.222 Rem Mag.

[Ross308]

Man I shoot with won a 300 yd. egg shoot with his .222 Mag. this past summer. Granted this isn't a real test of accuracy but there were some real good rifles he beat. Not too shabby shooters either. But that was about as far as you can expect the .222 Rem. to shoot with any kind of accuracy. At least according to all I've read on the Rem. and Rem. Mag. My question is how come the AR .223, the one that beat the .222 Rem. mag. for our military, is used in some 600 yd. and even 1000 yd. matches and turns in some pretty respectable performances? The .222 has more case capacity and I don't see anything wrong in the design like I'd even know, but I would think it would perform right along with the AR. The twist in my .222 is one in fourteen and is probably part of the problem. Would a faster twist stablize the heavier bullets and add the yardage necessary to compete with the AR? Got an old Savage 112 J and am looking at the possibilities. Thanks for your time.
Dan R.

 

[SDWhirlwind]

I have been a big fan of the 222mag for 25+yrs but currently don't have anything barreled up to shoot. Great round in my opinion that would be my first choice if I had to decide between 222,223 and the mag. Really though the difference in case capacity over the 223 is small. Have recut a couple of 223 barrels and there is roughly about .040 difference in body length, the neck is considerably longer that the 223 though.

Depending on barrel of course but the mag will run perhaps 100fps at most over the 223 in comparable barrel quality/type!

Shot well over 100 fox with one rig I used to have. Then stupidly tore it down and rebarreled it to a 223AI just for something different. Really between the 223, 223AI and the 222mag is whatever blows your skirt up!!! What makes the 223 what it is is cheap ammo and cheap brass because of its military nitch.

Just my .02 cents worth however!

 

[K22]

The faster twist in the AR's enable one to shoot heavier bullets with higher BC thus provides a better long range performance.

The 222 Magnum has about a 5% greater case capacity than the 223. I always thought it was a very interesting cartridge but never consider buying a rifle chambered in it because it was one of those "test" cartridges that never caught on thus doomed to obsolences which raises the cost and availablity of brass will become problematic.

 

[LesWard]

Wow, still have 222 Mag dies in my collection. It was my brothers rifle and we used to raise hell with the varmit population in CA, Baja, back in the day. It was a Rem Varmit 700 and was a great shooter.

Take care , Les

 

[40X Guy]

I bought a used .222 Mag in a 722 Rem. in the early 90's to use for PD hunting. Used the factory barrel on it and reloads with 40 grain BT's and had a ball the first trip out west. I decided to rebarrel the rifle and the thing was point and shoot after the rebarrel job. But range was maybe 350 yards max, but it was deadly accurate using the same reload recipe as the factory barrel.

I would not hesitate to build one with a 8 twist and set it up for 69 SMK's or 75 A-Max as I believe it would be an accurate rifle. But gather up all the componets first, especially a quantity of brass. Then sort by weight and neck thickness etc.

I totally got out of the .222 Mag. but kinda miss the ole girl. I currently have a standard .223 and a .223 AI and they are equal to the .222 Mag and the added benefit of better brass.

Frank

 

[GSPV]

I know where there is a cool little Sako in 222 Mag that used to belong to my dad. I've never pulled the trigger to buy it because of the brass issue.

 

[North Fork]

I have a sako L461 IN A 222 mag i shoot 45 and 50gr bullits Remington makes brass for it.The brass runs about 45 dollars a 100.

 

[GSPV]

So many desireable/worthy calibers. So little time, room in the safe, dollars in the budget.

My 10twist 6BR does everything that a 222 mag would and does it better for the games that I play.

 

[Ross308]

Thanks a lot for all the feedback on the 222. Rem. Mag. I like the idea of the Rem. Mag. but I have to be realistic too. Really hate that sometimes. So I guess I'll stick with my original thought and go with one of the 6 mm.'s or maybe a 6.5. They both seem to be real competitive in most any type of shoot.
Thanks again for all your time.
Dan R.

 

[LCazador]

Thanks a lot for all the feedback on the 222. Rem. Mag. I like the idea of the Rem. Mag. but I have to be realistic too. Really hate that sometimes. So I guess I'll stick with my original thought and go with one of the 6 mm.'s or maybe a 6.5. They both seem to be real competitive in most any type of shoot.
Thanks again for all your time.
Dan R.

The 222 Mag will out shoot the 223 Rem all the way around . It's in between the 223 and the 22/250 in performance . With the availability of cheap 223 brass ( not cheap anymore ) and the extreme performance of the 22/250 , it has lost a lot of popularity . I still own several 222 Mag rifles and in my opinion outperform any 223 and come damn near close to outperforming a 22/250 . With a longer neck that's much better suited for long range performance , it's an ideal long range cartridge . I've also shot the 6mm version of this long ago in Benchrest , 6X47 . The 6X47 was also deadly on prairie dogs out to 700 yards , and the 222 mag with 50gr. V-maxs is no slouch out to 500yds . Remington still makes an annual run of brass each spring .

 

[vtmarmot]

For brass, I believe you can neck up the .204 Ruger. Mike Venturino wrote recently that of the .222, .223 and .222 magnum, the latter is his favorite. It had some bench rest success prior to the 6mm's coming in. Henry Christman, of Texas, appeared in a Nosler ad in 1981 touting his success with it. A friend has one of his rifles, and it is both a looker and a shooter. He just recently bought a couple hundred cases from Midway, so maybe they still have some. I bought a 6x47 last fall about this time and got 300 cases from Midway at that time, so fall seems to be the time for them to be in stock. I think the .222 magnum has a longer neck than the .223 and will give longer throat life as the turbulence point is within the case. I think it also shares a shallow leade angle with the .222 which increases accuracy. From what I read, the reason the .223 won out for the military contract was a typical big brass boondoggle.

 

[acloco]

I built a 222 Magnum AI by running my 223 AI reamer a little deeper. I named this cartridge "Super Duece".

Neck up 204 Ruger brass (....a LOT cheaper and readily available), use some H4895, an 80 gr AMax.....and make yourself look great when you go long. 1000 yards is no problem.