doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com A Niedner .22 centerfire of some kind High-Wall

I received by mail today the three fired cases the late owners fired to confirm that the rifle was a .22-Hornet.

One thing I like to do when I get a rifle for an obselete cartridge is try to put together a shooting kit with the old tools.

This is a Ideal, I believe No.3 loading tool marked "22-3000" with the tool are three dies, the neck sizing die is marked "173" the bullet seating die is marked "165" and the inside neck sizing die is marked "223".

I'm not sure what dies original came with the tool and what the number is for the de-capping die and stem. Does anyone have a reference to the die numbers for these?

I also found a little mould and I do mean little. It's made for .22-45gr bullet and with my 1-20 mix it's 44gr. I think this is the smallest mould I have ever used.

The bore of this rifle is very smooth so I'll try a few cast bullets in it next spring.

I've got one of those .22 45 gr. molds also. The flatnosed bullets are very effective on small game without any loss of tasty tissues. I believe they were standard for the .22 WCF, but used in other ctgs., wildcat and factory. They are very like the ".22-8" bullets originally factory loaded in the .22 WRF/.22 Rem Special. Those have also been excellent small game killers and I wish the modern iterations were flatnosed plain lead instead of plated hollow points.

Unfortunately I find the communication between my eyes, brain, and fingers is insufficiently precise these to allow making those little guys any more. I DO like the idea of keeping a set of tools with a gun it was designed to "feed," tho!

Mike,

Do you lube and size your bullets with a Lyman sizer? If so what is the number of the top punch you use? I have No.415 but it does not fit right. I can machine one but would like to buy one if possible. Thanks, MP

Michael, I haven't had a proper setup for this mould for years and wasn't sizing the bullets because I was using black powder and a home-made lube tool made out of a .219 Zipper case. That worked OK for a few shots now and again, all I ever took with my .22 WCF. Somebody else here may have a proper setup.

I'll ask a friend in upstate New York who has a big box of "assorted" old Lyman reloading parts in his gunshop what he's got in .22 top punches. Do all the right series have 4XX numbers? Need to see how the deer and grouse seasons are going up there anyway....

Just got back online after Hurricane Sandy, still no power but I hadn't seen the damage except in my area. Made the decision to pull my boat on Sunday afternoon, good thing too, the water came into Norwalk so high it put 40-50 boats up into the parking lots. A family member just got power restored so I came over to see what's been going on, answer emails, etc.

Here in NY it's "It is unlawful to hunt big game with:...
...A firearm using rimfire ammunition".

That means it's legal to hunt all big game, which include deer, bear, and now hogs, with any centerfire rifle.

Who says we aren't fun here in NY...

Actually, I found hunting in NYS one heck of a lot of fun. Unlike here in LALA-land, where it's mostly really DRIVING! And from a tree stand in the deep woods, just about any rifle, including a pistol, will do. The hardest part is telling horns from branches...

I think the punch number is the last three numbers of the mould. Mould 225415 take No.415, Mould 225438 takes No.438.
If they used the same system back on Ideal moulds the number for the mould was 228151 so I need punch No.151.

Michael, I'll call him tomorrow (Monday) and see if I can start him looking. As I recall, it was a VERY big box....I never got to the bottom of it the one time I looked for 310 dies for .32 S&W. Stopped when I found them!