On Fri, 28 Aug 2015 14:45:50 -0500, Pete Keillor
wrote:

On Fri, 28 Aug 2015 12:08:12 -0700, wrote:

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

Personally, I wouldn't mess with a 514. And .22's are finally
starting to come down in price here in Texas.

If you can do the work to change the bolt to centerfire, could you
consider building a chamber reamer for a wildcat? Maybe base a
pipsqueak (Ha! good name) on the .25 auto necked down. That'd be a
pain in the ass to load for sure. But at least the brass exists.

Pete Keillor
Greetings Pete,
If I was to do this I want to be able to convert my rifle back to
rimfire if they ever come back down in price. I still have not been
able to find CB shorts or longs available here in WA. Every time I
check any of the local stores they are sold out. And mail order
sources aren't doing so well either. I sure hope you are right about
prices finally coming down. There was absolutely NO reason for the
price of .22 rounds to increase by a factor of 10 practically
overnight.
Eric