Anschutz 1771 .223 or .222?
- Thread starter johnl
- Start date
- Location
- Juan de Fuca subduction zone Yiiikes
Yes I know who sells them, let me clarify. Does anyone have experience with this model in either calibre? Preference? I have a 1712 in .22lr, was looking for one in centerfire. Thanks
Hey JohnL
My advice is to apply to get access to Equipment Exchange. There is a specific WTB section where I regularly search for specific items and get a response.
As far as chambering, 222 was very common in Europe and 223 in USA.
I have several rifles in each cartridge and prefer the "cool factor" of 222 and enjoy the availability of good quality of 223 brass.
Either way, check the Prophet River thread where they posted that Lapua is suspending (not cancelling) the production of many of their case component manufacturing due to military demand (Ukraine??) until further notice.
If you are going to go 222, i would find and snap up some Lapua 222 Rem Match cases. They are the best money can buy at the current time.
My advice is to apply to get access to Equipment Exchange. There is a specific WTB section where I regularly search for specific items and get a response.
As far as chambering, 222 was very common in Europe and 223 in USA.
I have several rifles in each cartridge and prefer the "cool factor" of 222 and enjoy the availability of good quality of 223 brass.
Either way, check the Prophet River thread where they posted that Lapua is suspending (not cancelling) the production of many of their case component manufacturing due to military demand (Ukraine??) until further notice.
If you are going to go 222, i would find and snap up some Lapua 222 Rem Match cases. They are the best money can buy at the current time.
coleman1495
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Whitecourt
The 222 model is only a 14 twist whereas the 223 is a 9 twist.
Your going to severely handicap yourself in bullet selection, effective range and varmint killing power if you go with the 222.
Your going to severely handicap yourself in bullet selection, effective range and varmint killing power if you go with the 222.
I never post anymore, but I couldn't resist this one, as I have fallen in love with the Anschutz 1771 in this current horrific era of Canadian firearms ownership.
Let me just say this, they are all awesome: .17Hornet, .22Hornet, .222REM, .223REM.
If you are only going to experience one, then the .223REM is the obvious choice. There are more .223 loadings (or components) available on the Canadian market for .223 then for the rest of these calibres combined.
Twist is different on all, and they are all optimally configured around a specific load in my view and experience:
.17Hornet - 20gr. (228mm/8.97" twist, 6 groove) - the American Eagle one is the best, followed by Hornady, although there are only about 3 factory loadings on the market: Am.Eagle; Hornady and S&B... all 20gr., although there used to be 15.5 and 25gr. stuff - not made anymore). This one also has 5 round mags as "normal" (the only one like that).
.22Hornet - 35gr. (405mm/15.94" twist, 8 groove) is the best in this one. 30gr. is o.k. too. The heavier 40 and 45gr. stuff obviously works, but it doesn't wring out the accuracy potential. This is also the slowest moving (and twist) of these four, and performs a little worse than the others at 200m/yrds. The mags - despite looking almost the same as the .17Hornet mags, just with wider lips - are only labelled 3 rounds, and they do go a bit funky sometimes if you try and load more than 3.
.222REM - 50gr. (356mm/14.01" twist, 6 groove) is the ticket here. The Remington Premier AccuTip 50gr. is just awesome with this one. Sub half inch at 100 should be fairly straight forward with good optics, and if you really try you can get down in the .25" at 100yrds territory, sub 1" at 200yrds. I can show you groups, but if you don't believe me, you don't believe me. The Hornady Superformance 50gr. is also really good. Four rounds mags are stock for this one, and they are the same as the .223 mags.
.223REM - 55gr. (229mm/9.01" twist, 6 groove) for this one. The Hornady Varmint Express 55gr. V-Max is a great one with this rifle (as it is with a lot of .223 bolt actions: TIKKA, CZ, etc.) The thing with this .223 though, it is pretty good with a number of bullet weights, from 50gr. up to 75 and even 77gr. The Hornady white box "Match" 75gr. stuff shoots to the same point of impact as 55gr. V-Max for me at 100yrds. I would not have guessed that, but it is true. Many quality Match and Varmint rounds will shoot the lights out in an Anschutz 1771 in .223 - the 55gr. V-Max is probably my favorite, but the stuff "Remington" (i.e. Federal/CCI) is coming out with now are all good. You can also use the old 1770 5-round mags with this one, and they work great. They don't work as well on the shorter .222 for some reason, despite the 1771 mags being the same between the two.
Overall impressions: I love the .17Hornet. It is one of my favorite rifles to shoot. Its trajectory (to 200m anyway) is just like a little .223, and you can pretty much swap the (one piece mount) optic between the two (without adjusting zero). The .22Hornet is something from a different era, but it is fun too, and it has a following. The .222REM is probably the most "inherently accurate" cartridge of these four (whatever that means), with its long neck and shorter body. It is just that there are a handful of good factory loadings, and some will shoot the lights out, and some are kind of "so-so" (like soft point bullets, etc.) The .223 has the most "umph" to it, and is the most versatile.
I have shot the .17Hornet, .222REM and .223REM all down around .25" 5 shot groups at 100yrds, honestly, and sub 1" at 200yrds. You can't do it every time, but you can do it with good optics, good ammo, patience and slow trigger squeeze. .22Hornet (with the .35gr. Hornady stuff) you can probably get only down around 0.5" at 100 yards at the best of times, sub 1" will be good. And anywhere around 2" at 200yrds is great for that one.
I use high-end optics (S&B PMII 4-16x50, and 5-25x56, Khales 6-24x56) in one piece mounts (Spuhr or AI) and those big scopes work well. I don't feel the need for a cheek riser or anything with these set-up. Make sure the picrail is blue loctited though, as the scopes are heavy.
Hope that helps. If you have specific 1771 questions I can try and answer them.
(Some more of my experience with 1771 that I was sharing with johnl, incase anyone is interested in this)
I think with Anschutz, it really comes down to what you love. If the idea of .222 is keeping you up at night... get it. As I say, they don't let those things out the door if they don't shoot straight. I like to shoot at these targets that I make myself. For 100 yards it is a round yogurt container traced with a thick felt pen, measuring 2 7/8" inside dimensions, and then a dime traced with a fine felt pen inside that, measuring 3/4" across. And I put six of these on a 8 1/2" by 11" piece of paper, and photocopy a bunch.
With the .222REM 1771, with an S&B PMII 5-25x56 (on 15) in a Sphur mount, I was able to get five shots touching, inside the dime at 100 yards, many times. As all "real" (non keyboard warrior) shooters know, not every group works out no matter what you do, but it was easy to get lots of outstanding groups with this set-up. Whether it is half, or gets down into the theoretical 3/8" and 1/4" is just a matter of luck at that point, but I was able to get 5 shots - one ragged hole - inside the dime with factory ammo (the Remington 50gr. AccuTip being the stand out) numerous times.
This rifle is a 20" threaded barrel (I prefer the shorter barrel for most things) with the 2 stage trigger. I have the 23" barrel for the .22Hornet, as I thought a little velocity boost could help it. Both work fine. And both the single stage and two-stage triggers are good. The ones Nordic Marksman are advertising now with the "tuned" 1 pound single stage trigger is intriguing. Those are only in .223. For .222 they have single stage, or two stage in both 20" and 23". I can't see how any of them would be much better or worse than others. They will all be good. The two-stage can be adjusted (for weight and sear engagement) from about 1 pound to 3 pound (there are exact European numbers, but I forget exactly what they are). The single stage can be adjusted, tuned, as well. The ones I have all came from the factory very light and very nice, single and two-stage. I have adjusted the .223 a little bit over the years, as I had to tighten up the forward-backward adjustment of the trigger anyway, so I had to take it apart anyway.
The newer ones have hex bolts on the action bolts. The older (about 2017-2018 or older) ones use flat screw bolts on the action. The bolts can be upgraded to hex.
Another cool thing, when I put the S&B PMII 5-25 in a Sphur mount earlier this year, the factory zero on the scope was the 100 yard windage zero on both the .222 and .223 rifle (both 20" barrels). I can't remember ever seeing that before. Zero is actually zero! That tells me that the barrel (and the pic rail) is DAMN straight to the receiver - on a factory rifle. A sign of the just out-of-this-world quality that comes out the Anschutz factory.
The 1770 is basically the same thing as the 1771 as far as I understand. The 1771 comes standard with a pic rail, and I think the mags are different (but interchangeable). As I said in my post, I use the 5-round 1770 mags with the .223 1771 a lot.
It sounds to me like .222 is calling your name, to be honest. So I would answer that call. Especially if you are reloading. You are going to want a 50gr. tipped or match bullet pushing about 3140fps, and you should have a real "shoot the lights out" rifle.
I think with Anschutz, it really comes down to what you love. If the idea of .222 is keeping you up at night... get it. As I say, they don't let those things out the door if they don't shoot straight. I like to shoot at these targets that I make myself. For 100 yards it is a round yogurt container traced with a thick felt pen, measuring 2 7/8" inside dimensions, and then a dime traced with a fine felt pen inside that, measuring 3/4" across. And I put six of these on a 8 1/2" by 11" piece of paper, and photocopy a bunch.
With the .222REM 1771, with an S&B PMII 5-25x56 (on 15) in a Sphur mount, I was able to get five shots touching, inside the dime at 100 yards, many times. As all "real" (non keyboard warrior) shooters know, not every group works out no matter what you do, but it was easy to get lots of outstanding groups with this set-up. Whether it is half, or gets down into the theoretical 3/8" and 1/4" is just a matter of luck at that point, but I was able to get 5 shots - one ragged hole - inside the dime with factory ammo (the Remington 50gr. AccuTip being the stand out) numerous times.
This rifle is a 20" threaded barrel (I prefer the shorter barrel for most things) with the 2 stage trigger. I have the 23" barrel for the .22Hornet, as I thought a little velocity boost could help it. Both work fine. And both the single stage and two-stage triggers are good. The ones Nordic Marksman are advertising now with the "tuned" 1 pound single stage trigger is intriguing. Those are only in .223. For .222 they have single stage, or two stage in both 20" and 23". I can't see how any of them would be much better or worse than others. They will all be good. The two-stage can be adjusted (for weight and sear engagement) from about 1 pound to 3 pound (there are exact European numbers, but I forget exactly what they are). The single stage can be adjusted, tuned, as well. The ones I have all came from the factory very light and very nice, single and two-stage. I have adjusted the .223 a little bit over the years, as I had to tighten up the forward-backward adjustment of the trigger anyway, so I had to take it apart anyway.
The newer ones have hex bolts on the action bolts. The older (about 2017-2018 or older) ones use flat screw bolts on the action. The bolts can be upgraded to hex.
Another cool thing, when I put the S&B PMII 5-25 in a Sphur mount earlier this year, the factory zero on the scope was the 100 yard windage zero on both the .222 and .223 rifle (both 20" barrels). I can't remember ever seeing that before. Zero is actually zero! That tells me that the barrel (and the pic rail) is DAMN straight to the receiver - on a factory rifle. A sign of the just out-of-this-world quality that comes out the Anschutz factory.
The 1770 is basically the same thing as the 1771 as far as I understand. The 1771 comes standard with a pic rail, and I think the mags are different (but interchangeable). As I said in my post, I use the 5-round 1770 mags with the .223 1771 a lot.
It sounds to me like .222 is calling your name, to be honest. So I would answer that call. Especially if you are reloading. You are going to want a 50gr. tipped or match bullet pushing about 3140fps, and you should have a real "shoot the lights out" rifle.
6.5 shooter
CGN Regular
- Location
- Medicine Hat
There was a reason .222 Rem was the darling of the bench rest crowd for years, the .223 not so much.
- Location
- Vancouver Island, BC
I have a 1771 g-tac in 223. Nice rifle with a good but very light trigger (highest setting is 800g). Definitely needs some getting used to.
Twist rate would impact my personal choice to 223.
Twist rate would impact my personal choice to 223.
