222mag

no but I will be watching with interest as I would really like to try one

the other one I really like the look of is the 6x47
222rem mag necked up to 6mm!
 
no but I will be watching with interest as I would really like to try one

the other one I really like the look of is the 6x47
222rem mag necked up to 6mm!

I'm planning a 6x45 hopefully next year (using .222 sako). Got the barrel blank and reloading dies on the way. Just chasing a reamer at the moment.
 
And a very fine action, if I do say so myself...

Sure is!

Now getting back on topic, I think a 222 Magnum is very similar to a .223. It will just be a lot harder and more expensive to get hold of ammo or cases for it. It has a longer case neck than the .223.
 
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The 222 Magnum has been obsolete for many years, although Remington still seems to produce some new brass for it, but not ammunition. Its origins are military /experimental. Gene Stoner developed the Armalite AR-15 around the smaller .222 Rem cartridge, but when the US military started to consider it seriously, they insisted that a higher performance version was developed - result what became the 222 Magnum with around 20% more case capacity than the .222 but still running the same pressures. For some reason, that wasn't satisfactory either and a third version of the same basic cartridge, the .222 Super, renamed .223 Rem aka 5.56X45mm was developed and adopted, whose capacity ran between those of the other two but was rated at higher pressures.

Meanwhile, Remington decided that the Magnum had sales potential and introduced it as a commercial number sometime around 1960. Many people agreed it was a fine cartridge - a bit more performance than the excellent 222 but with even more accuracy on offer. Sierra Bullets used a 222 Magnum to test-fire its .224 match bullets for many years. However, the US military adoption of the 5.56 / 223 in the early 60s killed the 222 Magnum stone dead before it gained widespread acceptance - the lure of cheap milspec plinking ammo and once-fired brass at scrap prices inevitably made the 223 a huge success and there wasn't room for two similar Remington cartridges never mind three. I doubt if anybody has produced a factory rifle in this chambering for a long time now.

There always have been a few examples in this country and with it being a gentle number on barrels, they'll be around for a long time for owners who handload. In practical terms though, it doesn't do anything that the 223 can't do equally well and usually better with all the development it's had. I'm sure that Muir and Southern will tell us that original 222 Magnum rifles in good condition now command collectors' prices in the US. Here though? Possibly seen as worth less than an equal quality 222 or 223?
 
Its bigger!
got to be better!

222_family.jpg
 
I'm planning a 6x45 hopefully next year (using .222 sako). Got the barrel blank and reloading dies on the way. Just chasing a reamer at the moment.


Waste of a good Sako, if you ask me. 6mm is not a patch on the 7mm bullet.
 
My mate has had a Rem 700 6x47 for years now. Its his go to fallow pipe. He has shot some real beauties with it. Anyway, he just finished getting a 222mag built. Cases never seem hard to come by. The 222mag shoots great. Good speeds too.
I have a 7TCU and if i were doing it all again id probably go 6x45. Better bullet selection and great performance. I was using another mstes 6x45 on a Mohawk a couple of weeks ago. 58gn Zmaxs were putting hits on foxes out to 200m even with the short 18inch barrel he has on it.
 
The magnum's advantage over the .223 is the long neck; that according to benchresters is beneficial to bullet stability as it leaves the case and enters the lands, thus giving greater accuracy. I don't know if this is true.
However the .222 Rem IS an inherently accurate cartridge for some reason and this may well be why. Has anyone tried shortening a .222 Rem neck and chamber by degrees to find out? I doubt it.
Personally I feel that properly prepared .223 cases with turned necks and a short travel distance to the lands (throat and lead) will make up for the short neck on a cartridge thus dispensing with the need to go 'exotic'.
As always it is a case of compromise, the cartridge may well be inherently better, but that is offset by it's rarity and expense.
 
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Yeah. I had a HB Sako222 for years. Super accurate. Now i use the same gun in 223. It probably doesn't have the edge the 222 had, but only in so much as the 222 wasnt at all fussy. Funnily enough, i also have a skinny ruger 223 which gives the fat barreled Sakos a run for yheir money.
 
The magnum's advantage over the .223 is the long neck; that according to benchresters is beneficial to bullet stability as it leaves the case and enters the lands, thus giving greater accuracy. I don't know if this is true.

I used to believe the long neck theory, I have a .222 and on the whole they have been very easy to load for (barring stupid stability issues with a 1:14.5" barrel!)

But, I no longer put much faith in the short vs long neck since I bought a 300win mag and started shooting 208gr bullets at over an 1.5" long that have less than a calibre depth holding them in!
most accurate rifle I own
 
G'day,
I have a good mate who is a pro shooter over here, uses a 222 mag as his back up gun and a 6mmPPC as his main roo shooting rifles, both factory Sako HB's. I've shot the mag a bit and it is much like a 223 only very hard to get new brass for!, he is still using the 500 brass he purchased in the 90's. The 222 mag is very easy to load for, his is not finicky at all and shoots 1/2" all day. I use a similar combo except a 222 as a back up. If you want something different that you can still buy brass for maybe a 6mm or 22 PPC. The one in the link is my A1 target repeater in 6mmPPC, shoots like a house on fire and a rare find over here. The last Sako PPC's made were in the 75 series, Cooper does them as a special request I believe. I have only seen about half a dozen 222mag's come up for sale in the last 10 years here, most are shot out or have aftermarket barrels fitted.
http://www.thestalkingdirectory.co.uk/gallery/member-galleries/p9162-sako-6mmppc.html
 
I'm planning a 6x45 hopefully next year (using .222 sako). Got the barrel blank and reloading dies on the way. Just chasing a reamer at the moment.

A few months ago I acquired in a trade a Sako L461 that had been rebarreled to 6 x 45. It's in a beautiful custom stock. I sold it to a friend of mine and he's been shooting coyotes with it. He loves the round and the rifle. He says the 60 grain Sierra tips over coyotes quite well.
 
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