224 size or not. Another thought would be a smaller like 17 caliber v-max in a small sabot type round. But that would be a custom endeavor i bet.
 
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