If I recall correctly, CCI came out with their 22 LR“SGB” (small game bullet) for the in the mid 90’s. The load uses a 40 gr bullet with a truncated nose running at 1235 fps. The idea was to get “stopping” power better than a round nose and similar to a hollow point bullet, but without excessive “meat spoilage.” Also, 22 LR hollow bullets are known for inconsistent expansion. I used the modified bullets on squirrel hunts and was very pleased with it’s performance. Unfortunately, CCI later discontinued the load. About this same time, I came across build it yourself instructions for a tool to convert round nose bullets to a small game bullet configuration. My father-in-law, a master carpenter and consummate handy man, kindly made me one of these tools. I used the “homemade” small game bullets (HMSGB) on a few squirrel hunts and they did well. At some point, my attention turned to other things and the HMSGB tool was hidden in a deep, dark corner in my closet. In the past few years I’ve had a resurgence in shooting my 22 LR’s. I found CCI’s SGB was on the market again. Although it’s on their website, I can’t find it anywhere. In an email, CCI told me it had not been discontinued and was still in production. The current SGB is one of the most accurate factory loads in my rifles, But in my suppressed rifles, it is noticeably louder than subsonic ammo. I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t be neat if someone made a subsonic SGB?” Then I remembered my HMSBG tool. Once I found it, I modified two of my favorite subsonic loads, CCI Standard Velocity and Norma TAC-22.

The tool is pretty simple. It’s a piece of metal that’s 0.932” long x 0.50” wide. At the base, the internal diameter of 0.230“. At the other end (tip of bullet) the internal diameter is 0.210. At the base, there’s a circumferential recess of 0.044” cut into it. Put a bullet into the tool with the rim of the load in the small recess. A small amount of the bullet sticks out the other end. I put the tool in the jaws of a vise grip and set the base of the tool/bottom of load on a flat surface. I use a double cut file to remove the part of the bullet sticking out the top end of the tool. After a couple cuts at different angles, I’m done. From start to finish, I can easily do a box of 50 rounds in less than 30 minutes. The tool removes 0.024”of bullet length and 0.6 gr of bullet weight from the TAC-22 ammo. The tool removes 0.045” of bullet length and 0.5 gr of bullet weight from the CCI SV ammo. For you revolver shooters, the new bullet looks sort of like a semi-wadcutter bullet. As you can see in the pics, the HMSGB conversion loses a small degree of accuracy with theTAC-22 load but is stable with the CCI Standard Velocity. In the one possum I shot using the HMSGB, it seemed to do better than a round nose bullet. In my Savage Mk II and Howa M1100 rifles, the converted loads feed well. If you’re interested in playing around with homemade small bullet loads, I’ve seen DIY tool instructions as well as complete tools for sale on the ‘net.

All shooting was done with at 50 yards with a stock Savage Mark II and Hawke 4-12 Illuminated Reticle at 8X.

Left to right, 90’s CCI SGB, TAC-22 HMSGB, CCI SV HMSGB and current CCI SGB