load your own match .22 lr

be cool if they sold loaded ammo, i will not venture into the world of reloading .22 LR though.

The winters are long and cold and there's nothing to do, hence,...

Buy a SCATT trainer, instead.

I'm interested in seeing some results once people get their hands on them.  I would consider a fast twist barrel trying it out.  BC is what limits 22LR, doubling it with some decent speeds is going to really extend the range.

Bump for more interest.

Honestly, if I had a gun capable of firing that properly, I would definitely try it. Hell, I bought a Neal waltz die for 22lr, I am not against trying new things for the fun of it. I wonder what mind of range you would get. Reminds me of stories of when people would load 22 magnum for silhouette shooting.

How was the Neal Waltz die? Make any difference?

He's not selling them any longer I don't think.

I bought one about a year ago.  Mr Waltz is retired and I had to contact him directly.  


As to crashburnrepeat's question, it makes cheap bulk ammo a little better.  Not great, but better.  For most people, and most garden variety rifles, the difference won't be noticeable.  It made zero difference with SK and Eley.  I've got to sight in a 10/22 today--I'll run a "50 rounds at 25yards" comparison and post pics.

Ammo will either be 38gr Federal round nose Blazer bulk or Winchester 38gr HP bulk.  I chose the Federal because I had 3 boxes left and wanted to clear them out.

Before sizing in the Waltz die, bullet diameter varies from .220 to .223

Attached File




After sizing, the bullet has a flat nose with a dimple--looks like Eley

Attached File



Also after sizing, bullet diameter is .224" on every single one.  When the flat squishes the bullet, it expands to the .224" bore in the die.  They end up VERY uniform in diameter.

Attached File





Going out to shoot the test targets now, will post pics--good/bad/ugly--in about an hour.

Not sized:

Attached File




Sized:
Attached File




For this sample of 50 sized with a control of 50 unsized, all from the same lot......it didn't seem to make much difference other than POI shifted from the original zero.  I got horizontal spread on the unsized but vertical spread on the sized.  Rifle is a bone stock Ruger 10/22 basic carbine with a cheap 3 MOA Bushnell red dot, sandbag under the fore end and my blind self behind the trigger.  As you can see, not the best shooting with the equipment listed--this is my lightweight rig and has not been set up for anything but plinking.  My eyesight and the rough trigger are my excuses for such a poor grouping.

Just shot another 50 rds of the Federal 38gr solids.  25 sized, 25 straight out of the box.  Same range, measured 25 yards.  The only difference is that I shot these through my scoped B14R and used 10x magnification.  I re-used yesterday's 10/22 target and put a cigarette burn on each target for aiming points.

Unsized group was .745 (edge to edge)  *First clean/cold bore shot went high and right.....might have been a cold shooter too, but I dont' think so.  It felt right when it broke.  You can see the hole just above the caliper.  Counting that first shot, group size is 1.755 (edge to edge)  *Disregard the hole in the black.  That's from yesterday's 10/22 target.

Attached File


Attached File



Sized group was .678 (edge to edge)  No fliers here.

Attached File




In this case, there was a .067" difference in groups between sized and not sized.  The biggest difference is that the sized groups were both slightly high/left of the unsized.  I don't think the Waltz die does all that much, at least not with Federal 38gr....but it sure is fun to try new things.

awesome report,  I appreciate you doing that.  I have been looking for a way to get cheaper ammo to shoot better for practice.  I shoot SK Standard + and CenterX but for practice, that gets SPENDY.  I was looking for a way to get something like CCI Standard Velocity or even Blaser shooting better.

Shoot the cheap stuff in most practices.  Call every shot.  If it is more or less randomly off call, it was the ammo.  If you call it off and it was off (and where you called it), it was you.

It's good practice for learning to call your shots.

@crashburnrepeat



Blazer--38gr round nose or 40gr?

CCI Standard



I have a few bricks of each--let me know if you'd like me to run the test again.....might as well see if it works, and all trigger time is a good time for me!

See, it was mentioned in this why I wanted to get one of Neil's dies.I knew I really wanted to get a Ruger single six. But those are convertible from 22lr to 22mag, which is one of the reasons I wanted it. But because it is able to, the bore is .224 versus the .221 or whatever of the 22lr. I knew the Neil waltz die bumped them up to .224, so I decided to get one. Plus I could make cheap 22 hollow points from bulk pack 22. How useful was that, no idea, but I did use that excuse to justify it to myself! I also had him make the round nose punch because why not. I have  made so many odd bullet shapes when I was bored. Used to make basically the 22 punch profile before federal. I should sue!

I weight with a small digital scale and sort by rim thickness with the Hornady gauge already. It was really something else extra to do to pass the time when ammo was cheap and I was poor and could only afford 22 at collage. My marlin is extremely accurate for what It is, but any help i can get us welcome. I ended up buying a Lee hand press to use this with it almost exclusively. Was gonna get that super cheap $20 X press they offered at the time, but I figured the hand press could be used for steps off the main press(when I got one) and also me to do this in field of i wanted. Again, a poor justification really, but at the time it was cheap and it gives me a backup press!

I think I learned what I needed from your first test, but if you shoot again, I shoot the CCI sv target loads for practice most of the time.