User Panel
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Looks Creedmoorish. Good case design.
What powders does it like? Is brass easy to make from 5.56? |
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What problem are you trying to solve? What gap are you trying to fill? In other words, what is the purpose of the round, and why is it better than existing options?
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Looks Creedmoorish. Good case design. What powders does it like? Is brass easy to make from 5.56? View Quote So far it's liking A2230, H322, H4198. Does well with 8208xbr but can't get enough into the case with it to get max potential, about 2950s. Will be trying more. With the right dies YES. |
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What problem are you trying to solve? What gap are you trying to fill? In other words, what is the purpose of the round, and why is it better than existing options? View Quote 2) High BC for longer range performance than 5.56x45. 3) Greater performance while still using standard 5.56x45 bolt and magazine. |
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Cool deal. Years ago I read a article about a guy who built a AR in one of the 222’s specifically so he could shoot 80 grainers out of the mag for high power.
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looks very similar to my 24 Mamba AR i'm building. same design philosophy. maximize case capacity, 30' shoulder, case length dictated for use of high bc bullets in ASC mags (2.3xx"). I'll be happy with 2400-2450 ft/sec with 105 RDF's from my 13.7" barrel. I'll be doing a 24" bolt gun as well as time allows. 8208 is one of the first powders on my list to try. with cfe 223, pp2000mr on deck.
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looks very similar to my 24 Mamba AR i'm building. same design philosophy. maximize case capacity, 30' shoulder, case length dictated for use of high bc bullets in ASC mags (2.3xx"). I'll be happy with 2400-2450 ft/sec with 105 RDF's from my 13.7" barrel. I'll be doing a 24" bolt gun as well as time allows. 8208 is one of the first powders on my list to try. with cfe 223, pp2000mr on deck. View Quote Think you will get the full potential out of 13.7" ? 8208 is good powder if it has enough case capacity. Very accurate powder also. |
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That's something I'd really like to read. Was it an online article or a publication? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes |
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Very interesting. I know we like to keep our specs guarded but what's its head diameter? Think you will get the full potential out of 13.7" ? 8208 is good powder if it has enough case capacity. Very accurate powder also. View Quote not exactly "top secret" lol it's basically a 6x45 improved case but with a 30' shoulder as apposed to a 40', slightly shorter neck and shorter overall case length to allow the 105gr class of bullets to be used. Freebore/throat is setup much like .223 wylde/6.8spcII, ect... to allow 62k psi operation. I'm not after full potential with the AR variant. I want a handy carbine that with a suppressor is manageable yet still should be supersonic beyond 1100yds (.571g1 on the 105 RDF) it will be my mini RECCE with some A$$ behind it when I want to bang steel on the cheap. I'm going to do the full sized variant on the bolt gun (full 1.75" case length with longer throating to maximize case capacity) QL predicts 2600 ft/sec (24" barrel) from the straight 24 Mamba with 105's which is almost an exact clone of M118LR external ballistics but with less recoil and component cost and virtually free brass. I'm going to use this cartridge to introduce my boys into long range shooting and depending on the performance I may spin up a lighter ~20" barrel for their first deer rifle. 8208xbr is my favorite rifle powder and I buy it by the 8lb jug. works excellent in both 5.56 and .308 I'm not a gun shop, just your average blue collar worker with extreme ADD and a nack for messing with things. |
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Quoted: it's a .223 based wildcat. "useable" case capacity should be equal/greater than 6x45 with the heavyweights. not exactly "top secret" lol it's basically a 6x45 improved case but with a 30' shoulder as apposed to a 40', slightly shorter neck and shorter overall case length to allow the 105gr class of bullets to be used. Freebore/throat is setup much like .223 wylde/6.8spcII, ect... to allow 62k psi operation. I'm not after full potential with the AR variant. I want a handy carbine that with a suppressor is manageable yet still should be supersonic beyond 1100yds (.571g1 on the 105 RDF) it will be my mini RECCE with some A$$ behind it when I want to bang steel on the cheap. I'm going to do the full sized variant on the bolt gun (full 1.75" case length with longer throating to maximize case capacity) QL predicts 2600 ft/sec (24" barrel) from the straight 24 Mamba with 105's which is almost an exact clone of M118LR external ballistics but with less recoil and component cost and virtually free brass. I'm going to use this cartridge to introduce my boys into long range shooting and depending on the performance I may spin up a lighter ~20" barrel for their first deer rifle. 8208xbr is my favorite rifle powder and I buy it by the 8lb jug. works excellent in both 5.56 and .308 I'm not a gun shop, just your average blue collar worker with extreme ADD and a nack for messing with things. View Quote |
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So this uses .224 bullets? Any reason you’re referring to it as a .222 as opposed to .223 or .224?
Just curious as to the naming conventions for wildcat cartridges. |
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So this uses .224 bullets? Any reason you’re referring to it as a .222 as opposed to .223 or .224? Just curious as to the naming conventions for wildcat cartridges. View Quote The cartridge looks much like a .222 remington thats been "ackley improved" however with a 30' shoulder and slightly shorter neck and throating to allow the longer vld's to be seated out further to maximize useable case capacity. The shorter case allows the VLD's to be used at mag length. But this is purely an educated guess |
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So this uses .224 bullets? Any reason you’re referring to it as a .222 as opposed to .223 or .224? Just curious as to the naming conventions for wildcat cartridges. View Quote I guess a modernized version of a classic name. Funny thing was it was originally named .224 Low-Drag. When the reamer, headspace guages, and dies were in production the Valkyrie was unveiled. It was too late to change the engraving on all that so we just had the name changed and files. |
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Quoted: judging by the neck and case length I think he's calling it the .222 from the old .222 remington (which was once a popular BR cartridge) The cartridge looks much like a .222 remington thats been "ackley improved" however with a 30' shoulder and slightly shorter neck and throating to allow the longer vld's to be seated out further to maximize useable case capacity. The shorter case allows the VLD's to be used at mag length. But this is purely an educated guess View Quote |
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Very nice. Looks like your rifle sure likes it ! View Quote While wanting good accuracy the velocities its achieving is what's surprised us the most. I designed the case for high BC bullets and my goal was to get close to or beat the 5.56x45 with the 77gr Sierra while still utilizing the standard STANAG magazine and standard 5.56 bolt. It blew past the 5.56x45 and also has gone faster than the 224 Valkyrie. |
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It's showing good results. We've gotta try some more powders and seating depths. Also started testing with heavier bullets. While wanting good accuracy the velocities its achieving is what's surprised us the most. I designed the case for high BC bullets and my goal was to get close to or beat the 5.56x45 with the 77gr Sierra while still utilizing the standard STANAG magazine and standard 5.56 bolt. It blew past the 5.56x45 and also has gone faster than the 224 Valkyrie. View Quote |
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Quoted: Sweet! My secondary goal with my 24 Mamba is to piss in Nosler's cheerios and their 24 Nosler before it's launched lol. I'm hoping the added pressure will trump the greater case capacity. sounds like the same is holding true for your cartridge against the 224V View Quote Managing pressures is paramount. |
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And it's doing that with four inches less barrel. All velocities published for the 22V are out of 24". Managing pressures is paramount. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Quoted: Sweet! My secondary goal with my 24 Mamba is to piss in Nosler's cheerios and their 24 Nosler before it's launched lol. I'm hoping the added pressure will trump the greater case capacity. sounds like the same is holding true for your cartridge against the 224V Managing pressures is paramount. |
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I'm very interested how this turns out. My Valkyrie would get ditched quick if this can launch 75 and 80 gr ELDs from a 16" AR at acceptable speeds.
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Quoted: Are you measuring pressures? I'm curious about the performance you are getting, matching the performance found in cartridges with much larger cases using a smaller case can only mean the pressure is much higher. View Quote |
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I'm very interested how this turns out. My Valkyrie would get ditched quick if this can launch 75 and 80 gr ELDs from a 16" AR at acceptable speeds. View Quote |
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We are monitoring case dimensions, growth and pressure signs. Looking into options to get pressure reading other than having to send in for testing. If you have a good idea(s) let me know. It has a specialty designed chamber that I can't divulge just yet. View Quote |
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Quoted: There are strain gage systems that can get you good data. I think Oehler makes / made one. View Quote |
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There has been a new cartridge explosion within the firearm and ammunition industry in the last few years, some are liked and some aren't. I understand that some just don't care for the next shinny wannabe but for a little over a year now I (and my gunsmith) have been working on something we think is very interesting and though I would share and see what y'all think.I https://imageshack.com/i/pnNdAqu8j 222 Low-Drag (222 LD-AR) COL: 2.260" Rim Dia: .378" As of right now that's all the case specs I can share. I had some good guidance from some people in the industry that helped. View Quote I am planning on doing pretty much the same thing only in a 20 caliber variant to shoot a heavy 20 like the (now discontinued) berger 55gr VLD. See the image below for a cross section view of the 20/222 and a few other wildcats I have been looking at. Mostly looking at .204 stuff but threw in a couple .338s and .510s for perspective. |
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Great choice, the 222 case is excellent. Looks like you are getting some excellent results. I am planning on doing pretty much the same thing only in a 20 caliber variant to shoot a heavy 20 like the (now discontinued) berger 55gr VLD. See the image below for a cross section view of the 20/222 and a few other wildcats I have been looking at. Mostly looking at .204 stuff but threw in a couple .338s and .510s for perspective. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4882/46109019105_3b551fdb61_b.jpg View Quote I also thought of doing a 204 but the lack of high BC bullet turned me off. Should be pretty fast though. |
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Great choice, the 222 case is excellent. Looks like you are getting some excellent results. I am planning on doing pretty much the same thing only in a 20 caliber variant to shoot a heavy 20 like the (now discontinued) berger 55gr VLD. See the image below for a cross section view of the 20/222 and a few other wildcats I have been looking at. Mostly looking at .204 stuff but threw in a couple .338s and .510s for perspective. https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4882/46109019105_3b551fdb61_b.jpg View Quote What is your target velocity with the 55's? I bet a 20-22 Nosler with the shoulder/neck pushed back would make for a laser! Wildcatting is addictive. Here's my little pip squeak I call the 22 Mamba next to another wildcat called .223 short. both have a 1.125" case formed from .223 brass. the 22 Mamba comes in at 17.1gr H2o not fireformed yet. |
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Quoted: @SpacemanSpiff What software program is that? I like it. What is your target velocity with the 55's? I bet a 20-22 Nosler with the shoulder/neck pushed back would make for a laser! Wildcatting is addictive. Here's my little pip squeak https://i.imgur.com/LOZcVeRl.jpg I call the 22 Mamba next to another wildcat called .223 short. both have a 1.125" case formed from .223 brass. the 22 Mamba comes in at 17.1gr H2o not fireformed yet. View Quote The software is called PTC Creo, its an outstanding design tool but not inexpensive unfortunately. I use it for work and personal projects. I really like your 22 Mamba, I am considering that direction as well. I don't have a target velocity, I just want something I can feed from in both a bolt action and semi auto. Berger has discontinued the 55 gr VLD so I am going to have to find a different bullet before I finalize whatever I go with. I am considering getting into making bullets but that is a whole other ball of wax. The only thing I have settled on is I want a 30 degree shoulder angle and 223 rim diameter. I really like small efficient cartridges, they punch above their weight in terms of effectiveness as you already know. Here is a line up of some possibilities I am looking at: |
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@SpacemanSpiff Pretty cool to see the 22 Mamba in the line up.
One thing to take into consideration with the pip squeeks is they don't play well in forward lug bolt guns. The cases are so short that they fall off the bolt face before clearing the ejection port. The CZ's and some of the older sako's seem to fair well, or if you remove the ejector you can get away with plucking cases off traditional actions. The Howa mini's can made to work with a little tweaking. Bullet swaging is something I too would like to try one day. I have similar plans to try a 32gr VLD in the 17 Mamba (or a 17-223,Predator) by trying to swage 32gr .204 cup and core bullets down and reform them. one day I may get around to making some dies to try it. I have some 90 smk's to try in the 22 Mamba for subs. not to confident of them stabilizing at said speed though. One other idea on your 22-25 auto is to use 5.7x28mm brass (same rim diameter roughly) then since it is straight walled you can get away with just shortening a die to the appropriate length. I made a dummy of one that would fit in a 25 auto pistol. I was going to buy one of those cheap HP25a phoenix pistols and try and fit a 22lr barrel to the frame, chamber and try it out. but they went from their dirt cheap $89 to $130 I think so I decided against it. lol |
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@SpacemanSpiff Pretty cool to see the 22 Mamba in the line up. One thing to take into consideration with the pip squeeks is they don't play well in forward lug bolt guns. The cases are so short that they fall off the bolt face before clearing the ejection port. The CZ's and some of the older sako's seem to fair well, or if you remove the ejector you can get away with plucking cases off traditional actions. The Howa mini's can made to work with a little tweaking. Bullet swaging is something I too would like to try one day. I have similar plans to try a 32gr VLD in the 17 Mamba (or a 17-223,Predator) by trying to swage 32gr .204 cup and core bullets down and reform them. one day I may get around to making some dies to try it. I have some 90 smk's to try in the 22 Mamba for subs. not to confident of them stabilizing at said speed though. One other idea on your 22-25 auto is to use 5.7x28mm brass (same rim diameter roughly) then since it is straight walled you can get away with just shortening a die to the appropriate length. I made a dummy of one that would fit in a 25 auto pistol. I was going to buy one of those cheap HP25a phoenix pistols and try and fit a 22lr barrel to the frame, chamber and try it out. but they went from their dirt cheap $89 to $130 I think so I decided against it. lol View Quote the 17 Mamba sounds great too. I hear you on the 5.7 case, I believe those are actually the dimensions I used in that model since it is rimless. It would be cut to the same OAL as 25 auto as you describe. I have a similar plan to make a tiny blowback similar to what you are describing. Basically same idea as the Soviet PSM pistol. I'd like to use a slightly longer bullet but that will depend on the magazine. If you think about it, the 222 case is nearly identical to the very efficient 5.46x39mm case. I think the Russians got that one right... they certainly put a lot of thought into it. We went rather long with the 223 case which is a very American thing to do. Often more is not better. |
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This is pretty amazing!! I have always wanted to get into waldcatting but i never had the money.
Please keep us updated. This is something i am extremely interested in. |
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This is pretty amazing!! I have always wanted to get into waldcatting but i never had the money. Please keep us updated. This is something i am extremely interested in. View Quote Will keep updating with more. |
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Here's the AR-15 .222 Low-Drag https://imageshack.com/i/pnkRAwjbj Aero M4E1 upper & lower Shilen Match barrel 20" 1-7 Superlative Arms .875" Adj. gas block Midwest Ind. SLH 12.625" handguard Velocity trigger Toolcraft BCG Geissele SCH ALG lower parts kit Magpul MOE-K2 grip Magpul PRS Gen3 stock w/rifle length buffer, spring and tube. Nikon X1000 4-16x50SF scope Badger Ord. Unimount https://imageshack.com/i/plN8OJd6j View Quote Not sure how far you are from the lands at that cartridge length but ASC makes stainless mags that allow 2.315" +/-.010" COAL's that could help you eek out a little more speed. That's what I built the 24 Mamba around. My sample works perfect at 2.308" it's 2.311" max but I seat at the .003" shorter as a buffer for bullet inconsistencies. |
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222 Low-Drag with Hornady 88 gr ELD Match bullets.https://imageshack.com/i/pl3FVOr3j Worked up some loads for velocity testing out of the bolt gun. For comparison purposes the factory Hornady 224V 88gr ELD Match has a MV of 2675 out of a 24" barrel. https://imageshack.com/i/pmeI9LRbj 222 Low-Drag 88gr ELD Match - 20" barrel The Federal 224V 90gr Gold Medal MK factory load has a MV of 2700 out of a 24" barrel. https://imageshack.com/i/pm8Kxe5xj 222 Low-Drag 88gr ELD Match - 20" barrel More still https://imageshack.com/i/pogULc5Oj Ran out of case capacity - no pressure signs. Will try another powder to see if any higher velocities are attainable. View Quote I think I might cancel my plan to go with 20 caliber. Berger killing off the 55 grainer combined with all these slick bullets that the 224V is bringing to the market is pushing me back towards .224. Are you going to publish your case design? There are about 87 different flavors of improved 222 case designs so I am curious if you have stumbled onto something nobody found before or if you are just running at very high pressure. I've pushed the .223 case pretty hard before myself. It doesn't seem to show pressure signs as readily as the larger diameter cases but for me the velocity deviation started to open up when I had gone too far. |
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There has been a new cartridge explosion within the firearm and ammunition industry in the last few years, some are liked and some aren't. I understand that some just don't care for the next shinny wannabe but for a little over a year now I (and my gunsmith) have been working on something we think is very interesting and though I would share and see what y'all think.I https://imageshack.com/i/pnNdAqu8j 222 Low-Drag (222 LD-AR) COL: 2.260" Rim Dia: .378" As of right now that's all the case specs I can share. I had some good guidance from some people in the industry that helped. View Quote Are you still working on the 222LD? And just to confirm, this uses .223/5.56 brass not .222 brass? So far this looks like a very promising wildcat - sort of a 5.45x39 / 5.56 / .224 V crossover episode. |
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Quoted: it's a .223 based wildcat. "useable" case capacity should be equal/greater than 6x45 with the heavyweights. not exactly "top secret" lol it's basically a 6x45 improved case but with a 30' shoulder as apposed to a 40', slightly shorter neck and shorter overall case length to allow the 105gr class of bullets to be used. Freebore/throat is setup much like .223 wylde/6.8spcII, ect... to allow 62k psi operation. I'm not after full potential with the AR variant. I want a handy carbine that with a suppressor is manageable yet still should be supersonic beyond 1100yds (.571g1 on the 105 RDF) it will be my mini RECCE with some A$$ behind it when I want to bang steel on the cheap. I'm going to do the full sized variant on the bolt gun (full 1.75" case length with longer throating to maximize case capacity) QL predicts 2600 ft/sec (24" barrel) from the straight 24 Mamba with 105's which is almost an exact clone of M118LR external ballistics but with less recoil and component cost and virtually free brass. I'm going to use this cartridge to introduce my boys into long range shooting and depending on the performance I may spin up a lighter ~20" barrel for their first deer rifle. 8208xbr is my favorite rifle powder and I buy it by the 8lb jug. works excellent in both 5.56 and .308 I'm not a gun shop, just your average blue collar worker with extreme ADD and a nack for messing with things. View Quote |
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Have you tried the 95 Sierra yet? That’s the bullet to get figured out.
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Sounds like the 6mm Mongoose case pretty much. View Quote The mongoose has a sharper shoulder 40' vs 30' and is .100" longer than my plans. It is aimed more for the 95gr and lighter class of bullets where mine is aimed more for the VLD's up to the 105gr class of bullets. Reamer is actually spec'd for a bolt gun without the mag length constrictions like an AR and a full 1.75" case, however I plan to chamber is .150" short for the AR and see how it works out for me. |
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