222 Remington Load

[LSmountainman]

Hi guys, I am new to the forum and this forum was suggested to me. I am a reloader and I have an old Savage 340 222 Remington bolt action. I have been tearing my hair out trying to find a good load recipe for this gun. I am shooting a 50 grain Hornady Vmax with S&B psmall rifel primers. I have used H335, H322 and IMR8208XBR. My accuracy is terrible and my velocity swings are all over the place. Today I ran a 10 shot ladder test over my Magnetospeed with 8028, the velocities were everywhere. I know the bullet is a good match for the gun, Hornady sells the bullet in factory ammo for this gun. I exchanged emails with a Sierra ballistician today and he said, hands down, IMR4198 is the way to go. I'm up for trying it...what else could I be looking at? Primer switch? Winchester primers have treated me well in other guns.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Lone Hunter]

Try some IMR-4198 and some 50 gr. Nosler B.T's. My first and second varmint rifles were .222 Rem. and they shot that load pretty good. Killed a lot of groundhogs and crows with them. I also used Remington primers then but I now use CCI on everything except my match rifles. I have always found IMR -4198 to work in that and .223. If you can't get those bullets to shoot the Sierra 50 gr BlitzKing is also a very good and accurate bullet

 

[JEFFPPC]

Hi guys, I am new to the forum and this forum was suggested to me. I am a reloader and I have an old Savage 340 222 Remington bolt action. I have been tearing my hair out trying to find a good load recipe for this gun. I am shooting a 50 grain Hornady Vmax with S&B psmall rifel primers. I have used H335, H322 and IMR8208XBR. My accuracy is terrible and my velocity swings are all over the place. Today I ran a 10 shot ladder test over my Magnetospeed with 8028, the velocities were everywhere. I know the bullet is a good match for the gun, Hornady sells the bullet in factory ammo for this gun. I exchanged emails with a Sierra ballistician today and he said, hands down, IMR4198 is the way to go. I'm up for trying it...what else could I be looking at? Primer switch? Winchester primers have treated me well in other guns.

Thanks for any help.

For years i used IMR 4198 until I put a new barrel on my sporter. It would not shoot. I tried several other powders with poor results. As a last resort I tried 4895. Like a different gun.

 

[Kurz]

First of all, Savage began manufacturing the model 340 in 1950, which means it potentially could be nearly 70 years old. This can indicate a couple of things right off the bat; the barrel is worn badly or fouled and the firing pin spring may need to be replaced. This where I imagine that the 'velocity swings' come into play.

As to inaccuracy, the first place to check is the barrel band near the front of the forearm. This can create more problems than it's worth but it is usually necessary to keep the rifle in balance.

Remember also that this a single lug action, not geared to high pressure loads at all. It flexes.

Personally, I suggest taking it to a gunsmith who understands repairs and see what he has to say after talking to you and looking at the rifle. Some judicious bedding might be a solution given the barrel band and the age of the wood.

Good Luck with the project!

 

[wapiti25]

IMR 4198 and IMR 4895 have worked for me. Fed 205 primers. I have shot good groups with Benchmark in a 222 Rem.

 

[Tom Blue]

If it were me, and I was you, and I had it to do with that pencil barrel, I would go low and stay low in velocity. Example, 18 gr H4198, 20.5 gr H322, 23 gr Benchmark, 23.5 gr H4895 with 52 grain bullet, low velocity, no more than 3000 fps. You may find better consistency at real low velocities.

 

[RonS]

I'm having that same issue with my old Rem 788 in 222 Rem with any 50gr. bullet I've tried. I was told that I have a 14 twist barrel with zero freebore so I should consider using 40gr bullet instead. So I've loaded up a bunch using all of the above mentioned powders as well as CFE BLK, which is listed on Hodgdon's website for the 222 Rem. Hopefully I'll make it out this weekend for more testing. If this doesn't work, I may convert this gun into a...

 

[MrMajestic]

Try a box of Remington index #R222R3 50 grain Power-Lokt Hollow Points for a base line accuracy. It has shot very well in many .222's I have owned and also by others I have shot with.

 

[Intheshop]

My first true varmint rig was a 1st year 722 in 222 with it's original 10x Weaver.

With 50 g Sierras and IMR4198,it thought itself a BR rig.Couldn't shoot long strings of fire though.We used to have a job going on in shop,step outside to a full on concrete shooting station and send a Sierra down range.Go back in shop....10 minute intervals,you know,just about what any serious G-hogger has dreams of WRT to shot opportunities.

Single ragged hole,5 shot groups at 100.Key points were.....not stressing or pushing the skinny brrl into something it's not.Proper bedding and fire control system.RELAXED shooting pace,along with clear calm thought processing (the job in shop would be primary focus,shooting groups became secondary,fun).

 

[ireload2]

Get rid of that silly plastic tip boat tail bullet. That Hornady ammo was not made just for the 340 Savage. It was also made for a train load of Remington 722s, 700s and 788s, Sakos and many others.
Use a flat base spitzer or HP like some of the match bullets and the Hornady and Sierra 50 to 55 grain flat based spitzer bullets.

You might run a Hoppes #9 patch through the bore once a day for about 2 weeks and let the Hoppe's slowly dissolve any metal fouling. Besure to examine your bore each time for corrosion and pitting. The bore could have been damaged earlier in its long life.

My own .222 is nearly 50 years old. I have shot Federal 50 grn spitzer factory ammo to get brass, I have also handloaded 53 grain match HP Hornady bullets, 50 grain and 55 grain flat base spitzers made by both Hornady and Sierra. They all shot groups around 1/2" way back then. There were no plastic tipped bullets back then.

 

[wapiti25]

As was recommended try flat based bullets, some barrels do not like boat tail's. 50 and 53 gr

 

[Pawnee Bill]

First of all, Savage began manufacturing the model 340 in 1950, which means it potentially could be nearly 70 years old. This can indicate a couple of things right off the bat; the barrel is worn badly or fouled and the firing pin spring may need to be replaced. This where I imagine that the 'velocity swings' come into play.

As to inaccuracy, the first place to check is the barrel band near the front of the forearm. This can create more problems than it's worth but it is usually necessary to keep the rifle in balance.

Remember also that this a single lug action, not geared to high pressure loads at all. It flexes.

Personally, I suggest taking it to a gunsmith who understands repairs and see what he has to say after talking to you and looking at the rifle. Some judicious bedding might be a solution given the barrel band and the age of the wood.

Good Luck with the project!

The Savage 340 is/was not known for great accuracy. They were Savage's response to the Rem 722 back in the day. It was primarily used for varmint hunting as the short length made it easy to carry in your pickup.

 

[Ggmac]

Gunsmith time . Check with Borescope for rust and bore damage .

 

[Ggmac]

What do your fired cases look like .

 

[stacy]

FOR YEARS THE FOR MY 40X 222 HAS LOVED H-322 22GRS 205 FED PRIMERS AND 52 GR BERGERS HAVE MADE SOME NICE BUGHOLES

 

[hunter243sgk]

When i first started to load for my 722 in 222 i hadnt loaded for any calibers that small in a few years. Because of this i didnt really have any of what i thought were the right powders. I did have some imr 4320 and used it with cci 400s and 50g vmax and some very old speer 50g fb pills. I got very good accuracy with both bullets. Then i got some imr 4198 and just use it now. I have heard from several people that they get great accuracy with the 40g pills but my best is with the 50s. Average speed is 3152 with the 50s. This is with some old federal brass and a few rems all were from the very old ammo i got with it.

 

[velocette]

I've had good luck with my .222 using 19.6 gr H322 and a Sierra 52 MK, 19.4 gr H322 and a Berger 52, 23.3 gr of N 133 behind a Berger 55. All were one hole 5 rd groups at 100 yds.

 

[AckleymanII]

Bore scope time, check all screws, use a known scope that you trust, inspect crown, rifle is probably not bedded nor barrel freefloated.

Change primers, Rem 7 1/2, cci 400, CCI br4, feds have very thin cups.... and you know your firing pin has a lot of slop around it which will leade to cratering on primers early on pressures...

Cleaning techniques you use?

How long is the leade? Can you touch the lands with the bullet on the OAL?

19.5g -20.5g of 4198 with a 50g V max with a thick cup primer should do you well if can touch the lands with the bullet, FORGET BOOK MAX OAL!!! You do need to know your max OAL for the magazine.

If you have a long leade in that rifle, go with a Sierra 55g Semi point which is an ungodly accurate bullet or a 52g speer HP: if you can not touch the lands with either of these bullets, go with a 63g Sierra semi point and H4895, they are unreal accurate in a 222.
Back when everyone was getting rid of their 222's and going to the 6 PPC, I was buying all the 222 match barrels and we shot untold thousands of rounds out of them on p. dog towns back then. Those throats got real long and these bullets that had more bearing surface shot fantastic for a long time, even when they had to jump to the lands.

Good luck!

 

[M-61]

Since 1975 I've found (in my rifle) nothing can match 20.2gr of 4198 with 52 gr Sierra Matchking. Surely have had time to try lots of loads over 4 decades. Now that's my load in my rifle and I mention it because 4198 has always worked best for me.........but that's an old benchrest rifle with a Hart barrel with more freebore than a Weatherby! 1-14 twist/ Still can put some great groups together.

 

[jds holler]

Just for kicks, try seating a few groups deeper than usual. I've had some mighty short bullets shot very well in my 222. They were nowhere near the lands. jd