JKM .223 to .22 pellet conversion

[wlemay]

Hey everyone, I just stumbled across a cool website that offers a special re-loadable .223 rem casing designed to fire .22 caliber airgun ammunition using 209 shotgun primers as the propellant.

They claim all you do is a pop a primer in, seat the pellet, load-aim-fire, pop out spent primer with a poker, and repeat. I decided to order one, and am excited to see if it works as well as they claim.

The website is called JKMshells.com and sells these conversion shells for $17.99 each; a little pricey IMO but they claim you can re-use this shell as many times as you want. I know shot gun primers are cheap, and .22 pellets are even cheaper, so I think this will be a economical buy.

Plus the website claims these make less noise than an actual air rifle sending a 14.3gr pellet at 800-900 FPS, so you can shoot them in the back yard or indoors.

If anyone has tried one of these before- let me know how you like them because I am just itching to try mine out when it gets here.
Pretty sure I will have no problem going through a tin of 250 pellets in the course of an afternoon with this thing.

 

[WNTFW]

I see no advantage over an air rifle for anything I would use it for. The big potential problem I think would be it is still considered a firearm. I shoot my air rifle in my back yard. Using the JKM device would only add cost and effort. Then if the police show up I bet I fair better with an air rifle. My air rifle will dispatch pest, but I don't need it for that.

I would be curious to play with one but not willing top pay to play.

I can tell you for sure that all .177 and .22 pellets are not the same diameter. My shooting buddy was getting bad groups. He had some of the .177s fall through the bore. He bought a .22 and 2 different brand pellets varied by a couple thousandths. I would buy a .177 air rifle & be done.

 

[kingmt]

No need to spend $20. All you need to do is put a .22 pellet in a primed case & fire. CB .223 rifle. It works great at 25 yards & the person firing only hears the firing pin the by stander hears pata. No where near as load as a air rifle & slightly better groups then most off the shelf air rifles. I have used a little propellent & gotten them on target at 100 yards but found it not worth messing with.

The 209 primer cost a lot more then SR primers. one last tip is you can FL size without the expander to get a tighter fit. The skirt will expand to touch the rifling. I thought about doing a review at one time but didn't think it was usful enough that anyone would care.

I will sell them to you all day long for $1 each + shipping & you can use a standard SR primer with them.

 

[rcmodel]

+1
No need to buy special cases, or 209 primers.

Just use a standard sized case & primer & hand seat the pellet in the case mouth.

I used to use them in a 22-250 for pigeon control around the out buildings.
Add about 1.0 grain of Bullseye if you wish.

rc

 

[ants]

Be careful with the indoor atmosphere

If you ignite primers indoors, please get plenty of ventilation.

Priming compound contains Lead Styphnate.
The combustion product is a lead compound
that enters the body through the respiratory tissue.
Then the lead builds up in your blood.

Please, just because it's primer only, do not fail to take it seriously.



Note: In another thread the OP notes that he shoots Aguila Colibri in his basement.
Same comment there. Rimfire primer contains lead compounds.

Get plenty, plenty, plenty of air ventilation.
Powered air ventilation direct to the outdoors,
not just an open window nearby.
And I hope to god there aren't kids in the house.

 

[wlemay]

No need to spend $20. All you need to do is put a .22 pellet in a primed case & fire

- believe it or not I have tired that before and I was not very pleased with the results. It worked, but my $30 red-rider was more impressive; I think the 209 primers are more powerful than the dinky little .223 primers (JKM claims you will get 800-900fps, I doubt I even got 400fps with standard .223 primers) , plus since I am not a well-equipped re-loader; I do not have the tools to efficiently switch out tight fitting primers.

Also, I noticed the .22 pellets have a habit of falling inside regular .223 casings & do not come out easily. The JKM casing seems to address all of these issues; it was purpose built to do what I want it to, and it will let me do cheap short range target practice with my favorite rifle for pennies on the dollar compared to buying boxes of real .223 ammo.

I can tell you for sure that all .177 and .22 pellets are not the same diameter. My shooting buddy was getting bad groups. He had some of the .177s fall through the bore. He bought a .22 and 2 different brand pellets varied by a couple thousandths. I would buy a .177 air rifle & be done.

Trust me I am well aware of the fact that not all pellets are uniform. I currently own 5 airguns and have seen some pellets that will slide out of the barrel & ones that are to big to fit in the first place; from the same tin of pellets (they were off-brand .177cal chinese made pellets). Now I usually use benjamin brand diablo-dome and HP pellets in the .22cal airguns I own. I must say they are very high quality and I can achieve good groups at surprisingly long distance. Before I committed to order this thing I checked how the benjamin pellets fit in my .223; they fit nice and snug, no gaps, no air leaks around the pellet, and the pellet engaged the rifling like a champ.

 

[kingmt]

I have no idea if 209 are hotter or not but my guess would be not. The only benefit I could see is you load the pellet from the back then the primer(this is what someone told me).

I hope it does all you want it to. I have never bought a box of new .223 but I can load the real thing for 8 cents each or $1.60/box & $40/500. How much are pellets now? The cheapest I can get 209's is 4 cents each. I'm thinking about looking into lead projectiles.

I know this won't work for most indoors but if you want to save a buck.

 

[wlemay]

Wow I thought reloading .223 costs more than 8 cents each. What brand of bullets, powder, and primers do you use; this has got me interested, in reloading.


BTW I pay 5-$10 bucks for a tin of 500 14.3gr .22cal pellets, depends on the store & brand.

I have no idea if 209 are hotter or not but my guess would be not.

-am pretty sure that they are... the 209s are twice the size of the .223 primers.

 

[m33p0n3]

http://www.ammosmith.com/rifle-reloading/make-a-223-remington-pellet-rifle-2-part-series.php

I haven't tried this myself, but he basically reams the primer pocket to a large rifle and enlarges the flash hole as much as possible.

 

[kingmt]

Sorry my math was way off. I most have been thinking about something else. I have about 11 cents in a .223 Rem. I got some pulled bullets $20/500=4c $5#powder/10gr=4.5c primer=2c total=11c

The 55gr FMJBTs aren't very good as far as I have been able to work up so I think I'm going to start using more V-Max which will really raise my cost. A V-Max cost me ~16 cents.

The pulled bullets will get less then 1" groups at 100 yards so they should do fine at closer ranges.

 

[Clark]

When I was a kid we used to put 22 cal pellets in front of a 22 crimped blank in a 22LR rifle.

I have shot a .454" lead ball from a 1911 in the basement with just a primer. It is loud.

 

[dirtman]

2.0 grains of Bullseye padded down with cotton and it goes through my 2 inch phone book, clear through, no problem... gotta set up the croney and really see whats its doing....

 

[rskent]

WNTFW
FYI – in a number of city’s (most around here) believe it or not, an air gun is considered a firearm.
You might want to go to your city’s web site and check it out to be sure.

Just a thought

Steve

 

[kingmt]

"an air gun is considered a firearm"

I will have to be in the not group. It is a AIR gun because it is shot with air & a FIRE arm is shot with fire. Now I believe they they may fall under some of the same gun laws.

I'm not saying your not right I just have a hard time believing it.

 

[Clark]

The federal firearm laws are different for pellet guns, but in the city where I live, firing a firearm, pellet gun, BB gun, bow and arrow, or sling shot are equally prohibited.

 

[WNTFW]

rskent,
Good point. I know if the police show up at my house then I will be be defending my self. If some one decides to complain or even lie about my actions then I may be up against a lack of logic, facts or even an appropriate interpretation of the law. The police here are pretty good. If they get called I am already heading into a situation I would rather not be in. Same thing could happen just having a firearm outside, dry firing etc. That is part of the reason I don't want to play with the primer in my AR. I have to admit I am pretty curious about experiencing it first hand.

Overall I am fairly good about not being in plain view with any of it. For the most part people seem oblivious, which is fine by me.

On a side note I have fired some 209 primed only shot sells in a 12 guage. They were very dirty. Is the primer only method of pellet very dirty?

 

[Navy_Guns]

I bought one of these .223-209-pellet adapters from Sportsman's guide. It is nothing more than a .223 case that is drilled out in the back for a 209 primer, and they've staked the neck of the case slightly to make it harder for the pellet to drop down into the case. Harder does not mean impossible... :banghead:

Does it work? Yes. Does it work well? NO! The accuracy I was getting was very poor, and the primers leave a LOT of residue in the barrel. In hindsight, I would also advocate using normal, primed .223 cases if you just have to scratch that itch. At $15, the "adapter" was a terrible disappointment.

 

[Seedtick]

Originally posted by Clark:

The federal firearm laws are different for pellet guns, but in the city where I live, firing a firearm, pellet gun, BB gun, bow and arrow, or sling shot are equally prohibited.

Oh no.....I reckon that pretty much makes you

Public Enemy Number 1!

Seedtick

 

[wlemay]

I got the shell in the mail a couple days ago and I got the chance to test it out. I was not disappointed; lots of you seem to think it was a bad buy, but I disagree. The accuracy obviously is not as good as my rifle is capable of, but I have no problem hitting a 3inch target from 50 yards away. I haven't gotten a chance to see just how accurate this thing is capable of being but I would not be surprised if it could pull off 3-4MOA; which for me is plenty accurate.

It takes about 15-20seconds to fully reload & get on target for the next shot, which is about the same as my air rifle.

A lot of people stressed about the legality issue of discharging a firearm, No worries I live outside city limits & my neighbors could really care less about shooting a little .22. But they don't like the full on .223 its a bit too loud; So IMO this thing was a good buy.

The only thing I dont like is that, the 209 primers a dirty as all get out, and it is kinda hard to seat them.