Your 22 centerfire caliber choices, and why?

[High Plains]

The old, and consistently accurate 222 Remington and it’s younger cousin, the 22-250 Remington are my choices for 22 cal centerfire cartridges. The 22-250 is really my daughters rifle but she lets me reload the empties and keep shooting it. The 222 Rem I have is the same make and model as my dads older model, which he calls another one of the top three most accurate rifles he has. That was enough to make me want one, which is also a reflection of how I value his input and expertise.Recoil with the 222 is......basically non existent and powder use is loooooooow. Since the 22-250 has a fast twist barrel it can handle the heavy for caliber bullets——not that I have to use it, but I can if I want to.
Discuss please.

 

[glockgod]

The .223 is another good round that's easy on powder. Usually 1in 8 or 1 in 9 twist does well with up to 69 grain bullets. 50 or 55 seem to shoot well for me

 

[Random 8]

223 because it does what I need it to and the brass is free.

 

[gotboostvr]

My only 22 centerfires are 223.
An AR, which mostly gets cheap fodder but I occasionally prep up some Federal brass and load some "good" ammo to feed it.

My other is a Savage Varmint 110 I recently acquired. Scopes in the mail for it right now. I'll work up a good load for it and that'll probably be the only ammo it ever sees.

I went 223 for the AR, just because I feel like everyone should own at least one AR in 223. I picked 223 for the bolt gun for sheer economy. It's to be a trainer rifle. It might see a hunt here or there, but it's a practice rifle for me.

 

[bannockburn]

Pretty much settled in with the .223 though when I was younger I often thought of having a heavy barreled Remington Model 700 or a Winchester Model 70 rifle in .22-250 for all those pesky groundhogs.

 

[SwampWolf]

.220 Swift, .223 and .22 Hornet-covers all varmint hunting from coyotes to gophers and everything in-between. The Swift is chambered in a Ruger No.1 single-shot; the .223 in a petit Browning Low Wall single-shot (also the 5.56/.223 chambered Ruger Mini-14 and Rock River Arms National Match rifles) and the Hornet in a handy Browning A-bolt Medallion bolt-action.

 

[Ugly Sauce]

.22 Hornet. Because, it's accurate, easy on powder, and it's bark isn't as bad as it's bite. Best served in a bull-barreled single shot. I have a red-dot on mine right now, but she needs something more precise. Only rifle I have that I don't prefer open sights on.

 

[cfullgraf]

My Contender Carbine in 22 Hornet is a great short range rifle for little critters around the farm.

I also have a heavy Bullberry barrel Contender Carbine in 221 Rem Fireball that is one of most accurate rifles I have that is great for a bit longer ranges than the 22 Hornet.

223 Remington is next I got into it due to Service Rifle competition but I really prefer the 204 Ruger on the prairie dog fields.

I’ve been dabbling with a 22 Benchrest bolt rifle and an AR chambered in 22x6.8 for a bit longer shots at prairie dogs. I have not had time to perfect loads for these rifles yet.

 

[Ru4real]

223 / 5.56 only

Because:
1. Easily found in semiautomatic guns
2. Military round
3. Industry revolves around 223. Scopes, aftermarket parts, reloading supplies, replacement barrels, etc.
4. It’s a middle of the road compromise - it’s not a 22 Hornet and it’s not a 220 Swift

 

[ZGunner]

The only .22 centerfire rifles I have are a bunch of various .223 Rem’s and a .223 WSSM.

The regular .223s I picked because they were either an AR or a cool bolt. My favorite is a Ruger M77 Hawkeye Compact with wood stock. Not the most accurate rifle because of the short pencil barrel, but it is a blast to shoot and easy to move around with.

The .223 WSSM I have is more of a novelty than anything. It is a Winchester M70 on their mini action, or whatever they call it. I haven’t really shot it that much because ammo is pretty scarce and brass is even more scarce. I got the rifle, a box of ammo and some scope bases for $280 OTD, so I didn’t feel like I could pass it up. It’s also a pretty light gun and might make a decent deer rifle (in the south) for a younger shooter.

EDIT: forgot to answer the question. .223 Remington for ease of use, versatility, reloading and general availability.

 

[Bfh_auto]

Mine are 22-250 and 556.
I have one of each in 8 twist.
The other 22-250 is 1-12 which is a perfect match with the 53 VMAX.
The 556 makes me work to hit small UKD targets in the wind. But I've gotten better because of it.

 

[Tommygunn]

5.56MM. because AR-15 !!!

 

[SwampWolf]

It’s a middle of the road compromise - it’s not a 22 Hornet and it’s not a 220 Swift

The op allowed for more than one option; you can have all three, the .22 Hornet, and the .223 and the .220 Swift or their many equivalents. But if I lived in hell and could only have one, it would be the .223...

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

.223 because... well, 5.56 and all that that entails.

.22-250 because I'm of an age when there was a long period of time that it was the end-all-be-all of its day.

Todd.

 

[Risky buisness]

22-250 is my favorite, super accurate and the flatish trajectory thing lends well for longer range shots for prairie dogs, distant gophers and calling coyotes.
22 Hornet, 2nd most favourite, no recoil, low noise accurate in my rifle, just a fun little round.
225 Winchester, 3rd, I love rimed cartridges, pretty good velocity are obtainable, my rifle, however is not the most accurate launcher, but still a blast to shoot, cool factor is huge when no one else has even heard of one.
223/ 556, not a favorite but since everyone just leaves the brass laying around why not.

 

[Captcurt]

223 just because of ammo and components. If I need more reach I'll use my 243.

 

[Grizzly2]

Back in the mid '60s Dad bought a Remington 40X in .222
He loved shooting it off the bench and trying to perfect his accuracy with it. He finally came home one day all excited with a target with literally one hole about the size of a cigarette. Put 5 in there at 100 yards at the range. He sent it off to Sierra to have it measured and they said if done in competition it may have been some sort of record but it's been many years ago and I don't remember all the particulars. He also spent years shooting woodchucks on the dairy farms up in Northern NJ.

I was never thrilled when the Army issued me a M16 in something close to Dad's woodchuck caliber. I just never took to it though they were a hoot on full auto. It wasn't until I saw two ARs on the ground at the San Bernardino shooting that I decided to get one for myself. It has a SS 18" barrel with some weight to it in .223 Wylde and came with a .389" 100 yard target. I liked the way it steadied in the hand standing and bought it. I've yet to duplicate that group size but I haven't started to load any heavy bullets for it yet either.

 

[WestKentucky]

I have to be odd. 223AI. A 223 is marginal for a bunch of things, but the extra couple hundred FPS gets it over the hump. It should be MEAN with light bullets at extreme velocity and should be very good predator medicine. I plan to find out how good right after turkey season.

 

[BigBore44]

I’ve often thought about dabbling in 221 Fireball, 222 Remington, 22-250, 220 Swift, or even the 22 Creedmore. But dang it, the 223 does everything I need it to do. Brass is everywhere. Doesn’t burn much powder. No recoil. And can shoot accurately farther than many people think. Certainly farther than I can.

 

[igotta40]

224 Valkyrie, one in bolt action, the other in AR-15 I built.

 

[LoonWulf]

Havent owned anything besides a .223/5.56, in the process of doing a build for a friend that's probably going to end up a .22-250AI, but may end up one of the larger ones....waiting on input.

The smallest critters I shoot with a centerfire rifle are 40lbs, and 95-99% of my usage of the .223 has been on Axis deer. I rarely take my current one out these days because its an AR.
If my buddy ends up liking his .22-250AI, or what ever we do. I might do another build that's similar, but id twist it faster than the 1-9 barrel i have now.

 

[Offfhand]

This Springfield M22 converted to .22 K-Hornet by Griffin & Howe is not my favorite but is high on my like list..

 

[jmorris]

Another .22 hornet to 22-250 fellow here. Low powder consumption winner is the .22 hornet, it uses half the powder a .222 would need.

There are lots of choices but I’m not very good with the “why” part, “just because”, I guess.

 

[Varminterror]

My first 22 cal centerfire rifle was a 22 Hornet, followed shortly thereafter by 22-250, rebarreled not long after with a “fast” 1:8” tube for heavier bullets. In HS, I began apprenticing under a local smith (now long since passed), and took on all of his AR building/modifying work, this in the late 1990’s. I built my own AR then for Service Rifle competition, replacing the Garand he had rebuilt for me, since I simply couldn’t justify the cost of ownership for the Garand. It wasn’t until college when I had built a few AR’s for friends and fellow coyote callers which then began dropping doubles and triples with relative regularity. So I took my AR afield, and realized its potential for coyote calling. I had 3 22-250’s by then, and all of them withered in the back of the safe before ultimately being sold over a handful of years. I cleared out a massive inventory of over a hundred personal firearms when I moved regions ~15yrs ago, with the intent of focusing on other endeavors, minimizing my inventory to my competition sets, hunting needs, and a handful of nostalgic firearms. That didn’t take, and my inventory bloomed back up, BUT... it was an opportunity where 22-250 and 220 Swift’s left my life and more 223’s could come in.

 

[doubleh]

I make do with a couple of 223s and a couple of 22-250s. To be truthful they only get range use now. My wheels don't roll well enough to travel the miles involved in coyote hunting anymore and they are smart from being hunted so hard around here. Plague and poison did in most of the prairiedogs and those it didn't get have mostly starved to death from the exception drought we are are stuck in. Even jack rabbits are in short supply right now.