As anyone who shoots knows, it has become pretty hard to get .22 ammo. Especially CB shorts and longs. And then when you do find some it is of limited amount and exorbitant cost. So as I was trying to fall asleep after waking from a hot flash in the middle of the night it occurred to me that I could make my own .22 centerfire brass, cast my own bullets, and use off the shelf primers. Checking yesterday for primer availability I found several sellers with small pistol primers in stock at less than $30.00 per 1000. That's less than 3 cents per primer, about what I used to pay before this ammo buying panic and subsequent gouging started. This morning I examined the bolt on my Remington model 514 and determined it would be pretty easy to make a new bolt for centerfire ammo. And most of the parts from the existing could be used in the new one. I would need to machine cases from solid brass, but I have a lathe with a bar feed setup that could make them really fast. Each case would require two operations so I could run the second operation while the lathe was doing the first operation. I have never really reloaded ammo before though I did reload a few rounds 45 years ago when a friend's dad showed me how his reloading setup worked. He let me load a few rounds but I may as well have never done it before because it was so long ago. But from reading about it online it appears that spent brass cases can usually be used 4 or 5 times, and some times even more depending on how light or heavy the load is. I have lots of pure lead and making a mold would be pretty easy. But would a machined case be as durable as a formed case? And since the smallest primers I can find are .175" O.D. and .22 brass is .224" O.D. there would only be a .0245 wall thickness between the primer and the case outside. Then again, since the case is trapped in the chamber maybe that's not a problem. And I would be using black powder or black powder substitute, not smokeless powder, since my aim is to make low power quiet ammo for target practice. I have a small revolver and two rifles that I could convert to centerfire without too much work. So, am I nut to consider this? Thanks, Eric
- posted
8 years ago