Anyone casting their own bullets?

[Shabz]

Hi all,

I have a pile of rabbits to shoot and I’m working away with the .22lr and have tried the .17hmr. I’ve got a bit scunnered with the .17hmr for squib rounds. About half of my last box split their cases and went nowhere near the unflinching rabbits.

I’m toying with the idea of swapping the .17 for a .22 centrefire for the same long range bunnies thinking that I can likely reload for about the same price as the hmr bullets anyway. Then I started thinking about casting lead bullets to put through a .22 centrefire (likely a .222) and I can (I think) get the cost down to much the same as the .22lr for a 50gr bullet doing 1800-2000 fps with better 200 yard accuracy.

Does this sound doable? Are cast lead bullets going to live up to my expectations? Will I be able to switch between cast bullets and copper bullets for the odd deer without too much hassle?

 

[Smellydog]

It's doable but what the hell is "scunnered"?

Look at casting soft but plastic coat them .
That way you may avoid having to mess with alloys and lubes for the velocity you enquire about.

 

[MilesW]

Does this sound doable? Are cast lead bullets going to live up to my expectations? Will I be able to switch between cast bullets and copper bullets for the odd deer without too much hassle?

Doable as SD suggests, but highly unlikely they will live up to your expectations. Swapping between cast and copper does not have a high rate of success either.

 

[takbok]

I had no trouble switching between HBN coated (I think) copper bullets and powder coated cast bullets (subsonic) in my 6x45.

I need to buy a .22 Lee 55gr 6 cavity mould soon to cast a few hundred bullets for fireforming some Ackley improved cases so will be able to cast you some or resell the mould when I'm finished @Shabz

 

[Shabz]

I had no trouble switching between HBN coated (I think) copper bullets and powder coated cast bullets (subsonic) in my 6x45.

I need to buy a .22 Lee 55gr 6 cavity mould soon to cast a few hundred bullets for fireforming some Ackley improved cases so will be able to cast you some or resell the mould when I'm finished @Shabz

That sounds ideal! Like I say, I’ll probably go for a centrefire anyway but if you could cast me some to try, I could go from there. Always fancied having a go at it, the accuracy was my worry really. When the .17hmr shoots, it’s really accurate, I need fairly consistent accuracy to shoot rabbits at 200 yards.

There’s bloody hundreds of them. You can sit out for 2-3 hours pinging them at 100 yards with the .22lr but having a bit more range will be much more interesting!

 

[Andy RV]

I cast a lot of bullets for lever actions and mil surps, personally I’d probably steer away from this one. I may be wrong however I feel like you may find the quest for acceptable velocity and accuracy a step to far.

You may be better stocking up on cheap and cheerful basic soft points when they’re on sale and keep an eye on the classified forum and auctions for people having a clear out of cheap bullets.

 

[Smellydog]

As Andy say's, if you can find some S&B 45gn bullets they are cheap.
A chap was selling a box of 100 for £10 recently. He had a lot available.

 

[MarinePMI]

Hi all,

I have a pile of rabbits to shoot and I’m working away with the .22lr and have tried the .17hmr. I’ve got a bit scunnered with the .17hmr for squib rounds. About half of my last box split their cases and went nowhere near the unflinching rabbits.

I’m toying with the idea of swapping the .17 for a .22 centrefire for the same long range bunnies thinking that I can likely reload for about the same price as the hmr bullets anyway. Then I started thinking about casting lead bullets to put through a .22 centrefire (likely a .222) and I can (I think) get the cost down to much the same as the .22lr for a 50gr bullet doing 1800-2000 fps with better 200 yard accuracy.

Does this sound doable? Are cast lead bullets going to live up to my expectations? Will I be able to switch between cast bullets and copper bullets for the odd deer without too much hassle?

Casting for 222 is certainly doable, just remember to load to pressure, not velocity. Or more accurately, use pressure as the guide to which powder to use for what bullet weight at a desired velocity. Unless you heat treat your bullets, they can get pretty plastic above certain pressures (the exact pressure level escapes me now).

Years ago, I believe there was an active group here that cast bullets for 22 Hornet for the exact reason you mention; low cost and self-reliance. (I even casted a few thousand 45gr gas checked bullets for my Hornet as well.)

Search some of the older posts by @Muir and "cast" or "boolits". He wrote quite a bit on the subject on this site IIRC.

 

[castbullets.co.uk]

I don't cast anything as small as .22 but the MP-Molds mould for .22 Hornet is supposed to be fantastic.

A few things that will be applicable to you - coat (either powder or polymer) the bullets, don't just lube them. This will mean you can drive them a little harder (or put another way, they'll be a bit more forgiving). You'll want to cast them from quite a hard alloy and/or quench them to get the hardness up. Then you need to load for pressure and not velocity - velocity will be what it will be, there's no point in firing bullets that disintegrate on leaving the muzzle because you're chasing an FPS number. Gas checks might help you if you're miles off the muzzle energy you're after but it will mean buying a different mould (or learning how to make and work with plain-base gas checks...)

Working with lead requires some discipline and understanding both from a safety perspective and to get consistently good bullets out the other side.

 

[dvbookshop]

Hi all,

I have a pile of rabbits to shoot and I’m working away with the .22lr and have tried the .17hmr. I’ve got a bit scunnered with the .17hmr for squib rounds. About half of my last box split their cases and went nowhere near the unflinching rabbits.

I’m toying with the idea of swapping the .17 for a .22 centrefire for the same long range bunnies thinking that I can likely reload for about the same price as the hmr bullets anyway. Then I started thinking about casting lead bullets to put through a .22 centrefire (likely a .222) and I can (I think) get the cost down to much the same as the .22lr for a 50gr bullet doing 1800-2000 fps with better 200 yard accuracy.

Does this sound doable? Are cast lead bullets going to live up to my expectations? Will I be able to switch between cast bullets and copper bullets for the odd deer without too much hassle?

I used to shoot 60gn .223 gas-checked lead. 5.4 gns of Red Dot gave about 1500 fps. One jacketed bullet will clear out and lead deposits.