need a final choice for small carry rifle varmint control.

[RevolverMan567]

i am on the fence about the 22 hornet, 218 bee, and the 221 fireball and 17 fireball.


Mostly be used to decimate squirrels and fox and come coyote, meat and fur are not nearly as important and killing the animal, I know a 22 or 17 rimefire would do but it will be a plinker in between and reloadability would be critical.

wont be stretched past 150 hardly at all and I just want to make it as fun as possible to bust em'

make a selection of the above four please guys, Im torn but the hornet and 221 firebally are winning (especially the 221 fireball in the LV SF setup by remington)

 

[TAB]

17 remington is also a option.

 

[Vicious-Peanut]

Whats wrong with a .223? Will launch bullets quite a bit faster than any of the others. Plus ammo and firearms are far more prevalent.

 

[theCZ]

The 221 would probably have the best accuracy. I have a hornet and it's great, but if I had to start over I'd probably get a 221 FB.

 

[atek3]

have you considered a rimfire... 17 HMR or 5mm remington magnum rimfire would be good varmint choices.

atek3

 

[TAB]

Whats wrong with a .223? Will launch bullets quite a bit faster than any of the others. Plus ammo and firearms are far more prevalent.

actually, no its not faster, but does have heavyer bullets.

 

[pbrktrt]

.204 Ruger

 

[Shawnee]

.22 Hornet.

Silhouette shooters love 'em for a reason.

 

[Dave R]

Of the choices you've listed, I would go with the .221 Fireball. If game will be as big as coyote, and you want a quick kill, you want the bigger bullet and/or the higher velocity.

Having said that, MY pick would be with pbrktrt: the .204 Ruger.

It seems to be a "sweet spot" in bullet weight, velocity, accuracy, and wind-resistance.

 

[GunTech]

22 hornet. With you operating parameters, it will do nicely, is cheap to feed and doesn't make the noise of the other cartridges. You can open it up to K-Hornet and basically equal 218 bee. CZ makes their dandy little 527 in the hornet, and it weighs around 5.5 pounds - suitable for all day carry - but will plenty of accuracy. Krico is another nice rifle for the hornet, or Anschutz.

If you are going to go bigger, I'd pick 223. Brass is far more common, as is ammo. I'd still look at the CZ - probably the Varmint kevlar. The Remmy is nice, but putting a small varmint cartridge into a full sized rifle seems a bit of a waste.

 

[MASTEROFMALICE]

Ammo for the .223 can be cheap, but at $7-$10 for a box of 50, the .22 magnum shouldn't be overlooked. A 40 gr bullet moving over 1800 fps should do fine for squirrels and small fox. If you're a sufficent shooter it'll work with coyotes as well but I'd say you're taxing it's limits.

 

[rangerruck]

i would go with a 17 fireball, or a 22 hornet. the hornet has arguably more reloading specs than any other round out there. and now the 17 fireball, has 3 diff weight bullets, and are cheap as well. plus the speed and flat trajectory of the 17 cannot be touched by the others.

 

[gunnerh]

The .22 k-hornet cheap to reload for and the least round for a clean kill on coyotes. Any full serve gunsmith can do the job. Beside gaining 100fps over a standard hornet brass life is much better. I use .223 for coyotes but I break out my k-hornet for smaller stuff.

 

[Firepower!]

.223 will do the job. And there is lots of variety in terms of which company you want to go with, plus it can handle other situations as well. Rather than going .22 or similar, .223 will be useful for multi purpose.

 

[1911NM]

While I have an affinity for the .218bee, the newer .204 really intrigues me, so to complete the threadjack, I delayed my credit card recovery from the Xmas season by picking up a Sako/Tikka T3 lite in 22-250. Great little carry or pickup gun, and is a heck of a lot more accurate than my old eyeballs are. Plus, great versatility with the cartridge. <threadjack off> Whatever you get, make sure you give us a report.

 

[RevolverMan567]

i have a 223 and 204

already have the 204 and 223 in a couple fine shooting remingtons and i was think about the LVSF in 221 fireball to round out the collection because of now all mine are heavy guns and i want a wolkaround that will handly bout anything i come across, too much gun doesn't bother me because it is vermin control, not enough however does, so discounting the 223 and 204 im setteling on the 22 Hornet or 221 fireball i think for their light weight

 

[Vicious-Peanut]

actually, no its not faster, but does have heavyer bullets.

.221 fireball will launch a 45 grain at 3200 fps and a .223 will launch the same 45 grain bullet at 3500 fps. It is faster.

To the original poster - You have a .204 and a .223 but want another .22 centerfire that wont do what the .223 will?

 

[Wolfgang2000]

This the one thing I will recommend the 223 for. It's what it was originally designed (222 rem) for.

 

[KBintheSLC]

already have the 204 and 223 in a couple fine shooting remingtons

You already have 2 perfectly good varmint rifles and you still want another one... in yet another caliber?
I can recommend a good 12 step group for such a problem.

 

[jeridurine]

.22 hornet all the way! I have a ruger bolt action with a 3-9 leopuld, stops a coyote dead in its tracks at 100 yards. Plus what animal hasn't the .22 hornet killed.

 

[jame]

If you already have a rifle chambered in .223, but you want a decent, lightweight walk around rifle, take a look at at the CZ 527 American. It's a smaller rifle in a caliber that you're already set up to shoot.

If you're stuck on the choices mentioned in your OP, I'd go with the .22 Hornet for economy and availability.

 

[rangerruck]

oh baby, last dude has it exactly right; A cz american carbine, with it's 5 lb weight, set trigger, 16.7 inch bbl, and in 22 hornet? A totally sick walking around rig. I have 2 of them, and would still geek out over another.

 

[Skofnung]

Here's another vote for the CZ 527

 

[The Gunman]

Why not use the .17HMR?

Good round out to 150 yds. and costs about 28 cents a shot. I don't think you can reload for that price.

 

[Quoheleth]

I would +1 the .17 HMR. You've got the centerfire .22s covered. They are a bit much for squirrels, IMHO, but the .17 will do the job on the smaller stuff great. Maybe even the coyotes, if you're careful. It's also lightweight. In fact, if you want a great lightweight .22LR shooter for the small stuff, consider the Remington 597. I bought the combo kit at Academy (grey plastic stock, cheap 3-9x32 scope) just before Christmas, and it'll do minute-of-squirrel head all day long at 50 yards with bulk-pack ammo, and under a dime at 25. That for under $175.

Q