My New Wildcat 22 Cal

[Hotolds442]

I'm also using the .473 bolt face with Lapua brass in my 6mm version. No issues as of yet with feeding, extraction, or ejection.

[sixonetonoffun]

Thanks guys. A friend and I have been considering this though personally I am still torn between the 224 & 6mm.

Having a .223 thats faster then a 22-250 and shoots 77-90gr pills has a lot of appeal to me.

The 6mm arguably would explode woodchucks as well and could do double duty as a backup deer rifle with confidence.

[Hotolds442]

I'm pushing a 105 Hornady HPBT at 3350 in the 6mm version with a 24" barrel. Definitely can do duty as a backup deer rifle.
I can't imagine what it'd do with a 55 grain Nosler.

[BTSniper]

It's getting that time of year when it cools off and I get out to do a lot of shooting. I have a couple of the 22x55 barrels all set to go and will be testing soon.

So I am reloading some 6.5x55 ammo the other day and I'm experimenting a bit using different seating dies to see if I can get less run out of the seated bullets. I happened to use a 30-06 seating die made by CH-4d. What I found was that the 30-06 seating die perfectly sized down the base of my 6.5x55 brass. Not as much as the 6.5x55 FL sizing die but just the right amount for my CBI 6.5x55 Match chamber.

So I got to thinking....... The challenge with the 22 errorder is being able to correctly FL size the brass after it has been fired formed. Yes we use the 22BR FL die to bump the shoulder back but sizing down the base of the brass....... I don't know of any dies yet for the task short of having a custom die made to match. But! knowing that the 30-06 seating die did quite well at sizing down the base of my "standard" 6.5x55 brass I wonder....... would a 30-06 AI seating die (or any of the -06 variants, 280 AI, 25-06 AI etc.) be the perfect die to size down the base of the 22 errorder?

I wonder????

Anyone with this 22x55 barrel (aka 22 errorder) also have a set of -06 AI dies?

Good shooting

BT

[scope eye]

I have a set of 22-06 AI dies I can do a solid for you and see if I can get into trouble.

Dean

[scope eye]

Update the case is too short and bottoms out before reaching the shoulder. sorry bud


Dean

[scope eye]

I read the post and yes it does work for seating the the bullet, I don't know if there is less run out. I don't have a 22X55 seater so I was seating them with my 22-243 Middlestead seater and it worked fine.

Dean

[BTSniper]

OK.... lets see then...... lets still use the 22br FL die for bumping the shoulder and sizing the neck, I'm not worried about that, but when we fire the same piece of brass with hot loads eventually the base (just above the extractor groove) will swell eventually making it a "very snug" fit in the chamber. We simply need to sized down this base area to get back to easy insertion into the chamber again. We don't need to resize this base after every firing, just when needed, like neck sizing brass. Maybe we get 5-10 firings or so out of neck sizing in the 22br die before we will need to bump shoulder and size down base, but eventually I'm sure we will need to size down that base again.

Yep the 6.5x55 case will bottom out in any -06 AI sizing die. No I'm not trying to size the mouth, neck or shoulder, not even seat a bullet. My thinking and hopes is that a -06 AI "Seater" die will size down the base of the 22x55 brass just a touch to get it from say the .480 of a well used piece of brass back down to around .475ish of the 6.5x55 base.

Obviously the seater dies are not meant to resize brass but because the seater dies are larger then the FL sizing dies it just may work. Typical -06 base is supposed to be around .473 so the seater die will be slightly larger then this. Our lupua 6.5 brass is obviously closer to .480 as it should be. So.... I think if we find any -06 AI "Seater" die we may just have a winner for matching the 22br deep chambered 22 errorder we have here. My CH-4d 30-06 die does a good job sizing down the base to around .475 but the angle of the side walls for the brass is wrong since it is not a AI die, I may have to find me a AI seater die and give it a try, all we are trying to do is size down the base a little so when insertion gets difficult and closing the bolt becomes sticky we have a fix.

BT

[BTSniper]

Dean,

Did you try the 22-06AI FL die or seater die?

BT

[BTSniper]

Shot my 22x55AI (aka 22 Eroder) today.

28" 12 twist barrel with 69 grain Sierras.

No problem stabilizing the bullet in the 12 twist (1000' elevation, 45 degrees and high pressure weather) since the bullet was cruising along at 3965 fps!

Used a load of 51.7 grains Alliant 4000mr to get this fps, made for a nice small group of about .4" at 100 yrds, I was just getting settled in as the last two shots went threw the same hole, only had 10 rounds of these 69 grain pills loaded up.

I like the 4000mr powder in this cartridge so far, it has a burn rate close to RL-19 from what I can tell, yet smaller kernels.

With lighter 52 grain and 60 grain bullets I tried RL-22 but felt the larger kernels created high pressure problems. Also tried H-414 but it seemed a bit fast with a pretty sharp kick. I did get impressive FPS but when things got really fast accuracy seemed to suffer.

Here are some impressive FPS I have gotten so far, keep in mind usual precautions and that I got this 28" 12 twist barrel Nitride processed which might account for a couple extra 100 fps. These are still probably over pressured a bit and for utmost accuracy with these 52-60 grain bullets they seemed to shoot better at 100-200fps slower then top speeds I have listed here. I'm not going for all out speed here, much more interested in accuracy but with a case like this....... You don't buy a Ferrari do drive slow :)

52 grain SMK @ 4300fps with H414

60 grain Nosler BT @ 4175 with 4000mr

60 grain Nosler BT @4130 with RL-22

69 grain SMK @ 3965 with 4000mr


I know I smoked a couple of the 60 grain Noslers with the RL-22 and didn't go any further. I think there might be some more potential with the 69 grain pills and 4000mr powder as I have only tried two loads and 10 rounds so far but was very impressed with accuracy, best so far!

Next I have some Nosler custom comp 80 grain bullets to try. I want to try some Ramshot Magnum powder with these or possibly even a heavier bullet. Do have a 9 twist to try these in as well if the 12 can't handle it.

Also reinforced the data that pressure is increased by quite a bit in a clean barrel with bit of gun oil in the barrel and chamber as my first couple rounds showed a good bit of pressure (ejector mark) but the last four rounds (even at 1.7 additional grains of powder) didn't show as much pressure (no ejector marks).

Think I'm only at about 100 rounds down the tube and certainly like the look of the 69 grain SMK load with 4000mr powder @ 3965fps!

Just getting into shooting season over here so hope to get more range results at longer distances soon!

BT

[scooterf79]

Very nice....that speed is awesome.....and the accuracy to boot. I'd forgotten about this thread. Interested to see what your end results are.
Keep us posted.
Scooter