The good ol'days 6000fps .22

[mstuhr]

Howdy,
I am going out tonight and hit the tub a while ago with a couple of yard sale GUNS & AMMO magazines from the early 60's.
They have an article where they are playing with a .22-284 and a Remington sintered iron 15 grain bullet over 50 grains of 4227 at 6585 fps. WOW! They cracked 6,000 with the same amount of 4198.
The article claims it shot fair holding moa out to 200 yards.
In the article they go one to say they reached the 6,000 fps mark with a .30 also. It was a 30-378 with some sort of Ken Speer made .30 caliber, 30 grain bullet over 100 grains of 4198.
It is great. Cheek on the wood test, reading the brass and primers and using a slide rule to formulate someone's theory in reverse to figure pressure.
This was a feature article in the August 1964 issue. It is a great read and I doubt you see much like it written these days.
Just thought I'd share.
Thanks
Mike

 

[flat top]

Mike; As a lifelong wildcatter stories like this really interest me. If you could share your thoughts when complete with the article, it would be appreciated. One of my wildcats, a 22 centerfire would propel a 52 grn BTHP at 4170 fps....using 1/3 less powder than a Swift or 22.250. The standard of deviation was (.7). I still use this wildcat for hunting to this day, and after thousands of rounds of it through the two rifles I have it chambered in, it still shoots one holers! Anyway, keep us posted...it ought to be a great story!!!!

 

[Jim in Wisconsin]

I remember that article-shows how old I am. Is this the one where they were trying to duplicate small meteorites hitting space shuttle parts?

 

[thomashoward]

sounds a lot like the Eargasplittenloudenboomer in P.O.Ackly's book

 

[Wee Hooker]

So how many shots did they get to a barrel?? 3?

 

[mstuhr]

Howdy

Howdy,
I'll try to address some of these questions.
Flat top first. The article was written by Bob Hutton G&A'a tech man at the time. It loooks to me the the most practical load they came up with in the 22-284 was a Sierra 53 grain bullet over 41 grains of 3031 that chronoed at 3890. They describe it as "Very accurate".
They pushed a 50 grain bullet to 4416 with 54 grains of 4350.
The little 15 grain sintered bullets used in the 6585 fps loads were pulled from Remington Rocket shorts.
Better yet if you e-mail me your address I'll send the magazine to you. I have read and re-read them and it will sit around here for years if I dont pass it on.
Hi Jim,
They dont mention the meteorites in this but they do say that they were trading info with the millitary so it might be related.
Hi Thomas,
I'm surprised there was no mention of how loud it gets when you launch a 15 grain bullet at 6585 fps. I bet it roars!
Hi Wee,
They did speculate that barrel life might not be much.
Thanks
Mike

 

[DCWilson]

I remember that article-shows how old I am. Is this the one where they were trying to duplicate small meteorites hitting space shuttle parts?

If I remember correctly, that was a different article that came out a few years earlier -- maybe 1960 -- and I think they were trying to evaluate micrometeorite impacts on oribital satellites. Anybody old enough to remember Vanguard and Telstar? Sputnik too, for that matter, but I don't think we cared to much about what would happen to Russian orbiters if they got hit by space pebbles.

I seem to recall that article described a .30-06 case with a very light plastic sabot that carried a BB-size projectile. If I remember correctly, the experiments reported in G&A achieved some incredible speeds -- about 30,000 fps at the muzzle, and they didn't lose much speed in the few feet the pellet had to cross to get to the impact point.

At one point I had a complete collection of G&A from the first issue through about 1962. No idea what happened to them. They may have been jettisoned while I was off at college. Wish I still had them.