Mold questions
Ok I’ll admit right away that I’m new to air rifles so I need some guidance from all of you with more experience than I in the matter of bullet molds and sizing for your barrel. First could lyman 22cal 40 or 55gr mold be used if a custom sizer where made to .220. And could a 25cal 65 gr sized to .251 be run though a standard 25 cal barrel. Have been casting bullets for pistols for years and thought this maybe an option but wanted advice first. Thanks Russ
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Thanx guys, that saves me some time and trouble.
I been say’n! Ain’t been Say’n? 🙄
EXACTLY what I was gonna say MIKE after reading this post for the 1st time.
EVERYONE keeps forgetting about TWIST RATE. Shooting a 22 cal 40-50 gr bullet has to have a GOOD twist rate for caliber/fps. The sizing of the bore is just ONE ASPECT of accuracy, you’ve got to get the twist rate right as well as the ideal speed and a reservoir big enough to be consistent in the shot string.
MAny factors here guys
Yep, I tried it with some cut-offs of .22 LR. barrels here at the shop. Nope. Shot for shit! Problem is, wrong twist rate for bullets in our pellet barrels. 🙁
Knife
This thread came at the right time, I’m in the process of resizing .22 (40gr) ammo to try out in my Condor. I was thinking that if accuracy wasn’t acceptable, would it work if I pushed the bullet through my rifles barrel and then shooting it? Has anyone tried this?
Yep, What Jerry said. and exactly why we have gone to TJ barrels! 😉
but given a good barrel, the .25 Jerry Slugs can be very accurate. As far as I know, My barrel still holds the record posted here on the forum for Jerry’s slugs. Seems like it was around 1/4″ at 50 yards for the 7 ring slugs. Hope Doug gets the mold figured out for you guy’s soon. but for me. I’m lov’n the .257’s. 😀
But Jerry and his Kid’s started all this here on the TAG 😆
Knife
Lurker,
Nice accurate and valuable comments. One other thing to add: we re-melted a butt-ton of slugs before shipping as well. Tiny slugs are hard to cast “perfect” compared to larger slugs/bullets and any imperfections will have a larger impact. That said, we re-melted a bunch of slugs/bullets that would have shot fine but the tiniest cosmetic flaw would be cause for customer dissatisfaction and we wanted happy customers who would find the actual root cause of any accuracy issue vice blaming the slugs. Not that every shipment was perfect (I remember going high and right on one bad send/replace…) but we tried for slugs so good they could not be the problem. That really paid off as a dozen or more customers were able to contact me and I could relate back lessons from you guys and then the customer ended up with power and accuracy and was happy.
All that said, here’s a couple comments:
Cutting the choke off a barrel does not make it unsuitable for pellets….unless it’s a sub-par barrel to begin with. I’ve got a Barnes gun and instead of always casting for it, I often size Kodiak .25 pellets for it and it is extremely accurate. That’s because it is a quality barrel that does not have big changes in diameter down the bore. Unfortunately, lots of LW barrels are inconsistent in bore and more so in the last few years. So, yeah, if you cut the choke off a POS barrel, it won’t be good for pellets with skirts but the fundamental issue is that chokes were invented to compensate for bad barrels, not because chokes have any intrinsic value. Chokes are a crutch for crappy barrels.
The ring slugs were designed to maintain groove sealing and still be able to deform through the choke with minimal energy absorption. Since they are not inflatable, we could not account for a barrel pinched at both ends as some recent barrels have proven to be at heretofore extreme measurements. There are a couple ways to make sure the barrels are not crap but the best way is to get them from vendors that give a “hoot” about their customers.
A slug or pellet shoved with a dowel rod into the barrel half way or so towards the muzzle and then shoved back out the breach and measured with micrometers will give you roughly the barrel diameter. That is close but I say roughly because the first few inches will be smaller due to machining the breach slide area.
To get the choke size shove the slug all the way thru and out the muzzle. Making note of the distances where the slug gets harder to shove should indicate where the choke begins.
Using Chinka digital calipers I got the following:
LW barrel diameter 0.054 to 0.055″.
LW barrel CHOKE diameter 0.052 to 0.053″.
Your mileage will no doubt vary ❗
The depth of the slug groves is important but ALSO the width needs to be narrower than rifle bullets.
Jerry’s surefire slugs were a fine example of being engineered specifically for slugs to be shot from a choked pellet barrel.
They were no doubt a challenge to cast and maintain the proper shape of all the ridges.
Those of us that hope to cast our own from Jerry’s design will be doing a lot of re-melting in order to get the accuracy we got from Jerry’s surefire slugs.
Theoretical is 0.0005. Your mileage may vary.
John
So has any one been able to measure how much smaller the chock is as compared to the rest of the barrel diameter? The slugs I was looking at had three fairly deep rings for the slug to ride on as to not stick in the choke maybe, depending on the constriction.
Stock (and most custom) pellet barrels have a choke to the muzzle end. To fire bullets the choke must be removed, making it useless for pellets. See the mods section for threads concerning .257 conversions for details. In general chat there’s an ongoing discussion on ringed slugs which work in choked barrels.
John
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Yes, I would like to just give a little, for Jerry and his sons’ for making us these fine slugs, and for delivering them at such a small price! Thank- You!! Fellow Airgunner and Brother. Sincerely Michael Watson