.222 Rem Cast Gun

[stephen perry]

A little jacketed .222 first. The .222 Rem was the brainchild of Mike Walker. The Remington 722 rifle came out in 1948. The .222 Rem started in the 722 in 1950. Mike being a longtime benchrest shooter saw an oppurtunity to take a new gun and a new cartridge and give the Sport an effective 250 yd Varmint cartridge. Mike was responsible for starting Remington on the button rifling process that as afr as I know is still used. Hart barrels got Mikes permission to use the button rifling in their new barrel compampany in the early 1950's. NBRSA benchrest started in 1949 and soon after the .222 was winning it's share of awards.

I started my Rem 722 in .222 with Cast in 1963, I still have the rifle shot it last Friday. I have 22 molds in 225 415 and 225 462. Later I added 225 438 and 225 642. I enjoy Casting for my .222. I Cast em hard WW and size them .225. Now I am using Caranuba Red lube. My main powder is Unique and all the rest of the shotgun powders.

I have one benchrest barrel for .222, a Shilen 1-14 twist. I have used all kinds of brass for the triple deuce. Remington, WW, Norma, Federal, WCC .223 sized to .222 and trimmed. all the brass works fine. Chamfer the inside of the necks with a chamfer tool to keep from scraping you Cast bullets while seating. For primers I used CCI 400 for many years, ran out. Now I use WSR primers.

For Cast try and seat the bullets as close to the lands and keeping at least .125 in the neck. For cleaning the barrel my GM top engine, Kroil oil, and white ammonia blend works good on Cast.

What do you guys do for your .222's with Cast bullets?

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR

[mroliver77]

Mine is a stock 788 I picked up a couple years back. It is fitted with a period 3-10 Weaver and shoots like a house afire. I had no brass and plenty of .223 so I size it down to .222 and trim. I shoot the 225 438, 225 415, 225 462 and the rcbs 55gr that kinda resembles the 415. The 415 and 438 are real performers. I like slower powders for varmint work as I can squeeze the most speed out of them while still having good accuracy. For plinking and light work Unique is my favorite powder but I have found TiteWad fast becoming a favorite for wimpy loads as it burns completely with little position sensitivity. I use no fillers with it and get very low S.D. numbers and great accuracy.
I have some condoms that a friend gave me some odds and ends of Hornet designed bullets meas. .222 and .223. They shoot well over a case of 4895 and kersplat anything that gets in the way! Nice for taking out my frustrations on garden pests. It not only eliminates them, it rips them apart and tosses pieces sometimes head high in the air! That can sure brighten my day! ;)
I have 22 Hornet, .222, .223 and 22-250 with the .222 quickly becoming a favorite.
Jay

[Larry Gibson]

I also had a very nice tripple deuce in a M788. Like a fool I let a friend talk me out of it. I used reformed TW cases with the necks minimally turned for concentricity. Mine rifle prefered 225462 for the best accuracy but up through 2200 fps the 225415 was close enough that I preferred it for shooting squirrels. I use linotype with 20 -30% lead, sized .225, used Hornady GCs and Javelina lube. I also used CCI 400s. I most often used 4895 with a 1/3 dacron filler. For loads above 2200 fps i found 4320 to work really well but it was such a pain getting them long sticks into that small case mouth. Never should have let that rifle go..........

Larry Gibson

[stephen perry]

I have one 788 in .223 and a 788 with a Hart barrel in 6x47 Rem. Maybe a third one next year. This would be a 788 with a Douglass .454 Casuul barrel. Triggers on a 788 need some work, everything elses works. My 6x47 has a Canjar set trigger I'm still working on .223 trigger.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR

[beagle]

Mine's an old M700 HB with walnut stock. So far, this one loves a 225415HP and WC820 powder.

I started my real shooting career with an old M722 and it was a good one. Finally, that one went by the wayside because of too many 55 grain FMJ pulled military bullets (I had a source and no money to buy commercial bullets). Next was a HB Sako Vixen that was too pretty to shoot so I acquired a M600 Remington and it went to #2 son when he got old enough topped by a 8X Weaver.

You just can't beat a "duce" for a cast .22 shooter./beagle

[MaxJon]

A little jacketed .222 first. The .222 Rem was the brainchild of Mike Walker. The Remington 722 rifle came out in 1948. The .222 Rem started in the 722 in 1950. Mike being a longtime benchrest shooter saw an oppurtunity to take a new gun and a new cartridge and give the Sport an effective 250 yd Varmint cartridge. Mike was responsible for starting Remington on the button rifling process that as afr as I know is still used. Hart barrels got Mikes permission to use the button rifling in their new barrel compampany in the early 1950's. NBRSA benchrest started in 1949 and soon after the .222 was winning it's share of awards.

I started my Rem 722 in .222 with Cast in 1963, I still have the rifle shot it last Friday. I have 22 molds in 225 415 and 225 462. Later I added 225 438 and 225 642. I enjoy Casting for my .222. I Cast em hard WW and size them .225. Now I am using Caranuba Red lube. My main powder is Unique and all the rest of the shotgun powders.

I have one benchrest barrel for .222, a Shilen 1-14 twist. I have used all kinds of brass for the triple deuce. Remington, WW, Norma, Federal, WCC .223 sized to .222 and trimmed. all the brass works fine. Chamfer the inside of the necks with a chamfer tool to keep from scraping you Cast bullets while seating. For primers I used CCI 400 for many years, ran out. Now I use WSR primers.

For Cast try and seat the bullets as close to the lands and keeping at least .125 in the neck. For cleaning the barrel my GM top engine, Kroil oil, and white ammonia blend works good on Cast.

What do you guys do for your .222's with Cast bullets?

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR

Hi Stephen.
I have a retired fullbore target (Single Shot Omark) rifle with a .223 barrel conversion which has a corroded barrel! I think it would make a great .222R cast rifle with a good heavy stainless 1/14" twist barrel. I think the RCBS 22-055SP with hollow pointing would be deadly for varmint shooting! I think it would be a great rifle for this purpose, it was very accurate as a .223 but the 1/8" twist would not have been very cast friendly even if it had not been corroded.
Any thoughts anyone???:cbpour::cbpour:
BB03

[stephen perry]

Omark, we're talking Australian rifle. I like Australian/New Zealand shooters see them at the benchrest shoots.

From what I've seen of Omark rifles they are good candidates for new barrels. Not trying to throw you a Mick but I would go with a 6x47 Remington caliber instead of the .222 Remington. I have both and the 6x47 same 14" twist outperforms my .222. Same case head size. I shot my 6x47 at 600M silohuette and buried 7 prarie dogs in a row, no misses. My 66 grn bullets I make on J4 jackets. Doubt I would have hit half that many with my .222 Rem.

If you want to shoot long distance and keep the .223 bolt face I would go with the 6x47 Rem everyday.

As far as Cast in a 6x47 Remington caliber haven't shot enough to make a comparison to jacketed. Bought a SAECO mold Casts about an 85 grn bullet should do well in a 14 twist barrel.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR