I bought a tin of GAMO .22 caliber round balls to shoot in the air rifle. Messing around this morning I wondered how they would do in a .22 handgun. So I got out the Bearcat Shopkeeper and went to the shop.

I have a bunch of Russian primed .22 Long Rifle brass and decided to see just how hard the priming compound would push the round ball. I seated the round ball on the Long Rifle brass with a light tap from a small hammer. Then I dipped the nose of the ball into some grease and loaded them into the Bearcat.

I set up a cardboard box about 8 feet away and put 4 layers of cardboard into the box. Then I fired a shot at it, and it whacked the box nicely. I shot several others and noted that sometimes a round shot harder than another did. The diameter of the balls vary. I noted that shooting them in the air rifle. Some drop into the chamber and some have to be pushed in.

I loaded 5 more Long Rifles and set a target at 15 feet. Some of the blame for the 2 shots to the left can be attributed to the shooter.

I ended up shooting 25 rounds or so. Fun little load. No noise other than about like a cap pistol.

Recovered balls .. some have a little more rifling marks than others.

PS .. OH ... the 4 layers of cardboard inside the box (6 layers total) did not stop all the balls. Especially when the shots hit close together. I had a backstop behind the box to catch the errant balls.

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Primed Russian 22 LR cases???? Where did you get them from?

Seems like a fun little project for crappy weather, you get to shoot inside with low noise, I like it!

Gunner

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https://www.instagram.com/41gunner/
41 Mags rule, Baers rock!

I have been reloading them with cast 38gr. and 45 gr. gascheck bullets intended for the 5.56. I use the gascheck step as the "heel" and crimp them into it. With 2 gr. of Bullseye the 38 gr. bullet runs just under 1500 fps from my 6" Single Six. The Russian cases are steel so they hold the high pressure. I am sure if they were brass I would have blown the case heads.

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

I had a couple hundred rounds of the Russian steel cased pooky in the 90s. "Junior". Shot well enough, all went off. Dirty as a sewer, and smoked plenty. Lube was apparently applied with trowel, and it was soft and sticky. I think, if memory serves me right, it was stated as doing 320 m/sec. So under 1100.

I eventually only ran it through a couple of semiautos I had. In my OM Single Six, and my Remington 511, it was an extraction nightmare. Get out the cleaning rod time was anytime you tried it in a fixed breech.

I've seen it badged as "Junior", as "Baikal", and as "Youth". Apparently ad*lts aren't supposed to shoot it.

By the way, this site is picking up "ad-ult" as a dirty word.

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

Had maybe a squirrel on the front? And a target? We shot 'em but I can't really think of a particular redeeming value other than going bang. Oh, and being damnable cheap.

I don't have any primed .22 cases to play with, But. You have me wondering how a power level 1 or 2 nail set blank would work with those?

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Ele era velho.
Ele era corajoso.
Ele era feio.

I believe you are correct on Komrade Skvirrel being on the front. The box was a sort of 1950s seafoam color. Looked like the primary color of some two tone Pontiac wagon. Actually kind of a pretty color.

They were indeed damnably cheap, and I would have gotten more, but they disappeared as quickly as they appeared. My Smith 422 digested them fine, as long as you cleaned it every 100 or so rounds. It was fun to pretend you were shooting black powder.

Azults should have .22 ammo choices.

Good idea....say use a 22 cal pellet with its flared base pushed into the chamber throat and load a blank behind it, might be pretty loud though fun.

Gunner

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https://www.instagram.com/41gunner/
41 Mags rule, Baers rock!

out of .22 Hornet and .222 Rem rifles using a primer only. With a closed breech, they are pretty quiet. I'll have to dig out that kit again.....there has been a woodpecker bothering my house.

I had a Savage 219 in 22 Hornet a few years back break action single shot. I drilled out a few cases to accept 209 shotshell primers. They would push a .22 air rifle pellet out at a pretty good click! I’ve also read that a 209 primer fits a 25 acp chamber and there is a size of biuckshot that is the right diameter for the littlest acp. Apparently you can put the two together and have some quiet fun.

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I had that combo down at Cannon's one year but I think that was before you started coming. I'll have to dig it out---still have the better part of 5lbs of shot!