Most efficient .22 center fire

[fmuguira]

As others have said, 223 is the best overall balanced answer considering performance, cost, range, availability, etc.

My 9 twist shoots a 40 gr tipped bullet to a 75 gr Eldm. From end of barrel to 600-700 yards you have a well balanced cartridge.

Faster, slower, more powder/speed, less powder/ speed; sure there's other choices but not ticking as many of the all around boxes. I ve got a Fireball, a 22 GT and a 22-250 AI but the best compromise and easy button is my 223. Good Luck.

 

[Buffalobwana]

Surprised nobody mentioned 22 Nosler. (AR platform)

Bought an insane amount of factory 22 nos from SPS at $20/box and 200 pc of brass, cost was reasonable enough.

Unfortunately, the factory ammo ain't the most accurate, but preliminary reloading results are very pleasing. Everything I loaded was more accurate than the factory 50gr A-Max.

While 5.56/223 can't be beat for component affordability, the 22 nos ain't bad if you want a bit more punch.

 

[Wallie]

I think my 223AI fits your description perfectly! Tack driving accurate, and everything you want is available in 1,000 pack bulk!
I have a varmint vmax load at 3500 fps, and a target 80g load at 3100 fps that does everything I'd ever want to do!

 

[del2les]

With the price of reloading components these days and the hit or miss availability of said components. What do you think is the most efficient long range .22 cal center fire if you had to consider component costs, brass availability and long range capability. If you had to go with one cartridge what would you choose and why? I was thinking for both target and varmint shooting.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and I'm not sure what I'd choose.

A fast twist 223/5.56. Given I own 4 of these with 3 throated for the longer vld heavies, they are excellent out to 1,000yds for your given requirements. Brass is everywhere and cheap to free range pickups. Several powders work well, and a single pound can give 250-300 rounds, and SRP are fairly available.

In my 26" versions, I can push 75gr bullets to 3,000fps with the slower powders like AA2520, and 2,900fps with several others. That's only about 300fps slower than several 22-250 loads with same bullets.

 

[buzby]

I think my 223AI fits your description perfectly! Tack driving accurate, and everything you want is available in 1,000 pack bulk!
I have a varmint vmax load at 3500 fps, and a target 80g load at 3100 fps that does everything I'd ever want to do!

What's your recipe for 80g doing 3100?
Also wondering how 223ai shoots factory 223 loads

 

[MagnumManiac]

I have 222Rem, 223Rem, 222RemMag and 22-250/22-250AI, of all, the 222 is the most efficient powder to velocity value, but the 223 is the cheapest overall and only slightly less efficient, BUT, the 223 doesn't come close to the accuracy of my Sako L461 Vixen's…

Cheers.

 

[bfarms]

Cheap would be 223, killing anything at longer range would go 22-250.

 

[budlight]

What's your recipe for 80g doing 3100?
Also wondering how 223ai shoots factory 223 loads

You have to fire form AI's. That being said I stated above that 75 gr is about the real limit because of the neck and mag size in an AR. The AI is only about 2 more grains and I load 223 to 556 specs to about 60K. So I never went down that rabbit hole. Id like to see a chrono picture of 80's doing 3100 at 20 feet from the barrel

Power Pro 2000-mr is about the best for heavies.

 

[RockyRandy]

I can't argue with anyone about the 223, but to answer the question you asked about saving cost the 221 fireball is an awesome little round. Deadly accurate fun to shoot. I just had a 22 creed built and love it but you are in the 38 gr range and higher if your chasing speed. the new kid on the block is the 22 arc and looks to be fun option, I don't have any experience with it just have listen to a podcast about it.

 

[Wallie]

What's your recipe for 80g doing 3100?
Also wondering how 223ai shoots factory 223 loads

I use CFE223 for all of my 223AI loads now, but I've had good success with 8208XBR, AR Comp, shooters world Tactical, and Ramshot Tac.
It's nothing special really, 223 AI 26" 8 twist 6 groove barrel with .060" freebore ran in AICS magazines so the bullets don't take up much room in the case.
My 53gr vmax and 80g ELD-M loads both like about .015" off the lands, the vmax will crank all the way up to about 3650-3700 when the bullets start turning into grey puffs 50 yards out. I run them at about 3500fps just because it seems like a good compromise between performance and efficiency.
The 80g can go up to about 3200fps before I run out of case capacity (or rather compressing the powder that hard starts deforming the ojive) but they seem to like 3100 much better accuracy wise.
Probably the "secret sauce" is the HbN powder coating on all my projectiles. My family calls it my pixie dust. It's pretty easy to do, and seems to help. I get 4k rounds on a 223 barrel now with pixie dust where I only got about 3k before.

If you headspace an AI chamber to properly headspace regular 223 rounds the accuracy is superb while shooting vanilla brass (I don't call it fire forming, I just call it shooting!)

 

[Wallie]

You have to fire form AI's. That being said I stated above that 75 gr is about the real limit because of the neck and mag size in an AR. The AI is only about 2 more grains and I load 223 to 556 specs to about 60K. So I never went down that rabbit hole. Id like to see a chrono picture of 80's doing 3100 at 20 feet from the barrel

Power Pro 2000-mr is about the best for heavies.

You don't have to fireform… just might be a little slower with virgin brass. If you make fire forming brass it's own separate process you are doing it wrong, or at least the hard way.
I'm not sure who would advise AI in an AR, or any semi auto, but it wouldn't be me.
AI is about 8% more case volume, but the real advantage is loading 223 with enough freebore to take advantage of 308/short action magazine length and keep most of your bullet out of the case.
As far as pictures (proof?!) you will just have to take my word for it. I'm not sure why you think I would want to make up stories, but I'm even more confused about why the speed 20 feet from the barrel is important… I was recalling my muzzle velocity statistics, not 20' down range… that's why they call it muzzle velocity, because it's measured at the
…muzzle. My LabRadar could be lying I suppose, but my Applied Ballistics solver always lines up, so probably not.

 

[Roperboy87]

Fun round for me is 22x47l very accurate and can push the 77 grain tmk at 3280 and for varmint 55 grain v max 3640 deadly accurate. I've only test both loads out to 600yards suppressed and only 18in carbon barrel

 

[Weaver93]

You don't have to fireform… just might be a little slower with virgin brass. If you make fire forming brass it's own separate process you are doing it wrong, or at least the hard way.
I'm not sure who would advise AI in an AR, or any semi auto, but it wouldn't be me.
AI is about 8% more case volume, but the real advantage is loading 223 with enough freebore to take advantage of 308/short action magazine length and keep most of your bullet out of the case.
As far as pictures (proof?!) you will just have to take my word for it. I'm not sure why you think I would want to make up stories, but I'm even more confused about why the speed 20 feet from the barrel is important… I was recalling my muzzle velocity statistics, not 20' down range… that's why they call it muzzle velocity, because it's measured at the
…muzzle. My LabRadar could be lying I suppose, but my Applied Ballistics solver always lines up, so probably not.

Separate process or not, that is still fire forming your brass.

 

[Rflshootr]

I'd take a serious look at the 22BR. A simple neck down from 6BR brass.
Not much more powder than a 223 and much more performance.
Initial brass cost is a bit more, but worth it in my opinion.
If we are talking thousands of rounds and cheap, cheap, cheap, then the 223.

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