Post by Bullshop on Oct 13, 2022 9:23:33 GMT -7
This have been a little slow on the forum so I am just going to ramble a little on something that has been amusingly occupying some of my time. After taking the first coyote of the season recently using a cast bullet in the 22 hornet I started thinking about what might make a better bullet for use in the hornet specifically for use on coyotes. The little 48 grain flat nose cast bullet worked perfectly for taking that first of the season coyote but it was a perfectly placed shot that carried it through the most vital anatomy . What though if the little non expanding bullet was not quite so perfectly placed ?
When mortally wounded I have seen coyotes cover a lot of ground fast and without snow can be awfully hard to track. A slightly off shot with a fragile expanding bullet might end things more quickly and make the tracking less difficult. There is a balance though in that a 22 caliber bullet that expands too violently may not penetrate to the vitals with a hit to the shoulder. They may kill like dynamite when the hit is broad side just behind the shoulder to the ribs but put that hit just a few inches forward in the shoulder and again the chase is on.
After mulling these thoughts and remembering from many years ago when I first got our 22 Cooper rifle how a soft swaged bullet using an annealed 22 RF case for a jacket and pure lead core acted like a controlled expansion bullet in the 22 Cooper at the 2000 fps velocity of the cartridge. I once shot a fox with the Cooper rifle using one of those swaged bullets and it performed perfectly making only one 22 cal hole in the tender hide and stopping under the hide on the off side expanded to the classic mushroom shape.
Now coyotes are one heck of a lot tougher than fox and the 22 hornet adds another 500 fps velocity to the same 54 grain bullet so what is perfect for the 22 Cooper may be somewhat lacking in the 22 hornet. Another issue for me with my hornet rifle having a 1/16" rifling twist rate is that of stabilizing the 54 grain bullet. The old 22 swaging set up I have is made with a 6-s ogive for about a 55 grain bullet that when fully drawn up to a nearly pointed tip has the lead core right up to the mouth of the jacket. That fully drawn bullet makes a bullet too long for my 1/16" twist so my rifle shoots them poorly that way.
Considering all these things I wondered what would be the result if using the same components I didn't draw the bullet up fully in the form die. Well to get right to the point it worked great. The result is a shorter length bullet with a large hollow point very much like the old Speer 52 grain silver match HP bullets, ballistically poor but wonderfully accurate. When done this way the top of the core is recessed somewhat from the mouth of the jacket which changes the balance point of the bullet and makes them wonderfully accurate from my 1/16" twist possibly even the most accurate this rifle has ever done.
The next test was to test these bullets for expansion to get a feel of what can be expected on game. The test was simple, an 8 oz paper cup filled with water backed by two 1" dry red fir boards set at 100 yards. The load is using 11.6 grain of little gun for an estimated velocity of 2500 fps. The result was a very noticeable thwop sound of the bullet impacting the cup of water then into the first board evidence of very rapid expansion in what looked like about a 1" shotgun pattern of tiny jacket and core fragments. Both boards were penetrated completely so even with the rapid expansion there is still significant penetration. I tried the same test with these bullets loaded in the 22 Squirrel and found again that at the 2000 fps velocity the bullet stopped in the second board expanded to the classic mushroom. With the shot from the 22 Squirrel I had put up three boards wanting to catch the bullet and there was a slight dent between the second and third board showing that it might have passed through the two boards as did the hornet with only two boards.
So the hole afternoon was fun interesting and educational and yes I sure do have a box of hornets loaded with this bullet ready to try in the field. My thoughts are that this bullet will be perfect for certain shots as in broad side in the ribs but not so with angling or shoulder shots in contrast to what is a perfect shot for the 48 grain NEI flat nose cast bullet as with the first coyote of the season. Guess I should carry both !
When mortally wounded I have seen coyotes cover a lot of ground fast and without snow can be awfully hard to track. A slightly off shot with a fragile expanding bullet might end things more quickly and make the tracking less difficult. There is a balance though in that a 22 caliber bullet that expands too violently may not penetrate to the vitals with a hit to the shoulder. They may kill like dynamite when the hit is broad side just behind the shoulder to the ribs but put that hit just a few inches forward in the shoulder and again the chase is on.
After mulling these thoughts and remembering from many years ago when I first got our 22 Cooper rifle how a soft swaged bullet using an annealed 22 RF case for a jacket and pure lead core acted like a controlled expansion bullet in the 22 Cooper at the 2000 fps velocity of the cartridge. I once shot a fox with the Cooper rifle using one of those swaged bullets and it performed perfectly making only one 22 cal hole in the tender hide and stopping under the hide on the off side expanded to the classic mushroom shape.
Now coyotes are one heck of a lot tougher than fox and the 22 hornet adds another 500 fps velocity to the same 54 grain bullet so what is perfect for the 22 Cooper may be somewhat lacking in the 22 hornet. Another issue for me with my hornet rifle having a 1/16" rifling twist rate is that of stabilizing the 54 grain bullet. The old 22 swaging set up I have is made with a 6-s ogive for about a 55 grain bullet that when fully drawn up to a nearly pointed tip has the lead core right up to the mouth of the jacket. That fully drawn bullet makes a bullet too long for my 1/16" twist so my rifle shoots them poorly that way.
Considering all these things I wondered what would be the result if using the same components I didn't draw the bullet up fully in the form die. Well to get right to the point it worked great. The result is a shorter length bullet with a large hollow point very much like the old Speer 52 grain silver match HP bullets, ballistically poor but wonderfully accurate. When done this way the top of the core is recessed somewhat from the mouth of the jacket which changes the balance point of the bullet and makes them wonderfully accurate from my 1/16" twist possibly even the most accurate this rifle has ever done.
The next test was to test these bullets for expansion to get a feel of what can be expected on game. The test was simple, an 8 oz paper cup filled with water backed by two 1" dry red fir boards set at 100 yards. The load is using 11.6 grain of little gun for an estimated velocity of 2500 fps. The result was a very noticeable thwop sound of the bullet impacting the cup of water then into the first board evidence of very rapid expansion in what looked like about a 1" shotgun pattern of tiny jacket and core fragments. Both boards were penetrated completely so even with the rapid expansion there is still significant penetration. I tried the same test with these bullets loaded in the 22 Squirrel and found again that at the 2000 fps velocity the bullet stopped in the second board expanded to the classic mushroom. With the shot from the 22 Squirrel I had put up three boards wanting to catch the bullet and there was a slight dent between the second and third board showing that it might have passed through the two boards as did the hornet with only two boards.
So the hole afternoon was fun interesting and educational and yes I sure do have a box of hornets loaded with this bullet ready to try in the field. My thoughts are that this bullet will be perfect for certain shots as in broad side in the ribs but not so with angling or shoulder shots in contrast to what is a perfect shot for the 48 grain NEI flat nose cast bullet as with the first coyote of the season. Guess I should carry both !
