Small caliber discussion

Fassteel said:
Be great to have a small caliber heading here on CGN.

I have been severely influenced by a friend on Montana was is a regular on Saubier.com a real fine sm caliber web site in the USA. This fellow know to many as Montdoug has all of the wildcats in 17cal,and 20 cal, stuff called Killer Bee.
Any how my collection is serving me very well. I have fallen in love with 222 especially and have in recent times picked up a Kimber of Oregon Custom Classic, a Steyr Classic Mannlicher, a HB early 70's Ithaca and a 1st year model Rem 788. These are all great shooting rifles, still working on a load that they will all shoot real well and we are close, just haven't had time to try it out in the Kimber.
Hornets, did someone say hornets?
My hornet selection includes a CZ 527 in 19 Calhoon, a barrel shortened hornet CZ 527, and a CZ in K hornet. My shortened hornet will shoot the factory Hornady 35gr into one hole at 100 yards, man finding a load equally as accurate has been tough.
My others to choose from include a CZ 223 Kevlar, CZ 223 Full Stock,cz 204 Walnut varmint, HS Precision 204 Varmint and soon a 20 Extreme. I had a CZ Fireball but I never shot it so it found a new home earlier this year.
Now is a busy time with brass prep. just did 500 in 222 then 300 in 223. My newly ordered Hornady powder dispenser will sit nicely with my heavily used Hornady case prep center ,picked up in the USA this time last year. FS
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If Montdoug is the same guy I'm thinking of on Saubier...he writes some really good posts and knows what he's talking about. Pretty much everyone there does for that matter. I've found them to be a decent bunch with a lot of knowledge and absolutely no attitude.
 
Camp Cook said:
Right now I am down to the following small bore CF cartridges for varmint/predators...

1) 204 Ruger
2) 223's
2) 22-250's
1) 6mm-284
1) 6.8 SPC

and I am totally interested in getting a 17 Fireball would use it almost exclusively for bobcat/lynx hunting...

:)
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I have my XCR (.223) as a knife and my Cooper (17Rem FB) as a scalpel.
 
Smallbore is pretty fun - I have only three rifles that are larger then 30 cal. Everything else is 22 or smaller. I think the reason that small bore is so much fun is that you can sit at a bench and shoot all day without breaking the bank. My 338 LM is fun for only 30-40 rds after that you start to get a bit of a headache from the concussion and at 2 bucks a shot (reloads) it is still pretty darn expensive to shoot... I am intrigued by some of the wildcat rounds but having played with a few in the past - I find that I get pretty tired of brass prep and scouring the land for oddball brass/dies; so I haven't really dabbled in the 20 Tac/Vartarg/etc.
 
The small stuff is without a doubt are a lot of fun. You shoot lots with less pain, both physically and financial. The ones I have now are 2 hornets a Ruger & a browning.,222 in a rem,223 in a ruger 2 243s a ruger & a rem. I have owned many of the others but these ones stick around. The hornets get used for gophers, 223 (a Ruger #3) is for when I am calling coyotes. The other 243s are coyote only guns.
 
I shoot a 22-250 and 55 gr. bullets. From a remington 700 Varmint . Lots of fun, I mostly use it in the winter, spring around here.

I seem to have a hankering for a Triple deuce.....ive got a set of dies and no rifle to shoot.
 
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I would love to see a varmint section on CGN. My favorite show on wild tv is Predatior Quest, I love watching them /him dumping coyotes.

I just recently bought a new CZ527 in 204. I have just started really learning about the 204 ruger and the work that went into developing the new cartridge. For example I didn't know the powder they use in Hornady ammo is not available commercially and it has an additive in the powder that stops copper fouling------Cowboy
 
Okay, newbie here so bare with me. I have read that 22-250's have a bad reputation as barrel burners. Is this true and how many rounds are we talking about to ruin a barrel?
 
Most guys pretty much never will shoot enough to ruin a barrel.

The guys that do, won't worry too much about it and accept it as a cost of performance.

But the answer, really, is "It varies". Shoot one round, let barrel cool, shoot another...Long time. Shoot a lot of ten shot strings rapid fire, burn yourself on the barrel, kind of thing, not so long/so many shots.
Then you have to take into consideration, the loading level used. Load it as hot as it can go, and you are lore like to do damage to the barrel sooner.

I have a Hornet build (slowly) ongoing, on a Martini action. Plan is to shoot cast, pretty much exclusively through it. I want to put a .17 Ackley on the same action eventually. Should do a number on starlings.
I like my .223! Brass everywhere, massive selection of bullets to choose from. Not highly motivated to get another caliber that is really close to it. But one never knows.

Some good stuff over on the Saubier forum! Lots of guys trying lots of different things. Worth checking out!

Cheers
Trev
 
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