.222 Remington Magnum

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I decided to crawl into bed with good book last night. I turned on the night light and opened the Nosler No.4 Reloading Manual. I came upon the .222 Remington Magnum. I have given that chambering thought in the past, but not too much recently. I recall that several European manufacturers chambered it at one point - Steyr-Mannlicher's fine little SL, and Sako comes to mind. Maybe Anschutz too?

Then of course there is the Remington 700 BDL, which I think is porobably as rare as hen's teeth in that chambering. That would be slick classic, wouldn't it?

Do any of you have one? Is brass still available? I guess you could just reform .204 Ruger brass, right?
 
204 brass is necked down .222 i believe, not the magnum. I have actually seen a BDL in .222 rem mag, nice guns and apparently shoot amazing. Standard .222 is my preference, had good experiences with that cartridge.
 
I had one in a 700 BDL a few years back. I had a reamer in my posession at one time also,...thought it would make a good alternative to the 223AI and it would feed better.
 
204 brass is necked down .222 i believe, not the magnum. I have actually seen a BDL in .222 rem mag, nice guns and apparently shoot amazing. Standard .222 is my preference, had good experiences with that cartridge.

Nope, .204 is the .222 Mag case. While curious, the brass acquisition / forming challenges would make me choose either the .223 with a hair less performance, or .22-250 if you wanted more. The .222 Mag seems like a perfect chambering for those with an interest in doing things the hard way. I fall into that group myself from time to time.
 
While curious, the brass acquisition / forming challenges would make me choose either the .223 with a hair less performance, or .22-250 if you wanted more. The .222 Mag seems like a perfect chambering for those with an interest in doing things the hard way. I fall into that group myself from time to time.

Two points: the curious/doing things the hard way should be enough in and of itself. But if not, note that we are talking about a MAGNUM here. And one without a belt to boot. Although with your kink for the .375 H&H I suspect the lack of a belt may be a negative in your books!:p

I have an early Steyr Mannlicher SL in that chambering, with a fair amount of brass to boot. Have not shot it much.

That sounds nice - I assume it is the stutzen, correct? Did those have a 1:14 twist?
 
I have a SAKO L461 chambered in .222 mag. Its a recent acquisition and while I haven't done much with it yet, it does look promising. The cartridge has the capacity of the .223 combined with the neck length of the .222 making is a bit better than either. The fellow I bought it from used it to dust a fox he lazed at 500 yards, so it has the potential to stretch its legs. Who says you need a .22-250 or a Swift for those long shots. The 1:14 restricts me to light bullets, but when I need more my .243's waiting.

These little micro action rifles (SAKO, CZ/Brno, Kricos etc) feed much better than Remington 700s with their blocked magazines. You'd have thought that when Remington developed this family of cartridges, they'd have designed a more suitable scaled down rifle for them.
 
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222RM2.jpg

L to R: 222 Remington, 222 Remington Magnum and 223 Remington

My Steyr Mannlicher SL-
222RM.jpg
 
These little micro action rifles (SAKO, CZ/Brno, Kricos etc) feed much better than Remington 700s with their blocked magazines. You'd have thought that when Remington developed this family of cartridges, they'd have designed a more suitable scaled down rifle for them.

While I agree that a scaled down version of the 700 action would have been a nice touch, I have owned several 700 Short action rifles in 222 and 223, plus one 222 mag [Should have kept it], and have never had even the slightest feed issues with any of them.
My present 222, a 700 Classic, feeds as slick as can be, and I have had zero issues with it.
The fact that it will put 5 - 50 V-Max Hornadys into less than ½moa on a regular basis endears it to me.
Regards, Eagleye.
 
Would have been interesting if the USA adopted the 222 mag instead of the 223 :)

Although in this day and age, a 222 RM doesn't offer enough over more common cartridges that I'd ever bother with one unless I already had one. Only about 100 fps speed advantage over a .223, less speed than a .22-250. Heck, I'd even go 223 AI before a .222 Remington, and I'm not a real AI fan :)
 
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While I agree that a scaled down version of the 700 action would have been a nice touch, I have owned several 700 Short action rifles in 222 and 223, plus one 222 mag [Should have kept it], and have never had even the slightest feed issues with any of them.
My present 222, a 700 Classic, feeds as slick as can be, and I have had zero issues with it.
The fact that it will put 5 - 50 V-Max Hornadys into less than ½moa on a regular basis endears it to me.
Regards, Eagleye.

I was so frustrated with the way my my 700 in .222 fed that I had it converted to a single shot when I had the Gaillard installed. The factory barrel gave ho-humm accuracy compared to what I expected, but after installed the custom barrel and truing up the bolt, it was the most accurate rifle I had ever owned.
 
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