E

Stuart Otteson’s * ctions

BENCHREST ACTIONS & TRIGGERS

We’ve put together this collection of articles for the benchrest and accurate-gun enthusiast as a single handy source of information on the currently available actions and triggers.

These are the articles which have appeared in Rzye magazine; Stuart has gone over the material again before it was assembled for this book to insure that all data is correct. Anyone who has read Stuart’s columns and articles is familiar with his attention to detail and clarity in dealing with his subject. His background in engineer- ing enables him to produce such thorough, practical design studies. This reprint of his

series on actions and triggers is thereby made a useful source of material for anyone planning to build or buy an accurate rifle - or someone more than casually interested in what makes an accurate rifle.

The book opens with a chapter on determining the rigidity of actions. Nine actions are then analyzed and des- cribed in seven chapters. Four triggers, plus four conversions of the Remington trigger are similarly studied. There’s a chapter on the basics of benchrest triggers, and a chapter on determining lock time. Other chapters tell how to estimate barrel weight, and how to estimate the weight of the complete rifle.

This is a 62-page book about the size of our magazines, printed on coated stock, with soft covers. The regular price is $8.50, but until April 30, we are offering it at the pre-publication price of $7.00, postpaid. The books are available, so send your order now!

Arizona residents add 4% sales tax

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MARCH-APRIL 1983 3

(ISSN 001 7-7393)

DAVE WOLFE Publisher

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Published by Wolfe Publishing Co., Inc Dave Wolfe, President

Handloader The Journal of Ammunition Reloading

March-Ami1 1983 Volume 18, Number 2 P.O. Box 3030, Prescott, Arizona 86302

FEATURES: RCBS Big Max Press. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bob Hagel

.270 Weatherby Magnum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ken Waters

,220 Wotkyns-Wilson Arrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Layne Simpson

,220 Swift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Robert E Carroll

6.5mm Cartridges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AI Miller

Short Shells and Dense Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C P Barager

Light Hunting Bullets in the 7x57mm. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mike Venturino

Another Hunter's Handgun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gil Sengel

18

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28

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DEPARTMENTS: Reloader's Press. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Capital Watch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

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Wildcat Cartridges . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Loading Shot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Cartridge Board. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

Loading the Old Ones . . . . . . . . .49

Propellant Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . .66

The Handloader. Copyright 1983. is published bi-monthly by the Wolfe Publishing Company, Inc , P.O. Box 3030, Prescott. Arizona 86302. (Also publisher of Rifle Magazine.) Telephone (602) 445-781 0. Second Class Postage paid at Prescott. Arizona, and additional mailing offices. Subscription prices: U.S. possessions and Canada - single issue. $2.50; 6 issues, $13 00: 12 Issues. $25 00; 18 issues, $37.00. Foreign -single issue, $3.00; 6 issues, $16.00: 12 issues, $31 00; 18 issues, 546.00. Agvertising rates furnished on request. All rights reserved.

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ON THE COVER

With better barrels and bullets available these days, handloaders find that the once impossible one-hole group is now at least theoretically possible - but only with the greatest care and precision in hand- loading. Very good accuracy is possible without the precision of a tool like this for checking case necks. Photograph by James K Geddes

HANDLOADER 102

By Charles Suydam

Forgotten 2 2 s HE FIRST rifle chambered for a T .22 cartridge was probably a

Flobert salon (parlor) rifle chambered for the Flobert bulleted breech cap (BB cap) sometime after 1849, when he invented his breech-loading system. In the United States, the Flobert cap was modified to the number-one pistol car tridge - also known as the .22 Short rimfire - by Smith 8c Wesson, used in a number of pistols and revolvers circa 1858 to 1871, but not known in any rifle of that period. The .22 Long rimfire was developed circa 1871 and was soon chambered in a rifle, al- though just which rifle was the first to be so chambered is unknown.

The first reloadable centerfire .22 rifle cartridge may have been that

Not all of the actual cartridges were available for this picture, but Dave LeGate has illus- trated them to scale, using the dimensions in the table below. For comparison, the .22 Hornet (1) is shown with the .22 Maynard Extra Long (2), .22 WCF (3), .22-15-60 (4), and .22 U S Navy Experimental (5) of 1895. Only two hundred fifty of the .22 USN were made for testing. The source for the rifle illustration states only that it was a .22, but it is likely that this fancy schuetzen Model 1885 Winchester was chambered for the .22 WCF.

thick-headed Model 1873 Maynard .22-10-45, of which a few specimens exist, but no irrefutable evidence for their authenticity is known, and their existence is generally clouded by the old Scots verdict not pmven. Even if they are not authentic - if there is no genuine .22 Maynard Model 1873 rifle or cartridge - Doctor Edward Maynard can still be credited with the first centerfire .22 rifle cartridge: the .22-8-45 Extra Long for his Model 1882 rifle. This cartridge had a 1.40- inch case, was originally primed with the tiny Number-0 primer, and was

.22 Hornet

diameter of rim diameter of base diameter of neck diameter of bullet length of case length over-all weight of bullet charge (black powder)

1

L

16

0.342 in. 0.295 0.242 0.220 1.39 1.71 40 to 55 gr __._

~~

.22WCF .22 Maynard XL G-15-60 .22 fi 0.342 in. 0.295 0.241 0.228 1.39 1.61 45,46 gr 13 gr

0.310 in. 0.252 0.252 0.228 1.17 1.40 45 gr 8to10gr

0.342 in. 0.265 0.243 0.226 2.01 2.26 60 gr 15 gr

0.512 in. 0.430 0.252 0.225 2.745 3.471 1 12 to 120 gr

? I

HANDLOADER 102

loaded with eight to ten grains of FFFg or FFFFg black powder, which propelled a forty-five-grain lead bullet to about eleven hundred feet per second. The Maynard rifle died in 1890, but this one Maynard cartridge had a second life; it was transformed in 1918 by Galand of Paris to the 5.5mm Velo-Dog revolver cartridge. Loaded with a forty-five-grain bullet and smokeless powder - in the United States, too, by Winchester Repeating Arms company and Union Metallic Cartridge Company - it was chambered in a wide variety of small, short-barreled revolvers, theoretically for the benefit of bicycle riders as protection against ferocious dogs. Even this version was outdated after World War Two.

Next came the .22 WCF - the .22-13-45 Winchester Center Fire, that is - of 1885, introduced for and with the Winchester-Browning single-shot rifle of that year. This is probably the longest-lived and most popular of the three pioneer .22 cartridges. I t was chambered not only in the Winchester single-shot from 1885 to 1920 or later and reportedly in some late Model 1873 Winchesters but also in the Ballard Number Three gallery rifle in about 1886 to 1891 (where it cost a dollar extra) and in the Remington- Hepburn Number Three rifle (1886 to 1906) and their fancy and rare Number Seven rollingblock rifle (1904 to 1906). This cartridge also went to Europe, where it became known as the 5.6x35mm Rimmed Vierling, was loaded to higher velocities than the United States loads were (thirty-nine- grain bullets a t 2,630 feet per second by RWS and forty-six-grain bullets a t 2,030 feet per second by DWM), and reached considerable popularity as the kleinkaliberluuf cartridge for drillings, vierlings, and bockdn’llings. For those who aren’t familiar with the nomenclature of German combination guns, these are, repectively, two shot barrels over a rifle barrel, two shot barrels over a large-bore rifle barrel with a small-bore barrel in the center, and a single shot barrel over a rifle barrel with a small-bore barrel along the side. I t might also have been used in (are you ready for this?) a bock- doppelflinte mit seitlichem kleinkali- berlauf - an over-and-under shotgun with a small-bore rifle barrel along the side. In addition, it was used in a number of target arms - sharfshutz- karabinern, tellbuchsen, and others. Smokeless and semismokeless loads had copper-jacketed (full-patch, soft- point, and hollow-point) and lead bullets; black-powder loads had lead bullets only. In the United States, the

.22 WCF was modified slightly to become the .22 Hornet.

The last of the three precursors by about ten years was the .22-15-60 Stevens, chambered from 1896 to 1904, 1910, or later in several varia- tions of the Stevens 44 and 44?h Ideal rifles - frequently a t an extra charge of two dollars. This twenty-two had a long, slightly tapered case and was the smallest of the four Stevens small-bore rifle cartridges (.22-15-60, .25-21-86, .25-25-86, and .28-30-120), all with long, tapered cases designed by prominent shooters of the period. Although it is of technical interest today, it was not highly popular in its time because of high primer‘ and powder fouling. Either the 2 2 WCF or a larger Stevens cartridge was pre- ferable.

I might as well mention another .22 cartridge here - it was never loaded commercially, is generally unknown today, and specimens are extremely rare, but it was coeval with the other three and far exceeds them in length, bullet weight, and power. This is the .22 U S Navy experimental cartridge

of 1895, which had a tinned-brass bottle-necked rimmed case 2.745 inches long (compared to 2.315 inches for the Krag), was slightly smaller in rim and head diameters than the Krag. The powder charge is unknown, but the muzzle velocity for a hundred- twenty-grain cupronickel-steel-j acketed, lead-core bullet was about twenty-six hundred feet per second. The trials were not extensive, and the navy soon adopted a .236 (6mm) rifle and car- tridge.

Why reminisce about these old and long-forgotten cartridges, for which neither a chamber nor a load is now current? Two possible reasons: they were precursors of several small-bore modern cartridges and thus carry some residual interest if not import- ance; then there is the current tendency to look back to the “fun” shooting of an earlier age and to shoot those guns and (sometimes) cartridges again today. These old twenty-twos offer a challenge to those persons who don’t have to be knocked askew on the bench, if not off it, by super-recoil loads to find fun in shooting. 0

-1 :zy/;;:: 341 Starr Road, Cortland, NY 13045

MARCH-APRIL 1983

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HE .25 HORNET turned out to be T quite a specialized cartridge when it was chambered in a Contender. The rifling pitch in available barrels, which limited accuracy a t under two thousand feet per second to only one jacketed bullet, and lack of any light, off-the-shelf cast bullets guarantee that it will never set any sales records for custom-built handguns.

Yet with proper loads, the little twenty-five still propels a sixty-grain bullet a t high handgun velocities and a

seventy-five-grain a t medium and low velocities with very fine accuracy. It is simple to form cases for, and hand- loading it requires no special die. I t can hit harder, shoot flatter, and be less wind-sensitive than the .22 Win- chester Magnum Rimfire, making it a fine cartridge for the handgunner who needs only one accurate load combination for edible game and one for longer-range varmint shooting.

The twenty-two cartridge discussed in this article, however, has many

1 2 3 4 5

Sengel’s wildcat .22-6-40 (3) surpasses the .22 Long Rifle ( I ) and can duplicate the ballistics of the .22 WMR (2), with the accuracy, reloadability, and improved bullet upset of the .22 Remington jet (4 ) and .22 Hornet (5).

more accurate load combinations to choose from but is somewhat more difficult to form and load. I t can be made to duplicate all of the .22 Long Rifle loads available, or if filled with WW-296 to the base of the bullet, can exceed any twenty-two rimfire car- tridge that has ever been. This includes the .22 WMR. Not such a difficult trick, you say, but if accuracy can also be made to exceed that of many .22 rimfire rifles, the idea becomes a lot more interesting. If we spend a few moments pondering the idea, it seems so logical that someone should have thought of it before. In fact, someone did.

While I don’t know who that first someone was, it seems that the idea of a small twenty-two centerfire having slightly greater power than the .22 Long Rifle is some forty years old. That long ago, there was nothing between the .22 Long Rifle and the Hornet except the .22 Winchester Rimfire and its twin the .22 Reming- ton Special. This case was about a tenth of an inch shorter than the present .22 WMR and fired bullets weighng forty and forty-five grains a t velocities of fourteen hundred feet per second from rifle-length barrels. Un- fortunately, the cartridge was never developed to the point that its flat-

MARCH-APRIL 1983 3 7

41- Gt. COLBIN euu

nose bullet would shoot as accurately as the .22 Long Rifle. This, combined with the fact that few rifles were chambered for it, virtually guaranteed that it would never become popular. The introduction of the longer-cased .22 WMR in 1959 closed the book on the .22 WRF for good.

Getting back to the rimfire-duplicat- ing centerfire, it seems that early experimenters were not so much interested in a rifle cartridge as in one to be used in converted .22 Long Rifle revolvers. What could possibly have been the reason for such a revolver has so far eluded me. Perhaps the owners realized that the Long Rifle cartridge was not exactly a star performer in handguns and were trying to do some- thing about that lack. Such shooters may have been dedicated small-game hunters who had taken a liking to the compact, easily carried handgun. If so, it’s too bad that the accurate single-shot centerfire pistol had yet to be developed as a basis for their idea.

Since it does not take much in the way of propellant to launch forty-grain bullets at rimfire velocities, a large case wasn’t needed. The smallest centerfire rimmed case then available was the .22 Hornet; the new cartridge was created by shortening it. Things have not changed a bit today, and the little Hornet case is still the best start- ing point for an idea such as this one. Information on these wildcats is, of course, scarce. Therefore, the only thing to do is to determine the maxi- mum velocity wanted with a specific bullet, select a quantity of the powder that you determine will give this velocity, and chamber a barrel for a case holding this powder charge.

While this sounds as though it would require a visit to the local palm reader and at least a couple of sacri- fices to a stagnant pool, i t is not really all that hopeless. The powder charges can be deduced from standard Hornet loadings using cast bullets. If a more certain method is desired before plunk- ing down the money for a chamber reamer, checking P 0 Ackley’s Hand- book for Shooters and Reloaders generally provides something close to what is needed. I have found that all the illustrations I have checked are very close to full size, thus allowing direct measurements. He does not let us down in this case and lists two shortened wildcats on Hornet cases for use in converted revolvers.

Checking the powder charges seems to indicate that a lot of powder is being burned for the velocities

38

.E

@ THROAT

Sengel found that bullets swaged into empty .22 rimfire hulls (left) were the .22-6-40’s best for low-velocity loads and the forty-grain Speer best for loads producing high velocities.

achieved, perhaps because of the normal six-inch length of revolver barrels and the barrel-cylinder gap. As I would be using a ten-inch Contender barrel for this cartridge, things should work out a bit more efficiently and the case length held to one inch.

First, however, the body had to be made to fit the correct powder charge. Since Hercules 2400 is always loaded in small cases, this powder would determine the size of the powder chamber. I still couldn’t shake the idea of Ackley’s 8.8 to 9.5-grain powder charges being too high and opted for a six-grain body capacity. Besides, if I turned out to be wrong, WW-296 is available today and would bail me out with an added grain or so

fitting into the same space as the Hercules 2400. This capacity also allows a catchy title for the little car- tridge in the form of .22-6-40, indicat- ing caliber, powder weight, and bullet weight in grains.

While I like sloping case shoulders, my fondness for them runs second to that for long necks. If case length was going to be around one inch, the shoulder would have to be sharp. The resultant case looks a lot like the SCP

called “improved” design except for the long neck. That neck is really only 0.350 inch from case mouth to the beginning of the forty-degree shoulder, but it looks longer because of the short body of the case.

All in all, the first prototypes looked

Sengel started with the .22 Hornet case (1 ) and a .222 Remington die and annealing it (3). and turned the neck

HANDLOADER 102

pretty good but required a bit of adjusting of the body to accommodate the powder charge. I ordered a reamer and when it arrived, I chambered a bull barrel for the cartridge. Ordinar- ily, a case that has been shortened, blown out, etc would require one or more special forming dies to produce. When working i t out, however, I was determined that this was not to be the case here, since cost prevents a lot of people from owning otherwise useful wildcats.

The only die needed to form cases is a full-length sizer for the .222 Remington. The angle of the .222 Remington’s shoulder allows the brass of the Hornet case to flow past it and into the neck of the die. Of course, the Hornet case is much shorter than the .222 Remington, and something must be made to push it up into the die. This tool is shown in the illustrations. It is an easy lathe project that should take an experienced operator only ten minutes or so.

The dimensions of this extender (or whatever you want to call it) are not critical, since final adjustments are made with the sizing die. Mine is 0.900 inch long with a body diameter of 0.300 inch. The rim on the head end of the device is cut to a loose fit of a 2 2 2 Remington shell holder, though there is no reason why it could not be made for a Hornet shell holder instead. The extender is not made exactly like a cut-off .222 Remington case, because we don’t want its steel sides rubbing against the walls of the die. A small button, on the end that pushes against the base of the case, fits into the primer pocket. I t is a few thousandths of an inch smaller than the inside diameter of the pocket so as not to fit tight. I ts only purpose is rough align-

L

Sengel’s bullets swaged into empty rimfire cases make this kind of group when their velocities are kept under fourteen hundred feet per second. Sengel says that they’re the most effective bullets that he has ever used for velocities in this range.

b

Sengel describes this extender in the body of his article. He uses it to push .22 Hornet cases into a .222 Remington die to push shoulders back.

1 2 3 4 5 6

Bullets longitudinally sectioned are Sengel’s (1 ) in jackets made from rimfire cases, forty-grain Speer (2), and fifty-grain Sierra (3). The

thicker jackets and smaller points of the factory bullets make them poor for low velocities. Sengel‘s .22-6-40 Contender didn’t stabilize the

fifty-five-grain RCBS cast bullet ( 4 1 , ~ he modified it to fifty (5) and forty grains (6). Home-swaged bullets (7) performed very well indeed.

.22-6-40 Contender * bullet powder

41-gr Corbin Unique 40-gr Sierra 40-gr Speer

Herco 2400

WW-296

45-gr Speer Unique

Herco

2400

H-110

WW-296

charge @rains)

2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0

3.0

6.0 6.5 7.0

7.0 7.5 8.0

2.5 4.0 4.2

3.0 4.0

5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0

7.0 7.5

7.0 7.5

velocity (IPS)

1,310 1,472 1,633 1,843

1,431

1,714 1,825 1,969

1,974 2,037 2,085

1,204 1,754 1,838

1,446 1,609

1,529 1,653 1,716 1,915

1,759 1,938

1,779 2,035

most accurate low-velocity load

case full best accuracy with Herco

case full; best 2400 accuracy

case full ; maximum pressure

case full; maximum pressure

case full; maximum pressure

case full; maximum pressure

case full ; maximum pressure; very accurate

.‘data for use in Contender only; not for use in converted .22 rirnfire revolvers firing similar cartridges. Velocities instrumental at ten feet from muzzle of ten-inch Contender bull barrel

MARCH-APRIL 1983 39

One piece stainless steel cleaning rod. With lifetime guarantee.

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RIG@ PRODUCTS, DEFT. H P.O. Box 1990

Sparks, Nevada 89432-1990 L (E) 1982 MITANN INC

The following supplements, and new ones to follow, are made available every six months (in January and June], containing reprints of the latest "Pet Loads" articles from Handloader magazine. These are either new cartridge listings, o r up-dates of previously covered cartridges, keeping the main volume current. The articles are printed in their entirety, with pages specially numbered and punched to permit easy insertion intn the binder. They are sold only a s sets shown here, with prices based on the number of pages in the whole supplement, Prices include postage. Please order by supplement number.

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ment and to keep the case from easily falling off.

In use, the extender is slipped into the shell holder, and a Hornet case is set on top. The die, with decapping stem removed, is adjusted down so that it pushes the shoulder back a bit. As the case mouth touches the inside of the die, the press handle is shaken sideways very slightly to vibrate the extender and case into proper align- ment with the die. A slow steady push then moves the shoulder of the lubed case back as far as the die setting allows.

Adjust the die down until the case shoulder is within about a thirty- second of an inch of its final location. Note that no provision is made for removing the case from the die. A special punch could be made, but I use a large nail that just slips inside the case mouth; its end is filed flat and square. A few light taps with a small hammer pushes the case out of the die into your hand. The excess neck length must now be removed.

Incidentally, removing a large amount of brass in forming operations of this kind where there is not really enough length to use a tubing cutter, yet too much for the ordinary bench trimmer, can become quite tedious. I have found that a coarse (60 to 80-grit) disc for my bench-model disc sander melts away a quarter inch of case length in less time than it takes to tell it. Taking much more than this causes the case to become too hot to hold. After rough trimming, the case is brought to final length on a standard trimmer. The final adjustment is now made to the forming die.

By trying a case in the gun, while adjusting the die down a bit a t a time, you reach a point where the gun just closes. I t is then necessary to set the die down a quarter turn more. This pushes the shoulder back approxi- mately 0.020 inch farther than neces- sary but is done for a reason that I will explain in a moment. With the die now adjusted to its final position, all cases can be formed in one pass from the basic 2 2 Hornet and trimmed to length. Now it's time to get out the annealing equipment.

The Hornet case has been shortened a great deal, and the neck on the wildcat has pushed the neck-shoulder junction down farther yet. It is now well into the tapering portion of the original case walls, giving the wildcat case a neck with thicker walls a t its base than a t its mouth. To even things up, this extra thickness must be removed. This could be done with an inside neck reamer, but I prefer mtside neck turning, because the tool

is adjustable. Since the neck was formed by a die having straight neck walls, this excess brass is now on the inside of the neck and must be brought to the outside to be turned-off by the tool.

The first step is to anneal the case down just past the shoulder. Properly done, it provides a dead-soft case neck that does not spring back more in the thick areas than the thin, thus leaving the inside diameter of the case neck uniform from mouth to shoulder when the expander button of the .222 Remington die is pushed through the neck. Once expanded, the excess brass is on the outside of the case neck and can be readily removed with the outside neck turner.

Turning is continued until the cutter just touches the shoulder of the case, which you will remember has been set back 0.020 inch farther than neces- sary to chamber fully. This was done to allow for the shape of the cutter of the neck-turning tool. As with any metal-cutting tool, its cutting edge must be rounded if it is to cut smoothly and provide good cutting life before requiring sharpening. If the cutter happens to be quite rounded, it strikes the shoulder of the case just a bit before the neck wall has been turned down to exactly the neck- shoulder junction. This leaves a ring of brass a t this point, which is of greater diameter than the rest of the neck by a few thousandths of an inch, and causes no end of problems when you're trying to chamber a cartridge using only the thumb, as in a single- shot rifle or handgun. Thus the setting-back of the shoulder before turning.

Let me hasten to add that when neck-turning standard factory cases to true-up the neck walls, or to thin those that have become a bit thick through much use, the normal chamber toler- ances take care of the situation just described without the need to set back the shoulder. Obviously this can not be done on any rimless case, as they headspace on the shoulder. It is a situation that occurs only when a parent case has been shortened a great deal, the new wildcat design uses a fairly sharp shoulder, and the chamber for the new case has very close tolerances - the so-called tight neck. With this cartridge, we are turning many times more brass off the base of the neck than would ever be necessary with any factory case. I t is simply a ,

good example of situations encoun- tered by wildcatters who stray far from the beaten path. As a point of reference, I turn case walls for the 22-6-40 to 0.009 inch, which leaves a loaded round only a little over a thou- sandth of an inch to expand before

40 HANDLOADER 102

touching the chamber-neck walls in my handgun.

Once neck turning has been' com- pleted, the cases can be loaded with normal loads. The first firing straightens the body walls and forms the forty-degree shoulder. Bullseye and Cream of Wheat loads or the lightest jacketed bullet loads do not do this and again reflect the thicker, tougher brass encountered in re- forming a case to this extent. After fire-forming, however, you have a case that is virtually indestructible a t the pressures to which I load the cartridge. And speaking or pres- sures, the same maximum pressure indication was used with this cartridge as used with the .25 Hornet. That is, the same lot of Win- chester Small Pistol primers were used in loadings that were increased until very slight cratering was noticed around the firing-pin indentation on the primer.

Admittedly, this is an arbitrary way to determine top loads. How it was arrived-at was discussed in my earlier article. I make no claim as to what specific pressure this indicates nor that it is a maximum load in the

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general sense of the term. It is just where I stopped adding powder. I do know for a fact, however, that so long as powder charges do not exceed those given that primer pockets stay tight indefinitely, and cases do not require full-length sizing. Neck sizing to the base of the seated bullet using the .222 Remington die and extender is all that is required in my chamber.

When i t comes to seating bullets, things don't work out so easily. While it is possible to use the .222 Reming- ton seating die with a flat-topped extender for this task, there is no way to remove the cartridge should it stick slightly in the die. To get around this, I made up a benchrest-type seating die just like the one described in Rifle 75, with one exception: instead of cutting the recess for the body of the car- tridge with a special reamer, I simply drilled it out a bit larger from the bottom to the neck-shoulder junction. A rim recess was then cut in the bottom of the die - just like chamber- ing a barrel - but only a thousandth of an inch larger in diameter than my lot of Hornet rims. Thus the case is aligned a t both neck and base. While it is not as precise as the benchrest die, I have used this idea many times when other dies were not available. It is suitable, of course, only for rimmed cartridges used in single-shots, not in the lever-actions whose extractors chew and batter case rims.

I t certainly was. From the very f i s t range session, it was obvious that here was an idea that never should have been allowed to die with those few revolvers so many years ago. The car- tridge does all that was expected of it, combining the rimfires' low noise and nonexistent recoil with outstanding handgun accuracy and bullet perform- ance superior to any rimfire. I t is very seldom that a wildcat is discovered (or rediscovered) that fills a niche in the existing cartridge line-up so well.

Unlike the .25 Hornet, the .22-6-40 has never shown any tendency toward erratic behavior. After about a hundred jacketed bullets had passed down its new fourteen-inch-twist barrel, groups of under an inch at fifty yards became common. A portion of this can be attributed to the fine Redfield scope, as my eyes are not capable of holding that closely using iron sights.

Since the original intent of this wild- cat was to duplicate .22 Long Rifle and .22 WMR loadings in a more accurate and reloadable form, jacketed bullets of forty and forty-five grains were the only ones tested. This is logical con- sidering that velocities are under two thousand feet per second. At such

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speeds, it is necessary to use as lightly constructed a bullet as can be found to achieve reliable expansion. Since I had several boxes of forty-five-grain Speers on hand, loading began by working up loads for this bullet.

In such a small-capacity case, only standard-force Small Pistol primers are needed. One may also be tempted to think that only the fastest-burning powders would be suitable given the finely ground propellant used in the rimfires. This turned out not to be the case. Starting with two Hercules powders, Unique and Herco, I found that a caseful of each amounted to some 4.2 grains. This gave the forty- five-grain Speer 1,838 feet per second with the Unique load and two hundred feet per second less for Herco. Accu- racy was very near my requirement of one-inch groups at fifty yards.

These velocities are much higher than those obtained with .22 Long Rifle loads, so to duplicate these, I tried several faster-burning shotgun powders with not only the heavier Speer but also forty-grain bullets from both Sierra and Speer. As it turned out, this did not work at all. Appar- ently, these powders (Red Dot, 700-X, etc) are too dirty or a t least leave in the bore some deposit that effects the small bullets.

This phenomenon was demonstrated quite dramatically one afternoon after I’d fired a batch of cartridges loaded with Red Dot. The final group mea- sured two and three eighths inches at fifty yards. I was beginning to think that something was wrong with the gun - or the shooter - as this per- formance had been common throughout the testing session. Since the chronograph was set-up, I decided to shoot a couple of groups with the forty-five-grain Speer and three grains of Unique. This load had shot well under an inch before but had not been chronographed. I started on a new target without cleaning the barrel; the first bullet struck about an inch left of the approximate center of the earlier groups. The second shot printed near the center, with the remaining three clustering around it for a thirteen- sixteenths-inch four-shot group. The next group was nearly as small and contained no flier. After repeating this test and getting similar results, I dropped the trap-load powders.

A quick glance at the load tables shows that these powders will not be missed. If low velocity is wanted with the forty-five-grain bullet, 2.5 grains of Unique does just fine with groups averaging right a t an inch in my pistol for the fifty-yard range. Higher velocity can also be had with excellent accuracy by using a case full of 2400,

42 HANDLOADER 102

H-110, or W-296. While H-110 did not shoot quite so well in my Contender as 2400 and W-296 did, this may well be turned around in another pistol. None of the three shot well in loads produc- ing less than sixteen hundred feet per second, but then we have Unique and Herco to take care of that range. The velocity champ was logically W-296 with 7.5 grains giving 2,035 feet per second and printing groups that averaged 25/32 inch.

The bullet that the little cartridge is really designed for, however, is one weighing forty grains. Here, I had three to choose from - one by Sierra, one by Speer, and one made by myself in Corbin dies (of which I will say more later). Of these, one shot a bit better than the others with all load combina- tions and a t all velocities. This was the forty-grain Speer 0.224-inch- diameter spire-point.

For this weight of bullet, there is really no need for any powder but Hercules Unique. At all velocities from thirteen hundred to eighteen hundred feet per second, accuracy was excellent. Herco runs a very close second here and fills-up the case a bit better in low-velocity loads, as it is slower-burning than Unique, thus fequiring a slightly heavier charge to achieve equal velocities. The load that I use for most all my small-game hunting with the .22-6-40 consists of either Sierra or Speer forty-grain bullets and three grains of Unique. At just over 1,470 feet per second, either bullet groups around three quarters of an inch a t fifty yards if the shooter does his part.

At higher velocities, the pistol's preference changes to favor slower- burning powders. A case full of Hercules 2400 amounts to seven grains and gives an average 1,969 feet per second. Winchester W-296 again holds the edge, with eight grains fitting behind the forty-grain bullet for a velocity of 2,085 feet per second. Perhaps I am unreasonably awed by performance like this from a handgun, but accuracy with both loads is as good as your hold on the pistol. Many three-shot groups go into one ragged hole a t fifty yards when fired off sand- bags. A small-game hunter could not ask for more.

Since the Speer and Sierra have fairly tough jackets, considering the velocities achieved by this handgun,

.22 WMR rifle in performance but not bullet destructiveness. While I don't think that all that speed is necessary for edible small game, the reduction in the explosive effect of the bullet when compared with the magnum rimfire is quite noticeable. I t is definitely a step

?

b

i

( we have succeeded in duplicating the

in the right direction for those who favor fast little bullets and their accompanying flat trajectories.

But what about those who like .22 Long Rifle,velocities just fine and are looking to the wildcat for greater accuracy and better bullet per- formance? The greater accuracy is there all right; however, impact per- formance can't be improved with the bullets mentioned so far. Flat-nose cast bullets would be a big help, but no one to my knowledge offers moulds for a forty-grain bullet of this type. I did experiment with a collet arrangement for my lathe to reduce fifty-five-grain bullets from an RCBS mould to forty grains. They work well, but it is a terrific amount of work. Unfortu- nately, the rifling pitch of one turn in fourteen inches would not stabilize the fifty-five-grain bullets a t the velocities obtainable with the .22-6-40.

By far the best solution that I have found is a jacketed bullet made in Corbin dies, using fired .22 rimfire cases as jackets. Since bullet swaging is much too long a subject to go into here, I will simply say this bullet is made exactly like any other swaged jacketed bullet. I t is pushed into the point-forming die only far enough to produce an open point of 0.175 inch outside diameter. To do this, a 34.7- grain core is first seated inside a jacket 0.440 inch long.

This bullet really works. At twelve to fourteen hundred feet per second, it kills reliably to as far as hits are possible. I ts performance on small game a t low velocities is so superior to that of the standard .22 Long Rifle bullet that there is really no compari- son. If care is taken in sorting jackets, weighing cores, etc, accuracy can be nearly as good as with store-bought bullets. My last batch averaged 13/16 inch a t fifty yards when propelled by 2.5 grains of Unique. This bullet does become overly destructive and sheds its jacket upon impact a t velocities over fourteen hundred feet per second, though this can be controlled somewhat by decreasing the size of the cavity in the nose.

So there it is: another interesting cartridge that can add a lot of fun and tremendous new opportunities for the handgun hunter, but should he be the only one to enjoy it? The .25 Hornet was once a popular rifle chambering, and modern powders should make it even more so today. Likewise, this rediscovered twenty-two looks as though it could be an interesting round for smallbore riflemen who like milder-mannered cartridges than the current varmint cartridges. Yes, the more that one thinks about it, the better the idea sounds. 4

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