? barrel twist for 22br

[farmerjohn]

For the lack of any reason in the world other than I want one, I'm planing on building a 22br this winter for general fun/pick-up/dog/varmit and just to say I have one rifle. I want to shoot 40 thru 65 grain bullets. I'm going to order a Kreiger LV taper that will finish at 26 inches. What twist do I want ? Thanks JF

 

[NorCalMikie]

Got a Douglas in 8 twist and a Pac Nor in 12 twist. Both are real shooters. 75s are as heavy as I go. Think "Bug Holes". ;D

 

[Preacher]

IF- you'll never shoot anything heavier than 65 grain bullets a 1 in 12 twist will serve you well, but a 8 twist will shoot them AND the heavies just as well...
The 75 grain Amax in a 9 twist will make a believer out of you..

 

[NorCalMikie]

Preacher just about said it all.

 

[Phil]

Another vote for the 12 twist..........

I`d love to try the 75`s but i know that i can`t stabilize them :'(

 

[tripcrow]

While the conventional wisdom that a slower twist is more accurate with the smaller bullets may or may not hold true for all guns, you ought to see what the extra bullet RPMs you’ll get from a 8 twist 22BR does to a groundhog with a 55g Blitzking. In most cases for me, even out to 500 yards, the extra BC of the 75g & 80g Amaxs aren’t worth loosing the explosive killing power of a full out 55g varmint bullet moving along so fast & spinning like crazy.

 

[olympian]

If you intend on ever shooting something as heavy as a 65gr, I would get a 9" twist. 40-65gr is a large spread in application design for the bullet.

My suggestion would be to really think about what you want to do with the rifle. Consider the longest distance you intend to shoot and pick the weight/design class of the bullet. Then determine the twist requirement for the heaviest bullet. A 40gr might be great in one application, but terrible in another. A 9" twist sound like it would do everything indicated, but the 40gr are not going to perform as well as if going through a 12-14" twist.

I have an 8" twist barrel in a .223 Remington and it shoots 50-53gr. well enough for short range fur, but allows the use of my preference, the 75-80gr. bullets.

 

[skeetlee]

If your sure you wont shoot any heavy bullets then i would look only at something slow like a 14 twist. I have been where you are with a decision to make, and after several folks told me to go with the 8 twist as it would be universal, i did. the accuracy with the lite bullets just wasnt there. Sure it would shoot.5" but a good 22BR properly build will do much better if set up properly. Make sure you know what bullet weights you want to shoot, and then buy the twist that just does stabilizes those bullets. You may just find accuracy in the .1 and .2's. Mine does this with ease!!!! I shoot 63gr cheek bullets with a 12 twist, and it is awesome!!!! Lee

 

[NorCalMikie]

Here's your 1-8 twist accuracy just starting out and the loads arn't even tuned yet. No telling how much better it will get.

 

[farmerjohn]

Hey, Thanks a lot guys. I'm still reading and thinking, one minute I'm thinking this thing would be great with some of the long heavy bullets, but hell I just built a .244 rem 28" one in ten and I got a 6br with a short(20") barrel, one in 14 that I took off a bench gun and rechambered. I guess I ought to stick with the lighter bullets, after all thats what a 22 is for anyway. again thanks a lot for the input, as I said I'm still reading.JF