.22 br

Just the 22BR sizer with .248 bushing
If it’s there newer ones (modular sizing die) then they require a mandrel or there decapping pin in place for proper sizing. The br modular sizing die comes with a 6mm decapping rod and requires a different one for a 22br. I only know this due to issues with there bra die for my 22bra
 
If it’s there newer ones (modular sizing die) then they require a mandrel or there decapping pin in place for proper sizing. The br modular sizing die comes with a 6mm decapping rod and requires a different one for a 22br. I only know this due to issues with there bra die for my 22bra


This is what I ordered
 

This is what I ordered

Yes so that is their modular sizing die. The way there does work it requires their mandrel or a decapping rod in order for it to work properly. I also was having issues when this is what they told me. I got the mandrel for it and it works perfect.

Because their dies are universal for case bodies and are adjustable for calibers by there neck/shoulder bushing, you’ll will need to order there 22 cal decapping rod or a 22 cal mandrel to fit in the die.
 
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Update on the die: I ordered a Forster non bushing sizer to finish necking down and all went well. Hopefully the bushing die sorts itself out sizing once fired brass
 
Also, tell me if anyone’s ever heard of this: at the recommendation of folks on this thread, I sent my blank to straight jacket to have nick chamber it up since I’ve been told he’s an expert on 22br. To my surprise he said that it’s a finicky cartridge, high pressure, and I should ditch it in favor of 22GT. He also said that I either need to neck turn (even with a .255 chamber and non bushing size down ) or that he needs to sink the reamer .020” deeper to give room for the donut and then fire form the cases to that spec. Never heard of the need for either of these give the reamer spec. What do you guys think?
 
Also, tell me if anyone’s ever heard of this: at the recommendation of folks on this thread, I sent my blank to straight jacket to have nick chamber it up since I’ve been told he’s an expert on 22br. To my surprise he said that it’s a finicky cartridge, high pressure, and I should ditch it in favor of 22GT. He also said that I either need to neck turn (even with a .255 chamber and non bushing size down ) or that he needs to sink the reamer .020” deeper to give room for the donut and then fire form the cases to that spec. Never heard of the need for either of these give the reamer spec. What do you guys think?

He's full of shit! And I'd actually say the other way around. Both my 22br barrels shoot lights out with many different bullets and powders... 22GT on the other hand took a lot more effort to find a consistent shooting load.... I'm shooting PVA 22br reamer on one barrel and my custom 22br reamer on another and I've never turned a single neck...

And I have ZERO donut issues on my 500pc of lapua brass...
 
He's full of shit! And I'd actually say the other way around. Both my 22br barrels shoot lights out with many different bullets and powders... 22GT on the other hand took a lot more effort to find a consistent shooting load.... I'm shooting PVA 22br reamer on one barrel and my custom 22br reamer on another and I've never turned a single neck...

And I have ZERO donut issues on my 500pc of lapua brass...

Buddy of mine who shoots F-class had the same issue. His 22br and 6br shoots light out without any load devs but it was a huge struggle to find a good consitent load with his 6GT, same excellent smith, same blanks manufacture, same reamer (manson with pilot), alpha brass, same bullets etc. It just feels like the BR is much more forgiving ...
 
As of right now I told him to just sink it .020” deep if that’s what he thinks best and I’ll just fireform to that spec I guess. You guys see any issues with this? Seems like a step I shouldn’t have to do after reading all these posts but also probably won’t hurt
 
Also, tell me if anyone’s ever heard of this: at the recommendation of folks on this thread, I sent my blank to straight jacket to have nick chamber it up since I’ve been told he’s an expert on 22br. To my surprise he said that it’s a finicky cartridge, high pressure, and I should ditch it in favor of 22GT. He also said that I either need to neck turn (even with a .255 chamber and non bushing size down ) or that he needs to sink the reamer .020” deeper to give room for the donut and then fire form the cases to that spec. Never heard of the need for either of these give the reamer spec. What do you guys think?
That sounds like a load of crap to me. I’ve had 0 issues and while the gt’s are great cartridges and perform amazing, I don’t know of a single br that hasn’t been the simplest cartridge for the user.
 
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Buddy of mine who shoots F-class had the same issue. His 22br and 6br shoots light out without any load devs but it was a huge struggle to find a good consitent load with his 6GT, same excellent smith, same blanks manufacture, same reamer (manson with pilot), alpha brass, same bullets etc. It just feels like the BR is much more forgiving ...
I've found the gt to take more work if you're seeking micro accuracy, however getting them to consistently shoot 10 shot groups in the 3s and 4s not that difficult. I know br comp chases accuracy in 1s and 2s.

Sinking a 22br reamer 20k deep...........retarded! You can order a reamer with a lil longer neck to compensate for the neck down growth in length, or just trim it. Changing headspace by 20k to make room for a donut, that's a hard no. 22gt is a fun case, I retired my match barrel at 1k due to it requiring tuning more than I liked, but I just had a 22" 3b cut in 22gt for a predator and Antelope gun.
 
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As of right now I told him to just sink it .020” deep if that’s what he thinks best and I’ll just fireform to that spec I guess. You guys see any issues with this? Seems like a step I shouldn’t have to do after reading all these posts but also probably won’t hurt
I wouldn’t do that. For reference my OBW 22BR from PVA shot the same exact load with 88’s for over 1k rounds. Then I switched to 85.5’s and shot the same load for another 1k rounds. Speed never changed with either bullet. Sample size of 1, but mine was not difficult to keep in tune.
 
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If you do that you're probably going to have to jam bullets in the lands during fireforming to reduce the chances of case head separation. Wouldn't you think Padom.
Just leave enough neck unsized for minor resistance on bolt close. Will form up no matter of seating depth. However, I strongly disagree with this deep chamber suggestion from SJA.
 
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Also, tell me if anyone’s ever heard of this: at the recommendation of folks on this thread, I sent my blank to straight jacket to have nick chamber it up since I’ve been told he’s an expert on 22br. To my surprise he said that it’s a finicky cartridge, high pressure, and I should ditch it in favor of 22GT. He also said that I either need to neck turn (even with a .255 chamber and non bushing size down ) or that he needs to sink the reamer .020” deeper to give room for the donut and then fire form the cases to that spec. Never heard of the need for either of these give the reamer spec. What do you guys think?

I don't see how a BR would be higher pressure and more finicky than a GT...
 
As of right now I told him to just sink it .020” deep if that’s what he thinks best and I’ll just fireform to that spec I guess. You guys see any issues with this? Seems like a step I shouldn’t have to do after reading all these posts but also probably won’t hurt

Sinking the reamer .020 is changing the established headspace. When fireformed ( if it will even fire) will lengthen the case body .020 and shorten the neck. And i don’t see how this solves any problem

David
 
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Sinking the reamer .020 is changing the established headspace. When fireformed ( if it will even fire) will lengthen the case body .020 and shorten the neck. And i don’t see how this solves any problem

David
His theory: the extra necked down brass volume has to go somewhere, it usually ends up at top of shoulder/base of neck. Changing the position of the neck shoulder junction by 0.020 gives this added brass a place to go. The thing is, there isn't a problem so far in 3 sizings on my lapua brass. Necks grew by about 004-007 when I fl sized the necks down with the Hornady die. They've all been trimmed to same length now and all is well.
 
Yes that’s what he told me, he was saying that extra brass has to go somewhere and if you don’t want it to go to the inside of the neck it’s best absorbed into the shoulder. So I’m gonna see how it goes and just jam 20 thou on first firing. I’ll let you know how it goes
 
Decided to take my most recent 22BR Bartlein out today. I did extensive testing with my Mullerworks 1-7 22BR that PVA chambered with their reamer which I believe is 0.104FB reamer... I had my own 22BR reamer made with 0.130fb a while back and got a Bartlein 1-7.5 HV blank that I had PVA chamber with my reamer last year. I never did load development on the new barrel.. Just loaded up known good loads from my MW 1-7 barrel and shot maybe 100rd through it. It was a tack driver with those loads.

I decided to do a mini OCW today with my favorite bullet, 90smk with IMR 4166. This powder performed great in my first barrel and I have a few 8lb jugs of it so why not.

POI was so consistent across all but the very last charge... Low node right at 28.7-29.0gr with stupid low ES/SD and excellent accuracy. Also a high node around 29.9 - 30.2gr, also with amazing accuracy and stupid low ES/SD. I didn't experience any heavy bolt lift or pressure signs until that very last charge of 30.5gr and it was a hot humid day out... Started to just get a little heavy bolt lift.

High node is too fast for my needs even though the group is in the 0.1's and SD 2.. Ill shoot the low node around 3000 with same SD 2 for barrel life. Will load up a seating depth test with 28.7gr and see if I can shrink that group any more...

Just going from 7 to 7.5 twist in 22BR has really made everything stupid consistent with the heavies. The 7 twist really hammered the 80smk and 80 VLD but I would get unexplained fliers, inconsistent accuracy. That all went away and shoots like any BR with 7.5 twist...







 
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Went back to the shop and loaded up a seating depth test with the 28.7gr charge. We have a pretty nasty storm forecasted here in a few hours, possible tornado, hail and guaranteed high winds/heavy rain. Wind was starting to pick up from this morning's OCW test. Was gusting between 10-13 mph but it obviously didnt matter with these results!

Farthest I tested from the lands shot the tightest group at 0.112". But, every single seating depth shot in the 0.3's or better so this load is pretty darn solid if you ask me. I didn't chrono each seating depth test separately, but I did run the Labradar for all of the tests combined and it still shot 2980 SD 7. The rounds closer to the lands were registering roughly 10-12fps faster than the farther from the lands.

I don't chase velocity. Never have. Accuracy over velocity all day. My 220TB 90smk load I shot for years was 2983 SD 7 with 28.6gr Varget, so this is pretty dead on what I've always shot these 90smk's at.

Time to load up 100rd and get some groups tested from 300-700yd next.




 
Loaded up 100rd with the 28.7gr 4166 0.02 off lands load. Goal was to go out and do some accuracy testing at 300, 400, 500 and 700. Unfortently, that wasnt happening today. I got to the range and it was crazy windy and full sun. The mirage was horrible and had a switching 10-20mph wind from 6 to 2 oclock.

I decided not to waste ammo and shot a few groups at 200yd.. All groups were 0.4moa or smaller. This was the best group I shot when I timed the wind correctly. Oh well, Ill try again on a calmer day..




 
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90smk shoot really well in my rifle as well, 28.5 Varg jumping 30k they're at 2950 since the barrel sped up.

Yep Varget shoots really well for me also. I just wanted to try to find a load with some other powders I had a bunch of that I wasnt using for anything else so I tested this 4166.. Its shooting great.

29.4gr with a 90smk is my 22BR Varget load... 3016 SD 1 / ES 2
 
Yep Varget shoots really well for me also. I just wanted to try to find a load with some other powders I had a bunch of that I wasnt using for anything else so I tested this 4166.. Its shooting great.

29.4gr with a 90smk is my 22BR Varget load... 3016 SD 1 / ES 2
Seems pretty hot with the heavies...
How much freebore and what's your COAL with the 90s ?
 
Seems pretty hot with the heavies...
How much freebore and what's your COAL with the 90s ?

Not even close to hot with my reamer. Im running 0.130 FB and a little tighter Lapua no turn neck than most. I tested up to 30.0gr Varget SD 3 and just started getting a little bit of heavy bolt lift there.

I tested 4166 up to 30.2gr 3093 with the 90smk and was just barely starting to get a little bit of a heavy bolt on that last 30.2gr charge. Nothign on 29.9gr....
 
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Searched through a lot of past posts , anyone have any expedience with the Nosler 85 gn RDF ? I picked up a couple of hundred off my local gun forum, thought I'd load some for cooler weather

What powder? What case?

You can just take any of the 85.5 Berger data Ive posted and work up around that.... Your gonna need to do load workup for your rifle anyway so just start around there...
 
Went back and reviewed a lot, ont thing I noticed was that while almost everyone listed / talked about Bbl. twist, the amount of jump they used with what bullet , and of course the amount of powder and what speeds they were getting , almost no one lists the primers they used , seams as important as everything used in producing the speed / groups ????
 
doing a long range varmint rifle. want to shoot the 88 eld and possibly the 62 eldvt when it comes.

hornady advised me that 7.5 twist would be good. said their bullets can only take 285k rpm so 7 twist is "too fast" for 2900 fps or so and could destroy the jackets.

y'all think I should do 7 twist or 7.5 twist?
 
Ive been running a gain twist at 6.25 with the 88gr without any issue for 2 years now, 3 barrels, 4k+ rounds already.
Im switching to 7twist to slow the un necessary rpm as the 95gr SMK are not available anymore.
 
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doing a long range varmint rifle. want to shoot the 88 eld and possibly the 62 eldvt when it comes.

hornady advised me that 7.5 twist would be good. said their bullets can only take 285k rpm so 7 twist is "too fast" for 2900 fps or so and could destroy the jackets.

y'all think I should do 7 twist or 7.5 twist?
No issues running 88s 2900-3200 in a 7tw. Juts make sure you're barrel is ordered with a 219 bore VS 218. Less pressure and stress put in the jackets with the 219.
 
Ive been running a gain twist at 6.25 with the 88gr without any issue for 2 years now, 3 barrels, 4k+ rounds already.
Im switching to 7twist to slow the un necessary rpm as the 95gr SMK are not available anymore.
what velocity?
im interested in the 62 vt as well which im concerned about poofing.
 
I’ve not poofed any 88’s at 3,000fps w/1:7”. Got about a thousand rounds on the barrel.

But if I were looking for a varmint rifle, I think I’d 7.5” tops and roll 75 eld-m’s. They shoot pretty amazing out of my BR at 3150fps (probably leaving some speed on the table), and recoil even less than 88’s (not like it’s an issue in a 19lb rifle).

Those new 62 eld-vt’s look VILE.

Hate to hear they discontinued the 95 Sierras. I had been looking for them. My rifle liked them.
 
88s at 100. Bartlein 8 twist
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