222 deer round

Bigboab29

Well-Known Member
Hi there, just been treated to a reloading kit by her indoors at Xmas. I'm looking for recommendation for a good deer bullet and a good powder as well? I currently use 50 and 55 grain sako game head which seem to do the job well. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated

cheers bb
 
sounds like you have one already!

any decent soft point of a cup and core design will work
I always try to go as heavy as possible, especially with light bullets and managed to get a cracking 60gr SP load for my treble

any 50-55 (or 60 if you can) soft point doing >3000fps stuck in the right place will do the trick

Scierra do a gameking in 50,55
Nosler do a 60gr Partition which I would love to try but they are pricer
Hornady do a 60gr SP, also in 50-55

powders:
N130, N133 (my choice)
RL7

CCI400 SR primers

and some decent brass
 
50gr Hornady SP #2245 work well for me on Muntjac and fox. The 55gr Sierra Gameking SPBT #1365 and Hornady 55gr SP w/c #2266 are the stoutest bullets in these makers ranges at that weight and are also effective on small deer. I use IMR4198 and CCI400 primers but there are several other powders and primers which are equally effective, it's not difficult to come up with an accurate load for the .222. The important considerations are bullet choice and being realistic about the capabilities of the calibre.
 
The .222 encourages proper stalking . :)
As many on here know i'm in love with mine and have done hours of experimenting
with it on different loads.

I have found that accurate loads are easy to find, and truly spectacular loads
are only a few hours worth of tinkering away.

H322 was the first powder I tried with the .222 and after much expense it's
the one I've finally settled on for pure accuracy... With BLC2 a close runner up.

My accuracy load is 22.3g of h322 under a 50g Amax with a Remington 7.5 sparkler
stuck in end.

21g of the same under a 50g sierra target hollow point shoots well too.

Vmax again shot under half an inch with little messing.

The only bullet I have really struggled with was Nosler B/Ts which I couldnt
group for hell nor high water, never did get to the bottom of that one and gave
up on them.

Might give the Hornady SP a whirl next.
 
I've some sierra game kings in 50 and 55gr mate if your wanting some to try mate , they should shoot well through your rifle mate and some n130 powder . Let me know if your wanting me up and I'll give you a wee run through of what to do .
 
Thanks for the info guys muchly appreciated:)

Cheers Billy will need to get you up when i get my bench all sorted up and u can point me in the rite direction!! going to get some powder and bullets at the weekend so i should be good to go:)
 
I've been messing with 222's for a good many years now .

I like IMR4198 , RL-7 , H322 , IMR8208 , BL-C2 and of all things VV N-120 .

I shot an extremely small group in a 222 using N-120 and a 40 grain Ballistic Tip .
 
Well, for .223 I use the Norma Oryx 55gr which has a good reputation. I also notice that Norma loads a 62gr soft point for .222 Rem. You could maybe do worse than starting to duplicate those to. I do know the 55gr Sako is rightly popular though.

ATB,

Scrummy
 
I'm using hornady 55 grain sp with and without cannalures loaded with 20.6 grains of Viht N130. It's a really accurate load in my tikka M55 in 222 but the roe north of the border don't like then!

As has already been said N133, BLC2 and reloader 7 are really good for 222. I went for N130 rather than any other powder due to the fact that supply isn't generally effected when our cousins over the pond go mad buying everything they can and I went for N130 over N133 because I get more shots per tub from N130.

Rick
 
As has already been said N133, BLC2 and reloader 7 are really good for 222. I went for N130 rather than any other powder due to the fact that supply isn't generally effected when our cousins over the pond go mad buying everything they can and I went for N130 over N133 because I get more shots per tub from N130.

Rick

If I wasn't misinformed the competitive benchrest boys over here are rather big on VV N-133 for the PPC and BR cartridges .
 
Sierra 60gr sp work well for me, over 20.5 gr of H335, or 53gr vmax over 21gr of 335, just as good with imr 4198, but I tend to save that for the 444
 
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Mines shoots one hole groups with Sako 50 and 55gr. Why go anywhere else ?.

They solidly drop Roe and are as accurate as a very accurate thing.
 
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