Lee 225-55-RF

Topics concerning individual handgun & rifle bullet designs, buckshot, and shotgun slugs.
Ohio3Wheels
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Re: Lee 225-55-RF

Post by Ohio3Wheels »

That is decidedly petite what's it weigh?

Make smoke,
Curt.......makin' smoke and raising my carbon foot print one cartridge at a time +guns +guns
orerancher
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Re: Lee 225-55-RF

Post by orerancher »

Mold got Here on Friday, Got It hot on Saturday...
That Sprue cutter Handel sure is Nifty!

Castin .22's ain't any harder then .45's...You Guys had Me worried... :D

But 10lbs of Lead goes alot further....
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Re: Lee 225-55-RF

Post by Jeff H »

Chickenthief wrote:.17 is when it get's small ;-)..................
I'm sorry, Chickenthief, but as much a brother in casting and LEE stuff as I consider you and anyone on this forum, the first word that popped into my head when I saw your bullets was "masochist." ;)

To be honest, your 17s look better than my 22s, and I think fairly highly of my own 22s and know what it took to master the learning curve. It wasn't horrible, but it takes a little more effort than anything .30" and up - at least for me. Your 17s look amazing. I just don't have the guts to mess with anything smaller than 22s. I admit - it's exciting to see someone is pulling that off.

My "voodoo" for 22s is that I cast only with aluminum 6C moulds and only cast using two; the subject LEE 225-55 and Michael's own 50 grain. "6C" is part of my method. I have several 2C iron moulds but don't use them any more. I use mosly straight, unquenched wheel weights and cast fast and don't stop and don't inspect while casting. Heat - more heat than many preach, something like 750F, but the "fast" part keeps the mould hotter than what is necessary for bigger bullets. Don't inspect, but keep an eye on what's falling out of the mould.

If I start to get wasp-waisted bullets with frosty mid-sections, I slow down just a little until that clears up. I find that taking just enough time to spoon the ugly ones out and return them to the pot for a few cycles slows me down just enough. I usually just run these two moulds when doing 22s. This is with a bottom-pour, and I find that method works much better for me on 22s than ladling.

If I add tin to wheel weights, I stop at 2%, but usually don't even go that far before deciding I'm wasting a precious (expensive) metal and I just go faster or turn my heat up a little. I make my aluminum gas checks on a Freechecks II from Charles Darnell and seat them as squarely as possible without bumping up the diameter. I push them check-first through a LEE sizing die but hold a small steel plate over the hole first and force the CG'd bullet base against it to square them. This won't work with a pointy or round-nose bullet and is fiddly to say the least with either 22 bullet. Both of these bullets have enough "flat" on the nose to smack game, vermin and varmints hard - they are very effective even under 2kfps.

I tumble-lube mine twice using 45-45-10 and push them up to 1840 fps in the 222 Remington (1:14) with Unique. I haven't gone faster because the accuracy is very good and terminal affect is dramatic out to fifty yards. I've used them as close as a few feet, which is messy but sometimes there's just no other choice. My mouth gets sore when I cast, size, load 22s because there's this whole thing of "holding yer mouth right" going on. Or, maybe I just do that when doing small, picky detail work.

Keep an eye on the bases as you cast. On larger bullets, I can overlook a little "teat" where the sprue is and get away with it. On the 22s, that anomaly is the same size as on a 44, and is a HUGE part of a 22 cal base. If you try to squash that bump down after they cool, the bullet gets too big in diameter. I've found that shooting .2", five shot groups at fifty yards (like my Remington 721? did) is not necessary for shooting squirrel heads, and half-inch five shots groups make me plenty happy - when I can do it. In other words, I don't weight sort or scrutinize as a formal step in the process.

I inspect passively at various stages and weed out recalcitrant specimens along the way, even up to the point of seating the bullet. Since I am not paying the ransom for commercial gas checks, I can afford to "waste" two or half a dozen out of a hundred by the time I start seating them. At each step in handling the bullets, some get rejected, but I'm probably not losing more than ten percent total at worst. Not that I'm that good at casting them, the "value" in saving a few thousandths on groups would go unnoticed in my shooting.

Full disclosure: If I'm keeping five under an inch at fifty yards, I'm not disgusted with myself but it'll make me try harder. Three quarters, OK, but not making me overly proud. Half-inch and I'm not messing with it. Since I'm fussing with a "new" rifle right now, one inch is about the average. This is a CZ 527 American and I just swapped out the stock for a Youth Carbine stock I got cheap. A bedding job is on my to-do list. The old Remington acted like it was MADE for Michael's bullet.

Sorry that went so long. I'm procrastinating - have something to do that I have to do and I don't want to do it.
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