22 WALDOG

[Mulligan]

Just because I can.
I had Dan Dowling chamber up a Waldog (.125" short 22 PPC) for me and have fireformed some brass.

Looking at info in the Precision Shooting Primer and a few benchrest books on powder choices. What powders are or have folks used with success in the Waldog?
I see, N133, LT-30, BLC(1), 748, H4895, H322, H335, 4198 all have been tried, any others?
I did some fireforming with H322 the other day and it shot amazing well with it when fully formed. I also shot some small groups with LT-30, I will be retesting this for sure.

Any, thoughts or info to share?
Thanks
CW

 

[Mulligan]

I forgot to add,
I was pleasantly surprised at the velocity that this little cartridge is capable of!
WOW!
CW

 

[Mulligan]

http://www.gunsmith-of-anderson.com/PDF/adi_4th.pdf

Looks like ADI recommends H4198 and Varget in the Waldog with 52 gr bullets.
CW

 

[AlNyhus]

N133 is where I'd go to start. What a great cartridge! -Al

 

[thekriebles]

Here's a good thread on the wildcat and some load info:

22 Waldog | Shooters' Forum (accurateshooter.com)

 

[Evan]

I forgot to add,
I was pleasantly surprised at the velocity that this little cartridge is capable of!
WOW!
CW

Just a guess, but I'd try Benchmark in it, based on my experience with similar powder to bullet size ratios. I think it'll want slower than H4198 and faster than H4895.

 

[boltfluter]

VV133 was my go to powder for this great little cartridge!

Paul

 

[Mulligan]

VV133 was my go to powder for this great little cartridge!

Paul

Paul,
any others I should try.
I am heading to the range in the morning and would like to give a several powders a look
CW

 

[boltfluter]

CW,

VV133 shot in the 1's on first go round so I saw no reason to try any other powders. Good luck!

Paul

 

[Mulligan]

CW,

VV133 shot in the 1's on first go round so I saw no reason to try any other powders. Good luck!

Paul

That cracks me up, that is exactly what I thought when I tested 322 and LT-30 (both above 3500 really wanted to shoot)!
I guess its not picky?
CW

 

[rogina]

Paul,
any others I should try.
I am heading to the range in the morning and would like to give a several powders a look
CW

I would ask Dan Dowling.

 

[Mulligan]

I would ask Dan Dowling.

I have, just know others have been shooting the waldog and thought it was worth the ask.
Dan has been super helpful, and is an all around good guy. He made my seater die and shortened the 22-250 die to make the brass. He also made me a special critter with a really long neck to help with measuring the the shoulder set-back when forming the brass.
CW

 

[Evan]

Another suggestion that flies under most radar: IMR-3031. Works really nicely in my 20 Vartarg (55gn Bergers) and 300 Savage (155 SMK), both of which seem to be in the same burn area as your Waldog. I wouldn't have 3031 on hand if I had to buy it, but I inherited a keg of it from my grandpa so I try it in pretty much everything. I have found it to be a very consistent and reliable powder much in the same vein as IMR-4064 and IMR-4350. It's closer to stable powders like H4350 than it is to something like AA2200 (my new poster child for really unstable powders). It's a little bulky and will probably fill up your case, particularly compared to smaller grain powders like Benchmark.

 

[Mulligan]

Update

This little cartridge is super fun and amazingly accurate.

About a month after the first Waldog barrel was chambered, I ordered another reamer. This one i ordered from JGS with a .253 neck, BTW, they worked with me on every detail and were super helpful start to finish. The new reamer will allow for .013” neck thickness and still have .003 total neck clearance.

In Aug, of ‘21 the new reamer and three new Kreiger 1:12 LV barrels arrived and it was time for a trip to see Dan.

In late Aug, I took the new barrel out and formed about 30 pieces of brass.
BTW, I found that LT-30 and H322 are fantastic for fireforming waldog brass.

Until yesterday, that is where the project sat.

Landsend Benchrest Club (Whitewater Colorado) has a club shoot every month. I decided to screw that new waldog barrel on and go see what I could learn.
At this time my original Waldog barrel has near 1000 rounds on it and I have learned a great deal. I shot it in several matches and placed better than I have ever placed in this short range game.

This brass has only been fired one time, so it needed at least one more kick in the pants to get fully formed. With a new lot of N-133, I took three loads to the bench and 3 sighters for each load. With 8 rounds of 23-5, 25.0, and 26.0, I headed for the bench, this was a warmup target, so I had a mulligan built in.

23.5 was ok at best
25.0 looked promising
26.0 was a touch spicy, I could feel it the bolt lift and had no interest in going here with new brass.

I tried lots of combinations of powder charge weights, and bullet seating depths throughout the day but each time I shot the changed vs what I had used on the last target, the new changed load did not stack up. As it ended up, I shot all five targets with the exact same powder, charge weight, bullet, seating depth, primer, etc, etc,
25.0 gr of N-133 fueling a BIB 52gr bullet.


I still pretty much suck at short range BR, but this target was exciting to shoot. The rascal that leaked out was my second shot. When I finished the string I was super excited to see the fifth shot go through that same hole.
This was my best target of the day.


Targets in order they were shot.

CW

edited to fix spelling error.
CW

 

[Mulligan]

One other update,
A couple of weeks ago I decided to make up a box of Waldog brass for next season. After the first thirty or so pieces of brass I developed a process that worked fairly well. I was using a small chop saw sold by Harbor Frieght to trim about .100” of the brass then finish trim with my wilson. Since then, I purchased a Frankfurt electric case trimmer to see if it was better. It is.
One think I learned while prepping the first round of brass was that keeping all the tools cool was key to uniformity.
This time I moved 5 cases through all the steps, then started the next five, allowing all the tooling to not get warm to begin with.
In a little over three hours, I had a 100 pieces of Walldog brass ready to fireform.
CW

 

[jimmymac]

So what di you agg over the six targets?

 

[Mulligan]

So what di you agg over the six targets?

Not sure, we never add them up at our club matches.
stand by I will go get the average.
CW

.2505 agg for all 6

CW

 

[jimmymac]

No worries. Don't go out of your way. Was just curious as to agg and what the conditions were like so I can live vicariously through others.

 

[Mulligan]

No worries. Don't go out of your way. Was just curious as to agg and what the conditions were like so I can live vicariously through others.

First target was sunny and crazy mirage

WU 55*F 25% RH calm
T1 54*F 29% RH light breeze
T2 54*F 31% RH light breeze
T3 54*F 33% RH winds picking up
T4 53*F 37% RH steady about 5 mph with little switches in direction
T5 52*F 33% RH winds picked up and switchy. Biggest groups of the day for all shooters.
We had a storm moving through, target 1 through target 5 we had mostly overcast sky’s.
CW

 

[Greyfox]

Thanks for the report. I've been working with several -.100 short barrels for a while. Two are well used but still accurate. Once I decide on the best combination I'll have a new barrel chambered. Seems I've had the best results with LT 30. I can't get enough 32 in the case.

Rick