north American Arms .22 .22 bullet shortage

[Mike Stone]

Hello everyone.
If you have one of these fine pieces of black Powder equipment you will know that the bullets are very hard to find right now and they seem to be proprietary.
I figured out a way to make 25 g air gun pellets work and the black powder pistols.
I've cast plenty of bullets in my day and there's no way I'm going to cast a 100 .22 caliber bullets and cut off the sprew and clean them up this is much easier
I am using Diablo knockout air gun slugs 25.39 grains caliber .218, Normally they're too small and they'll just drop into the cylinder.
First find a piece of plate steel about 1/4 inch thick And drill a hole in it about .218", Just so the blunt end snugly fits into the hole.
Take your Vice Jaw protectors for your bench Vice and drill a very shallow to .218" hole in that.
Place one of the projectiles in the plate steel But first And Situate it on the vice so the point of the projectile is right where the hole you drilled is in the jaw protector is.
Once it's snug give it the vice handle a quarter turn may be a little more and it will squeeze the body of the projectile and make it larger than .22 by a couple of thousands.

Now the base of the projectile will fit in the cylinder far enough to get started and then just press with the loading tool and it will load nicely even cut off a little circle of lead so you'll know that it's sealed.

 

[sheriff john]

Is there a size of buckshot that will work? Asking out of ignorance.

 

[SDSmlf]

Is there a size of buckshot that will work? Asking out of ignorance.

Believe F buck is .220” diameter and #4 buck is .240” diameter. Not aware of any sizes in between, though that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

 

[bpalbee]

I have this .22 bullet mold, makes CB short style and larger slugs (haven't weighed them yet) It works well for me:

https://22lrreloader.com/products/22-reloader-kit

 

[TNGhost]

Not sure what diameter you are aiming for, but North American probably uses the same groove diameter as they do in their cartridge .22 revolvers of the same type. So that would put the bullet at .223 to .2255.

One alternative for you would be to carefully pull .22rf bullets, which depending on the diameter of your cylinder would be easy to load as they have heeled bullets.

Another idea would be the buckshot as mentioned by @SDSmlf above, or some lead wire and then get yourself a LEE bullet sizer, which they make in .223 and .224 for 20 bucks

https://www.midsouthshooterssupply....sic-bullet-sizing-kit-0point224-inch-diameter

 

[KingOfKindling]

Another option is Marty's molds. They make double sided .230 buckshot molds. Would be quite fast to cast a bunch of those.

https://martysmolds.com/products/round-ball-molds-inch-sizes?variant=21275717337142

 

[Bnewberry]

Number 4 buckshot works. It is a little hard to start into the chamber. I use a short brass rod and a very small mallet.

 

[Whitworth]

Hello everyone.
If you have one of these fine pieces of black Powder equipment you will know that the bullets are very hard to find right now and they seem to be proprietary.
I figured out a way to make 25 g air gun pellets work and the black powder pistols.
I've cast plenty of bullets in my day and there's no way I'm going to cast a 100 .22 caliber bullets and cut off the sprew and clean them up this is much easier
I am using Diablo knockout air gun slugs 25.39 grains caliber .218, Normally they're too small and they'll just drop into the cylinder.
First find a piece of plate steel about 1/4 inch thick And drill a hole in it about .218", Just so the blunt end snugly fits into the hole.
Take your Vice Jaw protectors for your bench Vice and drill a very shallow to .218" hole in that.
Place one of the projectiles in the plate steel But first And Situate it on the vice so the point of the projectile is right where the hole you drilled is in the jaw protector is.
Once it's snug give it the vice handle a quarter turn may be a little more and it will squeeze the body of the projectile and make it larger than .22 by a couple of thousands.

Now the base of the projectile will fit in the cylinder far enough to get started and then just press with the loading tool and it will load nicely even cut off a little circle of lead so you'll know that it's sealed.

I've gone the opposite way, shooting my leftover NAA .22 bullets in a .22 pellet rifle after I sold the BP NAA . I've had the .22LR model for 30+ plus years. Pellets are good idea at the price of .22 Shorts and finding them these days. YMMV

 

[justinoldguy]

I still got nearly 100 of the 150 bullets I bought when I purchased my Companion .22 Magnum back in the 1990's. Still have that gun, but have not laid eyes on it since the 90's. That should be instructional as to how poor performing it is, and that it is no fun whatsoever.

 

[Indy Durtdigger]

Hello everyone.
If you have one of these fine pieces of black Powder equipment you will know that the bullets are very hard to find right now and they seem to be proprietary.
I figured out a way to make 25 g air gun pellets work and the black powder pistols.
I've cast plenty of bullets in my day and there's no way I'm going to cast a 100 .22 caliber bullets and cut off the sprew and clean them up this is much easier
I am using Diablo knockout air gun slugs 25.39 grains caliber .218, Normally they're too small and they'll just drop into the cylinder.
First find a piece of plate steel about 1/4 inch thick And drill a hole in it about .218", Just so the blunt end snugly fits into the hole.
Take your Vice Jaw protectors for your bench Vice and drill a very shallow to .218" hole in that.
Place one of the projectiles in the plate steel But first And Situate it on the vice so the point of the projectile is right where the hole you drilled is in the jaw protector is.
Once it's snug give it the vice handle a quarter turn may be a little more and it will squeeze the body of the projectile and make it larger than .22 by a couple of thousands.

Now the base of the projectile will fit in the cylinder far enough to get started and then just press with the loading tool and it will load nicely even cut off a little circle of lead so you'll know that it's sealed.

Those Diabolo pellets and the slugs offered for those air powered unmentionables are available in multiple diameters for each respective caliber. If you know what size you are bumping them up to you may be able to just buy what you need.