started my first wildcat. a 22lr replacement

[The Old Coach]

Good show~! Not exactly a .22 RF replacement until you get some 1400 fps loads with cast bullets, but that ought to be pretty easy. Try Red Dot for those light loads. It's bulkier, and seemed to me to ignite more consistently. Less position sensitive. Although Bullseye also did well.

BTW I found that a 53 grain cast bullet worked OK in a 14 inch twist. A reworked Lee Bator was the mould. I think it's nominally 50, but I reamed the gas check lip off it. NOS moulds has some good .22 moulds.

Cratering is more a function of the fit of the firing pin in the breech face in the particular rifle. Trust your Quickload. My model says that your 40 grain bullet load can top out a little above 15 grains. You aren't even close yet.

Lil'Gun has a "fat tail" to the pressure-time curve. It works great in small rifles, because bullet velocity is a function of the integral under that curve. Lil'Gun keeps pushing a bit longer, so more velocity at lower peak pressures. And yes, I found that it wants to be up above 20,000 psi before it really performs.

[squirrel_slayer]

Interesting info Coach! I have learned to trust QL but don't consider it gospel either.

I measured my cases after fire forming and I was off on capacity. these are actually at 16.3gr avg so more of a 22k hornet than the bee. so getting close to max per QL but oddly the velocities aren't tracking as close as usual. I'm getting almost 100 ft/sec higher than calculated but it could have something to do with that progressive burn your mentioning.

lol yeah not quite 22lr territory right now, just can't seem to get the time to whip out a batch of bullets to try them out. I don't think I've fired up my pot in close to 9 months! missed the best casting season. going to be getting hot soon. :sour: (have a 1yr old that's been taking up most of my time. not a bad thing :) )

[Chrazy-Chris]

Great read! Those are much higher velocities than I would've expected. I may have missed it but have you considered making your own brass using the same method as forming 300 blackout from 223 brass? I've done it just for fun and it's super easy. Cut to approximate length, resize, and trim! Obviously you're moving a lot more brass during the resize step than I am with 300blk, but with the right lube you should be good. I suppose it may be a lot of extra wear and tear on your custom resizing die though.

Disclaimer! I have no experience making my own wildcats other than the simple 300blk process described above.

On a separate note, you may want to look at using a pistol length gas system with an adjustable block to get the AR to run. Maybe you can also design a block (I'm thinking delrin or polymer) to fit the rear of the buffer tube to keep the bolt from cycling all the way to the rear. Of course then you'd also need to figure out a way to customize your mags so that the bullets would stay seated all the way to the front as well. 20rd GI mags with their straight body should be friendly for slipping something in there to size. Fun project!

[squirrel_slayer]

This is actually done just like 300blk. it's a straight form, chop off excess, trim c&d, expand and load. the neck dimensions on the reamer were setup to accommodate the thick necks so no reaming or turning is required.

exnay on a pistol length gas (would leave no dwell time as the barrel will barely be beyond the gas block. i'm actually going to try a 2-2.5" gas system with a shortened gas tube. as for the gas block I will only go that route if I have to. i'm hoping to tailor the load to the gun rather than the gun to the load. and using a suppressor will hopefully help with subsonic operation.

not concerned with a buffer stop as with subs it's only .400 shorter than a .223 and hoping it will work from unmodified magazines(the feed by hand very nicely even if their all the way to the front. the long 80gr bullet keeps the case in the lips pretty well. with the supers i'm going to run ppsh mags with a mag adapter.

[Nor Cal Mikie]

Got my 20 TCM chambered barrels back from the smith. While I was waiting I was able to pick up a BUNCH of new 22 TCM brass. If anybody needs any, let me know.
My plan was to fire a few rounds, send the fired brass out and have custom dies made but I found a better way. And less $$ too!! Found a 22 TCM "bushing die" so it's a matter of setting it up with the proper bushings, loading up and going shooting.
While I was necking down a few cases, I ran into some 5.7 X 28 brass. Couldn't figure out why they wouldn't fit the shell holder. I remember now that a few pieces were sent to my to see what I thought about them. I prefer the TCM.
The New factory 22 TCM brass is a dream to work with. Should have dies in less than a week.

In the last few weeks, the rim fire bug bit. No competition, just gun building. Ordered up a Ruger 10/22 BR stock from a "inventory list" about a week ago and to my surprise, it showed up today. They didn't say yes or no if it was still in stock like I asked, it just showed up. Better than not getting it at all? Bedded the barrel and action this afternoon.
Got a heavy barrel about a week back and while I was ordering dies this morning, loaded up on ammo at the same time. Got enough things to keep me busy for a while and out of the bars.
Lots of finish work to do on the laminated stock but not as much as some that I've received.

[squirrel_slayer]

Got my 20 TCM chambered barrels back from the smith.

Nice! looking forward to seeing how it performs.

Being that I have zero sub 22 caliber experience aside from a 17hmr. what are you thoughts on "fun factor" ie. blowing little critters up with the sub calibers. are the 17's more dramatic in this respect or do the 20's hold their own? from playing with QL it's looking like 20gr bullets in the 17 will do somewhere in the 3750-3800 ft/sec range and the 20 was about 250 ft/sec behind that with a 32gr bullet.

good news about the bushing die. that will really make things a lot easier/cheaper.

[Nor Cal Mikie]

Come to think about it, I don't think I've ever killed anything with my center fire rigs. (except the doe that I didn't see behind the target stand and that was from a bullet that glanced off the frame) Use to shoot lots of ground squirrels. That was with a Ruger 10/22. From there I graduated up to a center fire Savage and I've been hooked ever since.
All I shoot now is paper and a five shot group must be covered with a dime. As far as speed? I don't bother to check. I just work up a load and when they're all going in the same hole, I move on to another caliber.
My favorite round was/is the .221 Fireball. I started working on a shorter version. Thought going down to 20 caliber would reduce recoil but that turned out to be a joke. The 20 VT didn't impress me much. A shorter version? Maybe. The TCM took over that position. Less powder = less recoil!!
I want to see my hits and if it will shoot bug holes, it's that much better. The 17 would even better but I figured I'd better get the 20 squared away before I bit into another caliber. Still got the 17 VHA but like seeing a pretty girl, my mind wandered to the TCM. Smaller calibers make for some touchy loading so you have to watch it close or you get in trouble real fast.

[Appleseed]

I started down this road with a savage action. Didn't find the .20vt to be any better than the standard .221fb. But, I changed actions to a CZ 527 and Sinarms made it a switch barrel. At the time the idea was to drop between the .20's and 17's.

I'm not doing much reloading now and will stick with the .223 and sell both the complete CZ 527 switch barrel and the Striker .221fb barrel. Devin machined both barrels. (Rifle is here in classified and striker barrels going to Specialty Pistols).

The savage action wasn't much fun trying to get it to cycle rounds, that's why the CZ...everything works from the magazine .221fb, .20vt and down to the .17's.

[Nor Cal Mikie]

Now, if you could put a barrel nut on a CZ?? That's the only shortcoming of working with a Remington, Howa, Cooper or ANY rifle that has to be set up by a smith.
And when the CZ feeds? Got to love it if it's just for that reason.

[Appleseed]

Yep, this is a smooth barrel nut like the new savage, with standard CZ metric threads. Any new barrel for CZ will screw on with head spacing, just like a savage. Use the .221fb mag for any cartridge with similar oal.

Check out the pics in classified non-savage rifles. It's going away soon to another small caliber web site. The pics are better quality by email. With all the smith work and the new McGowan barrel, it's less than a new one and has less than 100 rounds. Just not loading for the calibers now.

http://www.savageshooters.com/showthread.php?57929-CZ-527-221FB-Switch-Barrel

[squirrel_slayer]

sweet build! I like the CZ especially some of the wood stocks i've seen. The savage is working for my needs. yes it's far from a repeater but I have yet to venture into a dog town so it's a non issue for me right now.

one action that has really caught my attention is howa's new mini action. i'm willing to bet if you coned the bolt/barrel it would make for a great action for the shorty's