Most efficient .22 center fire

[zacii]

I just use a .223 Rem. 68gr Hornady BTHP loaded over CFE223. Gets to 600 yards pretty easy. It'll teach you to call wind that's for sure.

What kind of velocity are you getting with that?

 

[Elkeater]

What kind of velocity are you getting with that?

Right about 2910 out of a 16" barrel. It's toward the upper end of published data.

 

[merbeau]

I actually built a 22x47 Lapua from 6.5x47 brass. Also a 6x47 and 20x47 Lapua. Only one brass type needed for 4 cases. I shoot Bibb 52 grain comp bullet. Extremely accurate and IMR 8208 works well. I use 1:8 twist and currently building load for Lapua 77 grain Scenar. No modifications to bolt head or magazine. Small primer needed. iI use CCI BR4.

 

[billflangjr813]

Efficient prob can't look much futher than 223 with 22.250/22 creed being a decent 2nd for components (hornady will always support there stuff) 223 made the standard by the government, so it has zero wow (gov can't make anything cool) factor for me. If I want to shoot paper and targets cheap 223 or 308.

Personally 22.250 is my standard 22 caliber in the house, with some other cool ones have to be 220 swift (no ones mentioning that have we all gone new generation?) Not digging just curious, I love the swift.

224 weatherby - that's one you wont find much, but it's a fire cracker.

22 hornet it's just too cool to die!

I guess everyone wants to shoot heavies or ar's - give me a fine bolt gun or a single action ruger 1 and i'll just stick with nostalgia! Interesting read of opinions, my favorites prob do not fit the efficient criteria of the OP, but I have enough loaded ammo for them to last my lifetime, my kids will need to start saving components and ammo when i'm done with them!

My go to gun M-77 220 swift. I think mine has a 24" barrel. It's a tack driver.

 

[Short Round]

I don't have bottomless pockets, so I have only one .22CF and it's a .223 with a 1:12 twist. Ruger built it, and with no upgrades other than a Timney trigger it shoots just under 1/2 moa. I'm confident that with meticulous cartridge prep and finding the right bullet-powder combo it should certainly do 1/4 moa. I'm in the process of ladder building right now with a variety of powders and bullets.
Even if I did have a ton of money and could afford to have a super-duper $2000 to $3000 custom rifle built, I would stick with the .223 strictly because of component availability.

I still have an older 700ADL in .223 in the original style synthetic stock. I have done nothing to that gun other than taking the iron sights of and putting plug screws in the holes and adding a scope. For a $299 rifle it shoots great. 50 grain Nosler BTs shoot submoa with Varget or H4895.

Just because they're basic doesn't mean they aren't any good. I have a spare synthetic take off stock of that same older design from when I did build a custom gun leaving me with the stock and an un shot .243 barrel. I am thinking of taking an inch off that stock and making a snow camo winter set of clothes for the .223 rem. I never did find a youth stock in that older synthetic pattern with the molded in "cut style" checkering.

 

[Short Round]

Your observations of 53 grain Vmax bullets is just the opposite of mine. I shoot them out of 8 twist 22-250's and 8 twist 220 Swifts and have never had a one go puff in thin air at 50 yards! And I have cranked them above the 3650-3700 FPS threshold you indicated it has been happening to you. The only "puffs" that I have observed with the 8 twist 22-250's and Swifts (four different rifles with Mike Rock, two Brux and Douglas barrels) have been threefold. 1. When shooting at paper they puffed in the berm. 2. When shooting at prairie dogs or gophers they went puff when I missed the target. 3. When I hit the priaire dog of gopher, they puffed in the critter when they blew the snot out of them.

From what I have observed in many many years of using the 53 Vmaxes, I have to wonder if you got a bad batch of bullets?? But then, maybe I have been lucky and others have had the same experience as you.

The difference in puff or no puff could simply be the barrel, twist, smoothness, sharpness of the land's edge. I had some hornady SX .224 that would leave a whorl of lead spray on paper. The bullet got there but it was losing molten Pb. The jackets are very thin and the come with a slip of paper in the box to run no faster than .233 rem speeds. I bought them for a .22-250 and had to set them aside until I bought a .223.

 

[Wallie]

Your observations of 53 grain Vmax bullets is just the opposite of mine. I shoot them out of 8 twist 22-250's and 8 twist 220 Swifts and have never had a one go puff in thin air at 50 yards! And I have cranked them above the 3650-3700 FPS threshold you indicated it has been happening to you. The only "puffs" that I have observed with the 8 twist 22-250's and Swifts (four different rifles with Mike Rock, two Brux and Douglas barrels) have been threefold. 1. When shooting at paper they puffed in the berm. 2. When shooting at prairie dogs or gophers they went puff when I missed the target. 3. When I hit the priaire dog of gopher, they puffed in the critter when they blew the snot out of them.

From what I have observed in many many years of using the 53 Vmaxes, I have to wonder if you got a bad batch of bullets?? But then, maybe I have been lucky and others have had the same experience as you.

Now I'm curious as well!
I've only had it happen that one session, when I was initially testing CFE223 in my 223AI (multiple rifles, but all built the same) 8 twist 6 groove benchmark button barrel. I had tested at the same time (same batch of bullets, probably) in my 220 swift that is a 12 twist, and got up to… memory is failing me… 4100fps? Over 4000 for sure and no puffs from it.

My best guess is that with CFE I was compressing the powder hard enough to cram enough grains in the little 223AI case to get 3700fps that I was ringing the nose of vmax with my seating die. I don't know for sure, but I don't think that could help their structural integrity.
I would never have adopted that for my "normal" but I absolutely would have tried it for a group or two, if for no other reason to establish if pressure threshold was "just around the corner" from where I might want to end up.

 

[Mike Matteson]

Define long range, compared to a 22LR the 22 hornet is a long range round, 12 grs of a number of different powders will give you 3000 to 3200 fps with 34 to 40 gr bullets, compared to a 220 swift which can burn 40 or more grs per pop, in practical terms a 223 makes a lot of sense,

Yes the 220 Swift is a powder burn, but 55gr @ 3900+ really kicts the rifle into gear.

 

[Varmint Hunter]

Only because you specified "long range" I'd discount the .221 and .223. I've got both and they're really efficient, but I don't consider them long range. I think the 22-250 in a fast twist would be hard to beat based on your info.

 

[Homebrewer]

I run a 22x47 lapua in my AR-15 using an oversize ARPerformance 800 series bolt. No longer in production.
The brass is trimmed to 1.800" to load 70 Berger VLD's over RL-17, producing a warm load at 3548fps from my 24" barrel.
Photos below from two outings on my TX lease..

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