Post by Junior on Mar 12, 2023 2:27:09 GMT -7
I mentioned on a thread last week that I was going to be playing with a took for modifying 22 ammo to be more suitable for hunting, while also making the ammo more consistent and I was wondering ifit would make the ammo more accurate.
I tested several loads from cheap to high end, LRN. copper plated HP, subsonic, hyper velocity, and consistently the small HP punch and the flat nose punch showed considerable accuracy improvements. The large punch did not show great improvement with most loads, however I never shot a string of groups that averaged larger then the factory loadings did.
Shown are the group results from 36gn Federal bulk (that stuff we shot tons of as kids, dad will know which ammo I refer to)
Rifle of course was my zastava 99 and groups were fired at 50 yards.
I wondered about with the bullets being bumped up if it would cause feeding issues in auto loaders. I measured a few various factory 22 rounds and none of the driving bands exceeded .2225" which most being around .221"-222" and the smallest I found being .2205. After running rounds through the die, all cartridges measured a consistent .223". I tried these rounds in multiple auto loading 22s including Beretta 21A, FN502, Ruger MK4, 2 different 10/22s and a few others I borrowed and all the rounds I fired ran 100%. With the large HP I did find that my Browning BL22 didn't want to feed them, but it fed everything else fine.
Overall, I think the answer is Yes, it does improve the ammo.
I was also thinking about how this tool works and I would imagine a lubrisizer would work to do it as well. use a .223" die, and find a top punch that will hit the die body while protecting the rim and then use the depth adjustment to control how much you flatten/bump the nose. There is also a die set made with more adjustment for reloading presses but they are quite spendy. With this one I have the punches are too long to bottom out, so I used washers to set the depth and get accurate and repeatable results instead of trying to make consistent hammer taps.
I tested several loads from cheap to high end, LRN. copper plated HP, subsonic, hyper velocity, and consistently the small HP punch and the flat nose punch showed considerable accuracy improvements. The large punch did not show great improvement with most loads, however I never shot a string of groups that averaged larger then the factory loadings did.
Shown are the group results from 36gn Federal bulk (that stuff we shot tons of as kids, dad will know which ammo I refer to)
Rifle of course was my zastava 99 and groups were fired at 50 yards.
I wondered about with the bullets being bumped up if it would cause feeding issues in auto loaders. I measured a few various factory 22 rounds and none of the driving bands exceeded .2225" which most being around .221"-222" and the smallest I found being .2205. After running rounds through the die, all cartridges measured a consistent .223". I tried these rounds in multiple auto loading 22s including Beretta 21A, FN502, Ruger MK4, 2 different 10/22s and a few others I borrowed and all the rounds I fired ran 100%. With the large HP I did find that my Browning BL22 didn't want to feed them, but it fed everything else fine.
Overall, I think the answer is Yes, it does improve the ammo.
I was also thinking about how this tool works and I would imagine a lubrisizer would work to do it as well. use a .223" die, and find a top punch that will hit the die body while protecting the rim and then use the depth adjustment to control how much you flatten/bump the nose. There is also a die set made with more adjustment for reloading presses but they are quite spendy. With this one I have the punches are too long to bottom out, so I used washers to set the depth and get accurate and repeatable results instead of trying to make consistent hammer taps.
