Ordered 22 cal bullet mold

BBerguson

BBerguson

Official Pennsyltuckian
I’ve been wanting a 22 cal mold forever and have never broken down and bought one. So tonight I did. It’s a Lee and I ordered a .225 lee sizer kit also. I ordered from a site I’ve never heard of, https://fsreloading.com/lee-molds/l...bee-221-fireball-222-remington-223-remington/. They were the only place I could find a Lee mold and seems like a legitimate site so I took the chance. Anyone here ever order from these guys?

With the current primer situation, I’ve been paying close attention to the practice I’ve been doing, ie., very little with center fire rifle. Everything that is except for the 450 bushmaster which uses small primers. I’ve been shooting that quite a lot with light charges of bullseye and small pistol primers (which I have a good supply of) and having a ball with it! So, I have a .222 and 2 .223’s and will shoot them with similar bullseye and pistol primer loads.

My lead supply will also hold up better with 55 gr bullets vs the 260gr bullets in the 450 bm.

This is a gas check bullet. Hopefully I’ll be able to shoot light loads without a gc since I don’t have any… I’ve had good luck with 130gr gas check base bullets minus the gc in our 308’s. All bullets are and will be powder coated of course.

I’ll keep you posted on my results.
 
Matt

Matt

Active Member
I’m not familiar with FS Reloading but have been saving precious lead and powder by shooting a lot of .22 Hornet and .222 Remington. And using a lot of pistol primers in these and other rifle loads with cast bullets. I’ve been using small charges of Bullseye and Red Dot with the 55 grain RCBS bullet and the 48 gr Ideal 224438 mold. Both are gas checked and do work best with gas checks but produce useable accuracy
(2 1/2 inches and slightly less at 100 yards) without them. The RCBS bullet is very similar to the Lee design and I’d guess would perform in a similar manner. I size both of these bullets to .225 diameter and lube with Ben’s Red. The use of my precious supply of gas checks improves 5 shot groups by 1/2 to 3/4 inches. Not really enough to justify “wasting” them. On the other hand my kids won’t want them. I’ve tried powder coating and have given up on it because of the unexplained and uncontrollable flyers I experienced. The extra time and trouble to PC does not appeal to me either. I’ve been watching a fellow who shoots PC bullets in CBA matches for the last year or so. He’s been getting decent results recently. If he or anyone else cracks the PC code I’d probably try to emulate their methods. I’ll be very interested in your method of applying PC and your shooting results.
 
CWLONGSHOT

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
I have never had good luck with a rifle bullet designed for a GC giving good accuracy when one was not installed...

extra time and effort??? Its not exactly hard labor. :headscratch:

Its benefits IMHO out weigh the "time and effort" NO STICKY BULLET STORAGE, NO SMOKE, Softer alloys & negating need for a GC on handgun bullets and many rifle bullets too!! All for some swirling in a plastic tub for 30 sec and baking for 20min while reading this forum. :p

Today most manufacturers of cast bullet molds, offer a slick sided mold that's perfect for PC. IMHO the only reason its not advanced more and taken. Over, is because young "gun folk" are not casting bullets and the crumudgen ol timer cast bullet shooters are not changing anything they have done for 50+ years. ;) :rofl:
 
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Spindrift

Spindrift

Well-Known Member
The Lee c225-55 is a good bullet (they copied a good one, smart move). I’ve got reasonably good accuracy at 100m with checkless PC, and pistol/shotgun powder (about 2-2,5 inches). The extra girth on the nose somewhat increase the bearing surface, that would otherwise be very limited without the GC. It could be worthwhile to try some checkless bullets even if you have the gas checks, if you plan to shoot light loads. I appreciate the reduced workload.

@Matt ; I believe all powder coaters have been through a learning curve with some frustrations. I sure did. After a while, you kind of sort out the little details that makes the process more smooth and predictable.
I shoot both lubed and coated bullets, and appreciate both. What I appreciate most with PC, is the fact that PB or checkless bullets can be pushed a bit faster, giving better wind- bucking capacity. And the ease of developing higher power loads. What I appreciate most with lubed bullets is, they don’t have to mature for a month after the lubing process.
Which process yields the most accurate bullets? I still don’t know. My most consistantly accurate load, is with a PC bullet. But if I add up all my «MOA or pretty close» loads, the majority are still with lubed bullets. Maybe in a few more years, I know more.

I bet you’ll be happy with your new bullet! .22 cal cast bullet shooting is fun, and your ingot supply will dwindle very slowly. While I love casting bullets, I can’t say the same about smelting lead to make ingots.
Good luck!
 
RBHarter

RBHarter

West Central AR
Titan is a factory store they run as much as possible in flat rate boxes or did a year ago . They're also only about a mile from the plant .
 
F

Farmerjim

Active Member
It's a good bullet. I shoot it PC'ed, Hi-Tec ed, and 45-45-10 lubed. You need to pre heat the mold and cast fast to keep the mold hot enough to not cast wrinkled bullets.
 
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GRMPS

GRMPS

Active Member
CWLONGSHOT said:
I have never had good luck with a rifle bullet designed for a GC giving good accuracy when one was not installed...

extra time and effort??? Its not exactly hard labor. :headscratch:

Its benefits IMHO out weigh the "time and effort" NO STICKY BULLET STORAGE, NO SMOKE, Softer alloys & negating need for a GC on handgun bullets and many rifle bullets too!! All for some swirling in a plastic tub for 30 sec and baking for 20min while reading this forum. :p

Today most manufacturers of cast bullet molds, offer a slick sided mold that's perfect for PC. IMHO the only reason its not advanced more and taken. Over, is because young "gun folk" are not casting bullets and the crumudgen ol timer cast bullet shooters are not changing anything they have done for 50+ years. ;) :rofl:
Click to expand...
I beg to differ with you CW I load the NOE 311-238 GC PC'd with NO GC and shoot it subsonic in a 300 AAC BO and it's a tack driver.
Maybe subsonic is the key :)
 
CWLONGSHOT

CWLONGSHOT

Well-Known Member
GRMPS said:
I beg to differ with you CW I load the NOE 311-238 GC PC'd with NO GC and shoot it subsonic in a 300 AAC BO and it's a tack driver.
Maybe subsonic is the key :)
Click to expand...
When I say "Rifle bullet" Im infering higher velocities/pressures. So yes Jim, the sub so ic is the key! :rofl: :p ;) :)
 
Ian

Ian

Notorious member
2.4 grains of Titegroup and a standard pistol primer will get to about 1000 fps give or take, powder coated and without the gas check. Even with a 7" twist mine were an inch or less at 50, 4-6" at 75, and fuggitaboudit at 100. Make sure you expand your case necks or use a Lee collet neck die dialed back so your bullets don't get squished. Shoving a soft, .225" bullet into a hard, .217" neck is a recipe for failure and will cause you to develop intersting ways to remove powder coat fouling from your barrel.
 
BBerguson

BBerguson

Official Pennsyltuckian
So far so good with FSReloading. I had trouble logging into the site to check the status of my order. Called them, couldn’t leave a msg because their mailbox was full but got a return call from them within 30 minutes. My email address got screwed up, he fixed it and waited for me to log in and got the status of my order. He said it’s in shipping and should be in the mail tonight or tomorrow morning.

They start their shipping options with priority mail which does make it a little more expensive. I’m willing to spend it though because I found what I wanted at a really good price, mold was under $21 and about the same for the sizer kit, so everything seemed very much in line. Thinking about it, in todays way overpriced market and lack of product, it was unbelievable to me that I found what I wanted and at normal prices. I wish I would have bought the buckshot mold too but I didn’t see that until after I placed the order… crap, I could have added it to my order when I had them on the phone but I didn’t think of it.
 
CZ93X62

CZ93X62

Official forum enigma
One hint I can offer to casting 22/24/25 caliber bullets, irrespective of coating/sizing/lubing method--be SAVAGE AND MERCENARY when sorting for defects on finished castings. Reject ANY AND ALL visual flaws.
 
Glaciers

Glaciers

Alaska Land of the Midnight Sun
Sounds like FS is a good group. Have them bookmarked for the future when things get flush again.
 
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J

Jeff H

NW Ohio
Good bullet and good supplier in my book.

I got the 6C not long after it came out and have a pile cast up I may never work my way through. Aluminum GCs from FreeChex III die, 45/45/10 lube, six to seven grains of Unique and the cheapest SRP I can find does a little over 1800 fps in a 22" 222 barrel on my CZ527. Hovers at 5 shots in 1/2" at 50 yards. May not win any matches, but it's a hoot to shoot and capable of varmint and small game hunting.

A brick of primers, a pound of Unique and just under 8# of alloy yields 1,000 shots. Pretty economical, even if you have to over-pay somewhat for components.
 
Bret4207

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Big difference between shooting an unchecked GC design low and slow and pushing it even a little bit hard. You are in essence shooting a heel type bullet, and you just don't see those poppin' out at 2200fps and giving very good results. 850-1100 fps, that's something else altogether.
 
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