Going small

[Truckbed]

Your thoughts on shooting mirror mine Leo. l go to the range for FUN! l only compete against ME!
l prefer a 222Rem above ALL others. lt's more accurate and cheaper to shoot too. Being poor and retired l cannot afford Custom rifles. l would never be able to master a custom build's full potential. l prefer factory varmint rifles because of their extra weight. Most of these guns can shoot better than me. The public ranges in my area are limited to 100 or 200 yards. The distance l am most comfortable shooting.

Yes! Find a 722 Remington, of which there are many on the market all the time. Nice old rifles, usually $500-$700 , never seen one yet that wouldn’t shoot ! 222!

 

[sw282]

Never owned a 722 Tb. My ''222 love affair'' has recently drawn me to a SAKO HB in 222Rem of the 722 era. Always wanted a SAKO. I'm OLD. Kinda like ''Now or Never''. The craftsmanship of these 1950 era guns is amazing! Scope mounting is a bit DIFFERENT

 

[357Mag]

I'm spec'ing on a future purchase and looking for opinions. I don't hunt. I don't like recoil. I like to shoot competition. Against myself. How will I do this time compared to other times. No other real interests. I'm using this chart (below) as a guide. I've randomly set .22-250 as my upper limit, based in part on prior experience with .25-06. My primary suspects are .22-250, 6mm BR, .22 Nosler, .204 Ruger, 6.5 Grendel, .224 Valkyrie, 223 and .222 (enjoyed in a Contender long ago). I've got a .22 Hornet now. I'm open to any suggestions, not just this suspect list.

Some I wonder how viable they are as they either seem to be headed toward the out door or else never really making it all the way through the in door. I've heard a lot about .22-250 forever. I've heard a LOT lately about .204 Ruger. 6.5 Grendel gets a fair amount of acknowledgement. And .223 is everywhere. The rest just look good in the chart but I know very little.

So advice for a guy who just wants something to shoot? I'll start with factory ammo and when I get enough for a good outing I'll start to reload it. Thanks for any and all input.

Rifle Recoil Table: Updated for 2024 with all popular cartridges – Backfire

backfire.tv

Leo

Howdy !

You mentioned a lot of .22 calibre cartridges, but still seem receptive to other ideas.

I have shot my share of .22-250 and .224” cal wildcat cartridges/loads, and think I understand the upper recoil limit you have mentioned.

While not knowing just how far out you want to shoot ( competing against yourself ),
I want to share a thought…..

What about use of a rifle or carbine chambered in a proven handgun chambering .
For example….. a Marlin M1894 in .357 Magnum ? Of course, there are other examples like rifles chambered in ,41Mag, .44Mag, .45 Long Colt; etc.

Using the .357Mag as example, factory ammo abounds. Recoil in a rifle is comparatively low. When reloading time comes, .357Mag presents no unusual problems.

Another thought might be… something like a top-break single shot; chambered in
perhaps .350 Legend ! Here, it would be a pretty straight forward deal to do reloading
w/ even handgun bullets; including things like cast bullets if so desired. You certainly could assemble and shoot low(er) recoiling hand loads when you finally get to it.


Whatever gun you choose:
For the type of shooting you suggest, you’d still be doing some of the same things that accuracy and bench rest shooters do…. which is try to prove how well they can make themselves and the gun/load do. You can set realistic expectations, and then still might find that you & the gun perform beyond expectations ?!

Example:
Getting my Marlin M-336 XLR .35 Remington to consistently give 5/8” 5-shot groups
@ 100yd kept me busy during a lot of my range time; over a 4.5yr period. I even put 3shots into 7/16”. In its own way, shooting the XLR and obtaining such results; was every bit as satisfying a shooting tiny groups w/ my accuracy/varmint rifles.


With regards,
357Mag

 

[slm9s]

If you're after ACCURACY, and will reload, why not go after the most accurate cartridges? I would be looking at 22PPC. If money is tight, you can just buy a Remage/etc barrel and use one of your lesser used rifles you already own. If the boltface is an issue, 22br is a great option as well.

 

[Leo_B]

One of the few things I want is a Henry in .327 Fed Mag which will shoot the same .327/.32H&R as my revolvers. I've thought about a .357 lever action which could also shoot .38 and should be light recoil. I arbitrarily chose .22-250 as the upper limit on recoil using the table in the link I've included in one of the posts. Working down from there they do include some non .22 in there, .350 Legend, 6mm BR, 6.8 Remington SPC, 6.5 Grendel and .300 Blackout. I'll probably partly base choices on which use lower amounts of powder. I have a lot on hand and also basically none. The .327/.357 lever would be in the less powder category.

 

[450BM]

Since you are reloading, I’d go with a 22 cal. The bullet selection is huge and cheap to expensive. I recently got some 35gr VMax’s to try in my 222 (Rem 788) and came across some interesting loads in my Lee #2 manual using VV N110. It was fairly accurate and super fast. I wasn’t trying for high velocity, just experimenting with a new bullet to me to see how it would shoot. 3900 fps made it really interesting!

With that said, I’d get a faster than 1-14 twist in case you want to shoot heavier than 55gr in it.

The 222 and 17 Fireball are my two favorite centerfires to shoot.

BB

 

[7315br]

My fav is a 22 BR, I love the 22-250
But the 22 BR just does it in a Short fat package with less powder
The 22-250 is almost as consistently accurate though
the 22 BR seems to hold tighter groups more consistently
-------------
222 will be just as accurate and use less powder than a 22BR
however a 22 BR will allow you to shoot groups at 600 yds and hit plate no problem with first round hits
if youre at all into that
222 wont quite do that as easily,
I'd vote 22-250 for no fuss brass use
22BR if you want more custom, caseforming, fireforming, neck turning etc which eeks out that extra .100" over a 22-250
I built a 1:10 twist 22-250 one time for use of Sierra 69 TMK bullets -
a VERY accurate combo from 100 -600 yds
Pic 1 - Typical group from 22 BR
Pic 2 - a Bad group from a 22 BR

22BR...I couldn't agree more!

 

[thatguyshm]

Well, since you threw out the 6.8 SPC, I will say, it's a hoot to shoot in a bolt action. I built one on a Savage with an 18" barrel, it really is fun. AA2200 and the 90gr tnt are fun to shoot, and you can play with the longer bullets without mag restrictions. I push the 110 tsx around 2700 with this gun, just a fun little range gun.

And rereading after writing shows how many times I said it's fun. There's something to that I suppose!