.222 vs .223
- Thread starter pazzo
- Start date
- Location
- Houston, TX
pazzo said:
I don't know but you'll be hard pressed to find a factory .222 barrel that isn't 1:14", and like I said earlier, it likes 45-55 grain best.
If you want to shoot lots of ammo and it's not going to be strictly precision shooting & reloading, then definitely buy a .223.
Eric
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
pazzo said:
Fast twist barrels are sort of a trade off. You can shoot heavy bullets which will not stabilize in a slow twist barrel, but you'll loose some velocity when you shoot light weight bullets. I had a .222 with a 1:7 Gaillard, and despite claims to the contrary by some, when I shot light bullet (52 gr Sierra HPBTM) they all ended up in a single hole at 100 yards.
One problem I discovered with the fast twist barrel, if you shoot in an area where it would be beneficial to use thin skin bullets to minimize ricochets, is that bullets like the Blitz of SX would occasionally self destruct midway to the target.
If you do choose a fast twist custom barrel, your best choice might be a .223 and have the chamber cut long, so that the bullet, (the one you intend to use the most) seats with the base of the bullet flush with the base of the neck if it is a flat base, or so only the boat tail extends below the neck. In this way you are not using up powder space with the bullet shank. A word of warning though, the OAL may result in a cartridge too long to feed through the magazine. You can make up a dummy cartridge to send to the gunsmith who will do the work. This chambering may result in a significant jump for a light weight bullet, but the custom barrel with the jump will probably be more accurate than a conventionally chambered factory barrel with the same bullets.
