222Remington X7 Marlin, my new cast boolit rifle.

[Four Fingers of Death]

My friend in the next state has a large gunshop and has these on sale for $AU399, which is very cheap for Australia.

I will get him to ship it down to me and I should get it in a week or so.

They take Win70 sccope mounts apparently and I have a matte and a gloss set of Conetrol mounts and rings and a nice 2.5-8 VX2 which should make a lovely walk about rifle and range plinker.

Has anyone had any experience with these?

The shop tells me they are 1 in 12" twist, but I haven't been able to confirm that.

[white eagle]

not with the rifle itself however the 222 is a fantastic round I have found
I have had a who;e boat load of guns and cartridges in my time and that is
one that will never leave
BTW mine is a M700 classic in 222
enjoy the rifle :bigsmyl2:

[northmn]

Many years ago I ahd a 222 in a Remington 700. Shot a bunch of Jack Rabbits with it, about the size of your European Hares, and varmits. Had a friend taht used one on occasion for deer. It was a great rifle. About the only varmits I have locally are coyotes and I don't see a lot fo them so I don't own a rifle in that class anymore as they just were not getting any practical use. In the States the 223. which is the military cartridge, has pretty much taken over and one does not see the 222 in new rifles anymore.
I had a 22-250 and felt that it really offered very limited advantage over the 222 as the smaller critters one shot with them got kind of hard to hit much beyond the effective range of the 222. I have a 243 for that sort of thing now.

DP

[Hickory]

I used the 222 Rem to shoot prairie dogs for years.
Then moved to the .223 Rem when the brass became hard to find in bulk & the barrel wore out, yes, they do ware out after 12-13,000 rounds.

[Huffmanite]

Not aware of the Marlin X rifles being made in 222 Remington cartridge. But, guess the Marlin was chambered in this fine non military cartridge for overseas sales in countries that doesn't allow military cartridge rifles. As to its barrel twist, while my .223 Marlin X rifle has a 1 in 9" twist, haven't a clue about the .222 twist.

Perhaps a visit to the Marlin Forum website may be helpful.

[mfraser264]

The .222 is a great cartridge. Lower velocity but the lower pressure results in longer life of the barrel. Case life is very good. Older Speer manuals mentioned 50 times uses of the brass. The standard twist was and is still used 1:14. If yours is a 1:12 you can shoot the heavier bullets and nothing wrong with that. My recent Savage purchase really responded well to neck turning the brass. Brass can be had, in fact I am getting ready to sell some and recently came across new Winchester on the shelf. Norma and Laupa al available however very pricey. All else fails .223 or 5.56 can be resized. Takes a bit of trimming and neck turning but they do work. My choice of powder is IMR 4198. This rifle will provide great accuracy and along life. Cast should work once the barrel is well broken in.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I've had a couple of 222s in the past, they all seem accurate. We had a guy shooting factory 222 ammo at the range and chucking the brass in the brass bin. Naturally, I rescued it, which topped up my stock of 222 brass nicely.

[knifemaker]

The Marlin X7 rifles have a very good reputation for accuracy for such a inexpensive rifle. I bought my grandson a Marlin X7 rifle in 7mm-08 for his first deer hunting rifle after researching showed many users praising the accuracy. The very first load I tried using IMR-4895 powder with a Hornady 140 gr. bullet shot groups of 5/8 inches at 100 yards. Load develop stopped right there and that is his deer hunting load. I have never shot cast boolits in it and can not comment about the accuracy with cast lead.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I've never come across anyone with a 222 or 223, but a lot of 308s, etc have appeared at the range, all accurate and their owners were happy with them.

When the Marlins first appeared on the scene here, the local gunshop got ten and placed them on the shelf. All were camo. Nine sold in a few weeks, the last one sat there for two or more years before being sold. When it was sold, it appeared at the gunshop in the next town after a couple of weeks, but had too much money on it so I let it pass. It was a 308Win.

[Huffmanite]

I failed to mention in my earlier reply that I own four of the Marlin X rifles in different cartridges. All shot pretty well for accuracy right out of the box. It has a decent adjustable trigger. Savage threaded replacement barrels will fit the Marlin receiver and I've rebarreled two of my Marlins with a heavier barrel for shooting from benchrest. As mentioned the original Marlin barrels on them shot well for accuracy, I just wanted 6.5x55 and a 7x57 chambered rifles. so my 7mm-08 and 25-06 Marlin barrels were replaced. I consider it a darn shame, that Marlin X rifles were discontinued while Remington continued production of their 770 and 783 rifles......all three are/were made at the Mayfield Plant in Kentucky.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I pick the rifle up tomorrow and will hit the range on Sunday. There has been a hold up as my dealer friend is winding down his business. I'll drop by the LGS for a box of 200 Remington 50Gn Accutip factory ammo to run the barrel in. They have a big special on it and it is priced well and I don't have time to hit the reloading press at the moment.

It will be wearing a Leupold VX1 in Control rings and mounts (left over from a pre 64 Model 70, apparently the Marlin uses Winchester bases).

I think Remington probably dropped the X Series rifles as they compete with the Remington line.

The 223 has virtually taken over from the 222 here as well. I also have a Remington 788 in 222 one of these two will end up as a Hornet velocity rifle using a huge supply of old (but effective) 46Gn Winchester Hornet HP bullets I have and the other will be a cast boolit rifle and the 223s will be flat out jacketed bullet rifles.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Well I picked up a box of 200 Remington Accutip 222s at a good price from the LGS and then went to my friend's place to pick the rifle up. He is going out of business so I ended up walking out with a few hundred 44Mags that he had reloaded to sell to club members, a couple hundred 44Mag cases, enough 22/250 cases to wipe out the kangaroo population in the State and 130x 22Hornet cases which I will pass onto a mate and a swag of 38cases, which I will pass on to a new shooter and some 300 Win Mag brass and 20x Factory loads. He is about to part from his wife, so I will be providing a few meals over the next few months. Good day all round. I hit the range tomorrow.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Welllllllllll, I got the rifle to the range today and went to give it a thorough clean before shooting it. No matter how much I cleaned, it would not come clean.

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k228/4fingermick/Rifles/20160403_140217_zpsjdbzty0p.jpg (http://s89.photobucket.com/user/4fingermick/media/Rifles/20160403_140217_zpsjdbzty0p.jpg.html)

The long line of patches on the right was after a patch wet with Hoppes No9.
The next lines were after a nylon brush wet with Froglube solvent.

When I finally gave up as the range was empty and it was time to go home, I wet a patch with Ballistol and ran it through the bore. Here is the result;

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k228/4fingermick/Rifles/20160403_143053_zpsw91jr0iz.jpg (http://s89.photobucket.com/user/4fingermick/media/Rifles/20160403_143053_zpsw91jr0iz.jpg.html)

I think my rifle is a little carbon mine.

[Four Fingers of Death]

No change at the range today, patches still coming out dirty no matter what I do.

[castaroo]

have you had a chance to shoot it yet ?I want too see how they shoot before I talk with Mr Owen, cheers ,Roo

[Four Fingers of Death]

Project a bit stalled. Going to the range on Sunday. Will try and get it going v for then.

[castaroo]

still waiting mate

[Four Fingers of Death]

HaHa! I've been a bit slack on the Marlin, it has travelled to the range every visit (2-3 times a week), but I have been taking my Ruger Old Armies and my assistant and I have been having a heap of fun with them. I will be back on deck on Sunday, I will have to extract the digit and get it percolating.

[Four Fingers of Death]

Back to the range on Wednesday just passed and the patches are still coming out dirty. Amazing. I really don't know what to make of it. It still hasn't been fired and even if a lot of rounds had been run through the barrel, it should have come clean by now.

The bolt face is absolutely clean and shiny blue, so I am pretty sure no ammo has ever been through it.

[castaroo]

you may have too try some white vinegar ,don't leave it in too long ,a normal clear afterwards and it should be right ,Roo

[Four Fingers of Death]

I'll give that a go, I have some white cleaning vinegar in the laundry. Flat out this weekend, I'll see how I go Monday, thanks.

[Three44s]

I have an XL7 in .25-06 and it's a shooter!

I did the trigger myself and that was also an improvement.

One day my wife was out on the ranch hiking around servicing her trail cameras and as usual I like to send our cattle dogs with her for a little early warning duty ...... we have cougars and bears here.

So for the second time in a row a coyote is trying to draw our dogs out to give them the business .... she grazed one on the previous trip with her M60 Smith .38 ........ yes, I try to get her to take a better side arm ...... but to no avail!

Well this time the coyote is hiding in the bushes and our dogs will not follow my wife away from it .. just can't stand the nasty language I guess ..........

She calls me and asks me to drop what I am doing and bring a fire stick and get this coyote off our dogs ..... at the time, I was suspicous that the Marlin .25-06 was shooting a little high and I had not gotten around to getting it back on paper to confirm and adjust ........

Well, I knew I had better help my better half out ............. (well you know .... super time was just around the corner and all ........... )

I drove over and low and behold the coyote did not run off like I had hoped and instead presented a hail mary shot ........ it was facing me head on and yapping it's head off!

I whistled and tried and tried to con it into a broadside shot ..... but nothin' doing!

So, I gave it my best guess on hold over ......... and touched off an 87 gr. Speer TNT HP .........

My wife immediately went to laughing .......... she said I cut that coyote off ......... mid howl!

We drove up to the crumpled coyote and my wife GPS'ed the location ...... the coyote had good reason to stop it's howl abruptly ...... the round entered the right lung and ran length ways ...... a fist sized entrance and no exit!

I kind of shut off the air ..........

So my wife returns to our home and we bring up Google Earth ........ I pin point the location from where I was shooting from and she loads her saved location where the coyote was and it measured to .............

.......... a 435 yard shot.

Three 44s

[Texas by God]

And that my friend is the 25-06! And great shooting by you! Best, Thomas.

[Four Fingers of Death]

A calibre that is said to be perfect for Australia and I have never owned one. I load for so many calibres I can't see that changing in a hurry either. Shame.

[pietro]

Back to the range on Wednesday just passed and the patches are still coming out dirty.

Amazing.

I really don't know what to make of it.




AFAIK, Marlin test-fires every rifle they make - so I would suggest trying a copper solvent to clean the bore.

The only .222R, I've had, was a Sako L-46 that was very accurate - but I mis-remember the twist rate.


.

[Four Fingers of Death]

My friend saw me at the range cleaning it and was really impressed with it. I rang the shop I bought mine from but they were sold out and no more available. He offered to buy mine, I explained the problem with it, buy he wasn't worried and started pulling money out of his wallet. I let it go for what I paid for it (he actually offered a bit more than I paid for it) and he is very happy. I dropped $50 freight and handling and a fair bit of elbow grease, but we are both happy. I will go back to shooting my 788 Remington in 222.