Increasing meplat surface area of .22lr

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ironworkerwill

ironworkerwill

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I may posted this in the wrong place, if so please move as mods see fit.

I've seen some jigs to hold and file down the meplat of 22lr. I was wandering if any one has used such a device in either a crank uniformer style, tip punch, or meplat file type.


I have several reasons for needing such a device. Firstly, I cannot find a reliable source of hollow point ammunition. I have plenty of 40grain solids and I can easily find more if needed. When hunting small game, squirrels mostly, solids do not kill quickly enough to keep wounded game from getting holed up. I love to take head shots but sometimes center mass is all you get. I hunt a lot with my children and head shots are usually beyond the capibility of the shooter(myself included :eek:).


If anyone has jig or a good DIY device I'd love to hear real life experiences.
 
As a kid, we used to slice crosses on .22 lead bullets and drill holes in them in attempt to create our own HPs and create more expansion. All we did was reduce the accuracy with no obvious signs of increased deadliness. IMHO, Shooting COM of a squirrel with any type of .22LR bullet will tend to lead to wounding them and allowing them to "hole up". Now I've seen .17HMRs virtually cut them in half when body shot tho.........
 
I have the tool for drilling a hollowpoint into the loaded .22 bullet, but I've never used it. It's designed to be used on a drill press. Send me a PM if you're interested.

Fred
 
There's not much of a nose on most .22lr bullets. So you'll pretty much be making wadcutters by modifying them, and knocking off a pretty good bit of weight.
 
over at leverguns.com paco kelly sells an acu'rzr that will change the bullet meplat in various ways.

murf
 
I have an Acu'rzr from Paco Kelly over at Leverguns.com. Mine came with three nose punches that turn solids into hollow points of various sizes and shapes from a tiny1/16"x3/16 cavity to one that will put a nearly 9/32" cup on the nose. It works with a mallet and actually increases accuracy by swaging the bullet to a consistent diameter. In my 10-22 and Marlin bolt gun, groups with bulk Federal solids dropped by nearly 1/2 to around 1"-1 1/4" at 50 yds. Other ammo groups shrunk but the Federal was the most dramatic...
 
For the OP, there is still HP 22 LR for sale. Lots on the interweb if you want to stoop to their crazy prices! I get e mails all the time. Pretty much $50 a brick plus shipping. You can buy small amounts of course

As to the Paco Kelly thing I have no idea. I would not be interested in it. the OP asked for a tool, there it is.

If we could send ammo by mail I would certainly send the OP some HP 22 LR for hunting.:)

UPS shipping is nuts.
 
UPS shipping is nuts.
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After all, they are competing against the squirrels!

One thing that dad taught me was that if you shot the squirrel in the head you not only saved the meat but you didn't have to track them. They dropped out of the tree, no need for hollow points. He was a good enough shot with a 22 to be able to light matches at 50 yards. I couldn't even hit the squirrels.
 
I thought I would experiment.

First i cut a small piece of pine in the table saw to .825" thickness. Next drilled a hole straight through with a .225" drill bit. Stick a 22 round in up the the rim and file flat. Done.

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Weight of un altered bullet measures 40 grains. Weight of filed bullet measures 35 grains.

FullSizeRender%202.jpg
 
Two empty pop cans filled to the top with water shot from a 5.5 inch buckmark. The can on the left is an unaltered bullet and the one on the right is the home made wad cutter. The difference was quite dramatic. The unaltered bullet threw water about a foot and a half high and the can jumped up a couple inches. The flat bullet threw water 3 feet in all directions and the can jumped up a foot off the ground.

cans.jpg
 
The first tool I looked at/for was similar to one I'd read about years ago in Field&Stream. It was the holder with a hardened surface and a file was used to make the meplat. I failed at finding one.

The second one or rather the first thing I found was the tool made by Paco Kelly. I was afraid that the forming tool, using a small mallet, may somehow decrease accuracy.

The third one I found on the web was the Eabco tool that is no longer offered. Thanks Fred!

Thanks MDI. I was looking for someone to school me on the Paco device. I'm glad to see someone has success with it.
 
Someguy, did you make and test that today? *edit 35grains is about optimal IMO. Most factory hollow points are 36 or so grains.

The one I'd read of is pretty much what you have done. I remember the author saying the flat surface of the filed flat bullet made somewhat of a secondary report as it struck the game.
 
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Yes, I made it right before I posted. I honestly didn't think it would do anything but was very surprised. I think if you were to setup something to do this in a consistent way and retain accuracy you will have some very deadly ammo. If you decided to make something yourself make sure it fits the bullet tightly. I found that if the round is loose in the hole the bullet rocks back and forth in the case as you file it and the tip gets angled.
 
I can't see this feeding well in a lot of semiautos. Revolvers and single shots yes, bolt guns maybe, but semiautomatic would be much more prone to jamming.
 
The second one or rather the first thing I found was the tool made by Paco Kelly. I was afraid that the forming tool, using a small mallet, may somehow decrease accuracy.

Thanks MDI. I was looking for someone to school me on the Paco device. I'm glad to see someone has success with it.
Click to expand...

Several guys on the Leverguns forum have used Pacos tool, the results were good so far as I recall. Part of the thing that happens is the bullet swages out a little, making them more uniform, and a tighter fit in the rifling, which can help with some guns accuracy wise, and probably some loads.

If you do a search over there it may shed some light on the matter.
 
When I was a teen, I used to buzz the round nose off .22 Long Rifle cartridges on a bench grinder. Too many cocked bullets I guess because they're held by the heel only maybe.

I stopped after a short period of experimentation. No real gain in performance and I had girls to chase.
 
Great resourcefulness. But I did not see the 25 or 50 yard accuracy results. Did I miss that part?
 
It's been a long time since I shot at beverage cans. Thirty years ago, I seem to remember roundnose .22s splitting the can halfway and hollowpoints looking like Someguy's roundnose can on the left. Have they figured out how to draw the cans that much thinner?
 
I made a "trim die" out of a roll pin I got at the hardware store. I don't remember the diameter. Just bring a round with you and match it up. I then cut it to allow the tip to stick out so you can file it flat. I got this idea from a thread on RFC. If I can find it I'll post a link. It works well. The bullets feed ok from any action I fired them from and accuracy remained the same. Never had a chance to try them on any game but the flat meplat idea has been around a long time and is effective on game. Heres the link.
http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=556976&highlight=flat+point+tool
 
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