Modified Bullets.

[ShadeTree]

Wasn't sure which forum to put this in.

Been shooting a few groundhogs with a lever iron sighted 22 I picked up. Out of 6 shot, 4 were confirmed kills, the other 2 were hits that I think they're dead, but can't confirm it.

They've been running off bad even with what ended up being solid hits. Had to go find them in weedy fencerows ect, and finish them off.

Shooting American Eagle HP's. Was obvious they were penciling through without much energy going into the groundhog.

Decided to try something. Took a 9/64 bit and just turning it by hand a few times, the copper jacket is thin enough to allow the bit to grind through and expose the lead plus makes the HP much bigger. Spun them backwards a few times to knock off any burrs.

Here's the difference between the factory bullet in the middle, and the modified bullets. Modified bullets are on par or better with accuracy, surprisingly. Certainly not worse.



Did a water jug test on both. Apparently I never did a jug test with a 22 before. I put up 4 gallon milk jugs expecting it to go into maybe 2. Boy was I wrong.

The factory bullet went through 3 jugs in a steep curving arc from right to left, put a big dent in the left corner of the 4th jug and richoted off somewhere as it was nowhere to be found.

Modified bullet did way better. Split the first jug from top to bottom on the front side, straight line penetrated and barely eeked through the 2cnd jug and poked enough of a hole in the 3rd that it was laying just inside. Expanded to .340, so over 50% increase in frontal area.






Finally got a chance to test it out this evening. Killed a big groundhog at 56 steps. They don't run off no mo'. Hits with a THWAPP. Don't know exactly where I hit him but somewhere in the chest area. Not an instant kill, but completely immobilized him. He went no where. Pretty cool experiment. I like em now.

 

[cloverleaf]

Not that its the same thing.... but I recently shot s gopher w/ my 22 MAG, I was reminded why we liked them out on the prairie. No pics, but lets just say, there was a head, four feet and enough hide left to connect the parts. That's it. CCI 40 Gr solid. Glad your modification worked for you. If not, well the 22 WMR has always works for me. Be interesting to see what the lighter, tipped, MAG ammo would do to a GH. Have fun. CL

 

[ShadeTree]

CL, I've no doubt a higher quality bullet like the CCI Mini-Mag HP's would do a bang up job in their factory form. I bought a brick of these American Eagles because they were cheap and available. They shoot good enough and worked well for target practice but were not doing a very good job on game.

I've since shot 2 more groundhogs with these modified bullets and the results have been the same, none made it more than 2 ft from where they were hit. Huge improvement over what I was seeing.

I shoot sub sonic HP's for squirrels and they are a soft quick expanding bullet. I'm sure they would work well on groundhogs, at least ones that are under 40 yds. But I don't want to use up my squirrel hunting stash of bullets for target and groundhogs.

22 ammo is once again hard to come by in my area. I guess fear of the zombie apocalypse has made the hoarding virus spread quicker than anything else.

 

[cloverleaf]

Heck - why spend more money if modified American Eagle is getting it done for you? IMHO - CCI makes the best .22 out there, (for reasonable money) but that dosent mean they will work better than what you are doing. I suspect your bullets are more frangible and come apart inside your GH, and do all kinds of damage. What else can you ask for? Dad always shot 130 Gr. Speers from his 7 Mag for that reason. Few pass throughs on deer, but an obvious blood trail wasn't required when they dropped within a few steps. Worked for him, works for you. Ive never had nerve enough to open up a loaded round like that.
BTW in my post above I was referring to the 22 WMR, not "mini mag" ammo specifically. The 22 WMR is a different cat entirely, as I'm sure you know. Enjoy your success! CL

 

[SJB358]

Very cool ST! That looks like a neat mod!

 

[truck driver]

CL, I've no doubt a higher quality bullet like the CCI Mini-Mag HP's would do a bang up job in their factory form. I bought a brick of these American Eagles because they were cheap and available. They shoot good enough and worked well for target practice but were not doing a very good job on game.

I've since shot 2 more groundhogs with these modified bullets and the results have been the same, none made it more than 2 ft from where they were hit. Huge improvement over what I was seeing.

I shoot sub sonic HP's for squirrels and they are a soft quick expanding bullet. I'm sure they would work well on groundhogs, at least ones that are under 40 yds. But I don't want to use up my squirrel hunting stash of bullets for target and groundhogs.

22 ammo is once again hard to come by in my area. I guess fear of the zombie apocalypse has made the hoarding virus spread quicker than anything else.

A good .22 cal pellet rifle is great medicine for squirrels and I have killed them out to 50yds with no problems. Like shooting them with a .22 short.
Here's some pictures of my squirrel gun and the ammo is a lot cheaper then .22 rimfire.

 

[ShadeTree]

A little update. I'm up to 11 with this little lever rifle. If I hit them solidly in the chest it's a vast improvement over the factory bullet. Wont kill them outright usually unless the nerve center is hit, but does a good job of anchoring them where they are.

If I don't hit well forwards in the chest I'm still getting some run offs mixed in. Such I guess is the nature of a pretty solidly built animal hit with a 22.

My new idea and experiment is taking those already modified hollow points and using my wife's jewelers saw that she uses for some crafts, I cut a thin cross section in a + pattern across the bullet nose which also makes a shallow skive cut through the top side of the copper jacket.

Hoping to get a peel back action, making a wider shute so to speak slowing the bullet down quicker on impact. Gonna jug test it to see if it will go thru less jugs. Might be an abysmal failure, but I'll know shortly.

 

[Guy Miner]

Keep us updated please!

I remember when Dad and I switched to hollow point .22 long rifle ammo (possibly CCI mini-mags?)

Results were so much faster & more dramatic on small game and vermin.

Guy

 

[ShadeTree]

Keep us updated please!

I remember when Dad and I switched to hollow point .22 long rifle ammo (possibly CCI mini-mags?)

Results were so much faster & more dramatic on small game and vermin.

Guy

Ok here goes. Interesting experiment that would likely be able to be replicated to a degree with larger centerfire bullets if one so chose to modify them to change their behavior on game.

1st pic shows the cross cut that was added to the already modified hollow point.



Side view. Not great pictures but you can see the small skive cut down the side of the jacket.




I done 2 different tests with differently modified bullets that produced significantly different results.

The 1st was with a cross cut that was real shallow. Maybe a 1/16" cut like the bullet shown above.

It went into the jugs somewhat less of a distance than the modified hollow point. Was laying between the 2cnd and 3rd jug instead of making it into the 3rd jug. Was 5% more expanded than the modified hollow point. The cut bullet measured .365.

The 2cnd test was with a bullet that was cross cut deeper. At least 2 to 3 times deeper. That bullet appeared to shear off the petals so to speak and was pretty much just the bullet shank left. Was in the 4th jug and measured .275.

That bullet also weighed 5.5 gr's less than the other 2. That 5.5 gr's went somewhere...….if it shears off in the first 2 inches it might be useful even though it didn't show up in the jug test.

Pic shows the original modified bullet on the left, the shallow cut bullet in the middle, and the deeper cut bullet on the far right. You can see the distinct 4 corners of where the cuts were on the far right bullet.



Another pic of the same.



A side view of the bullets lined up left to right the same as above. Middle bullet in particular with the shallow cuts on top of the modified hollow point is the clear winner it appears on all fronts for what I'm after.