Thread: 22lr Resizing/Hollow Pointing Tool

Hey Folks, I have been working on a 22lr resizing / hollow pointing tool. What I have made is basically a direct copy of the Neal Waltz die, with a couple of minor changes. His design is by far the best from what I have found online, it seems to be the fastest, most consistent and safest, compared to others that involve hammers and such.



The purpose of this tool is two fold. The main reason I wanted to make it was to experiment with bumping up cheap target ammo to a consistent diameter to improve accuracy, or at least cut down on random fliers. I purchased a couple of cases of Gecko target ammo and they shoot like crap out of my main rifle. Previous purchases of this ammo worked perfectly, so it was disappointing to find I have 10,000 rds that are next to useless. The diameters of these projectiles range from 0.2227 to 0.2246 which is a huge variation and is likely some of the reason for poor performance. This die is designed to bump the projectiles to a consistent 0.2250 and the sizing section is removable if I want to make this smaller or larger in the future. This size bump achieved by putting a small flat on the end of the projectile (the same as seen on Eley Tenex and Eley Match) which slightly swells the sides to match the die.

The second reason for this tool is to add hollow points to quality ammo. I have a decent quantity of Eley Standard which shoots amazingly well and I would like to add hollow points for shooting rabbits rather than buying CCI hollows or similar.

The tool works by mounting in a reloading press, and using a 22lr case holder I made to run the cartridge up into the die. The punch is floating inside the die and is stopped at a certain point by the top stem, which is adjustable and can be locked in place. Force required for the hollowpoints is probably 20% of that used to seat nice BT projectiles. The flat nose sizing can be done simply with the weight of the handle. So forces on the cartridge are very low.




I have not tested either for accuracy yet, though I did an expansion test by shooting into a box full of wet newspaper and cardboard. They penetrated around 150mm of this and all mushroomed nicely to around 0.40" I am planning to make a longer hollow pointing stem and possibly add a small cup or dish shape to the tip as well to promote more expansion. The purpose of the hollowpoints is to try and get as much energy out of the projectile before it leaves the rabbit to reduce the chance of ricochets. I generally only take headshots, so solids work just fine at killing them, but sail on through like they didn't hit anything at all and have a lot of energy on exit.



Once I have shot a few samples for accuracy, I will post the results here.