.22 Rimfire availability/cost vs. centerfire reloading

[DaveInGA]

For a long while now, .22 Rimfire cartridges have been in short supply. Availability has improved significantly, but prices for said cartridges are beyond ridiculous. I have an old stockpile, but I'd rather not end up being forced to buy these way overpriced replacements. I've been giving the idea of finding a centerfire cartridge and rifle to go with it some thought. Here's some related information:

1. I have an absolute monster stash of .223/5.56MM cases. I have over 3K reloaded and could reload another 3K and not put a significant dent in the case stash. I know this is a good larger varmint cartridge.

2. I own a couple AR15's, but I don't have a bolt or any firearm that doesn't require gas to operate the action at the moment. I'd have to buy a bolt action of some sort or look at other alternatives that would handle the .223 cartridge.

3. I looked at 22 Hornet and like the idea, but I don't have any cases or a firearm.

4. I don't know anything about 22 Hornet, but I do know when it comes to rifles, I like blued steel and oil finished wood.

5. My current .22 rimfire rifles are CZ's. One is the American and the other is the youth/woman model. Both are scoped and pretty accurate. 1/2" at 50 yards with no real work on my part. The youth model is actually more accurate of the two by a small bit. It has the prettiest speckled European Beech stock I've ever seen.

Okay, I've rambled on and haven't come to any question. What I'm trying to figure out is this:

1. Should I add a .22 Hornet or similar rifle w/cartridge?
2. Should I add a .223 bolt action and download the cartridge? If so, what rifle and how much downloading to reach mouse fart loads to deal with tree rats overrunning our back yard?
3. Should I just bite the bullet and buy this over priced .22 Rimfire stuff?

Can somebody help me out here? I'm at the head scratching point and spring is coming with an expected influx of squirrels/rabbits in the back yard. (I live in a neighborhood out in the county, with young women neighbors with small kids, so no big kabooms or they'll get scared and call the police. Gotta take these pests down quietly.

[Steve]

If you want quiet shoot them with CCI Mini Caps in your longest barreled 22.

[357cyrus]

I went through the same thoughts a few years ago. I had just bought an older 22WMR for small critters around my farm and it really shot well. Almost overnight the price of ammo for it went to 24 cents a round. Bummer. I shopped around and found Nosler Varmagedon bullets for 12 cents a piece. For me buying something new was an easy choice at that point.

I had read all about the virtues of the 22 hornet, and thought it suited my situation pretty well. The the two things that turned me off were the stories of smashing the thin case mouths easily, and how some rifles have a .223 bore and some have a .224 bore.

So then I got to reading about the 221 fireball, liked what I'd read of it, and searched for a CZ in one. I had read nothing but great things about them. But before I could find one to actually see how it fit me, a big pile of 556 brass staring at me under my bench just got too hard to ignore. So I decided Id just get a 223 and download it. I'm glad I did. I've got 3 loads for it so far. A Hornady Vmax load that's more like a 221 fireball. A 65gr Gameking load that I'd like to try on deer. And a 69 grain target load. All three shoot at most .75" for 5 shots. And I haven't had to tinker with anything. It's a Remington 700 SPS Tactical.

When I got interested in downloading cartridges and going subsonic with stuff I made a comparison chart of what QuickLoad tells me is possible with some of the stuff I load for. I found what the muzzle pressure was in PSI for a 22WMR then converted it to BAR for QuickLoad to compare it to other stuff. This gives you a scale of how loud things are. Probably easier to just show you than explain.

[DaveInGA]

Thank you both for posting. I think I'll probably keep the .22's, but I've been thinking on a .223 bolt action for a while. Mossberg now offers a pretty darn good bolt action rifle with a laminate stock that actually takes AR15 magazines, which I have a metric ton of as well.

I'm betting the plastic 10 and 20 rounders should fit nice and tight, not rattle and feed good too. Most of the ones I have in plastic are Magpul.

357Cyrus,

The charge you linked for me had my answer in there. The 40 grain bullets with pistol powders oughta be perfect for squirrels and if I find a good hunting lead bullet mold, I can use it to cast a cheap bullet. I already have on hand an 8 pound container of Titegroup.

[Steve]

Thanks 357cyrus. I'm going to try a couple of those 223 loads in the Rem VTR. I have some 55 gr Varmint Nightmare bullets and I use IMR 4227 in the 45 Colt.

My pet 45 Colt load uses 20 gr 4227 pushing a 240 gr Sierra HC bullet at 1260 fps out of my Henry.

[Fyodor]

Don't want to reload .22lr?

http://22lrreloader.com/

[Ranch Dog]

I made this decision three years ago and sold all my 22 rimfire rifles except for a Cricket that is in my safe. I bought it for my grandson so I did not feel right selling it. It has 1K rounds of LR stored with it.

As it turns out, the purchase of my brace of Marlin 1894CL a decade ago was not too bad of an idea. The 218 Bee has taken on the role that any rimfire could provide and it does a better job of it here on the ranch. Of course there is a Ranch Dog bullet, a TLC225-50-RF, that I shoot with it but I also bought 1K each of the Hornady and Speer Bee bullets when I bought the rifle. I think I've only used 30 of the Hornady Bees.

I'm also a bit OCD with my reloading records, I know what everything cost. Here are the numbers for the 218 Bee.

218Bee_cost.jpg

I've never been a plinker, I really don't know what that is, but I shoot a lot with purpose and enjoy it. If I had blown through a box of ammo as as kid, I would have never pulled a trigger again and that has held true through my life. Thank you Dad.

I've also tried some other options such as round ball with my pistol cartridge rifles but in the long run feel that the 218 Bee fills the role best.

The only place to buy 22 ammo in my town has been Wal-Mart, at least for the last 20 years. I hate beholding to them and that was a big drive in moving away from rimfire. I call it independence. Oh, at my location they will now sell you a 22 rifle but they still don't have ammo to go with it. Haven't had any since the idiots put the idiot in office.

[DaveInGA]

Don't want to reload .22lr?

http://22lrreloader.com/

Fyodor,

You guys aren't helping my addiction. Here I am trying hard to justify the expense of dating a hot shooting new girl and here you and Steve are suggesting ways I stay married to the same ole boring slow and plodding girl I've had for years.

Check the bud handbook of good ole pal behavior. You're supposed to support and justify my desires for a new rifle, not convince me to stay married to the old one. "I like guns, I like guns, I'd like to own them all".....

[Fyodor]

[BBvideo 560,340][/BBvideo]

Oh, I'm sorry... I didn't know it was that bad.

I'd suggest buying a new rifle, probably in a caliber that's either cheap to buy in quantities, or easy and satisfyingly to reload. But since I guess you already have a 223, you might look for something with bigger boo...lets. On my longlist there's a 45-120 waiting to be found sometime, maybe that's interesting for you, too? Or a little 20ga...

[DaveInGA]

Fyodor,

Here is the object of my desire:

http://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/mossber ... tid=678108

I think the barrel is a bit long for my purposes, I'd prefer a 18 1/2 inch barrel for reduced weight, but they have what they have. I think a simple 3 or 4X scope should do the trick nicely, like a Nikon P-223 3X:

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/577833 ... icle-matte

Here's some more details on the rifles:

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2013/0 ... -predator/

http://www.mossberg.com/category/series ... -predator/

I like the AR magazine acceptance, since I have a Metric Ton of those, from 5 rounders to 30's, many plastic ones as well as aluminum and steel. My plastic ones are a bit thicker, are a mix of Magpul and another old line. I'm betting they would fit nicely tight in that rifle. I'd prefer a 5 round mag though, more is mostly a waste for any hunting I'm going to do here in Georgia.

RD, how hard do you think it would be to download the .223 to match the 218 Bee? I'm betting it would be pretty easy, based on 357Cyrus data. And I already have a lead mold or two sitting on the shelf, though I'd like a 40 grain RF, as most of mine are 55's and 60 grainers.