The caliber is open, but I need to find a caliber that will allow the sight picture to remain in the scope after firing. dont want to miss any thing, you know. I shot a 22 maxi mag last weekend, and it allowed the scope to stay on targe after firing. saw the hits and the misses.

Im shoot germanic merkels, so wondering about the 5.6X50R mag, and the 220 swift semi rimmed, and the 6Xwhatevers.. and the 222rimmed, and so on. This will be just a barrel for an existing single shot rifle, so ability to hunt big game with it is not an issue...

Remember, need to keep the scope sight from muzzle jumping....

thanks for the input

My old Winchester High Wall will extract .225 Win cases. The Swift as you mention is semi rimmed. I would select the Swift. Make sure the chamber is polished.

Seein' the hits is what it's all about! I use a 218 Bee in a Ruger #1, 222's in heavy barreled Remingtons. I think a Masburn Bee or the 222 rimmed would be exactly what you're looking for in a light recoiling 22 centerfire. Never shot any Germanics Merkels with either round, but I know what they've done to some very large rockchucks.

i used to have a Fajen-stocked Martini that was chambered in .225 Win. It was just superb (except for the trigger).

22 Hornet - perhaps you could 'K' it on receipt? I'm sure anything more will cause far too much muzzle flip to see strike on misses.

My 222 in a sako HB with a big scope on it weighs in at 11+lbs I can see hits on animal but rarely bullet strike on misses, this with 30gr bullets too....

K-Hornet. Look in this forum, the Wildcat forum, Smallbores etc for info on the K-Hornet. Amazing what people can get out of that little case.

I agree with other posters, anything bigger than, say, a .222 Rem will not allow you to see the hits/misses.
- mike

[ 04-30-2003, 13:18: Message edited by: mho ]

I can easily see a hit from a Swift.

My talent for this is minimum! I think my eyes close before the recoil moves me with high velocity 22's. Just my theory but the velocity of the Swift may get the bullet there before it's too late. I am going make an effort to keep my eye(s) open.

A friend said he can see a 270 hit but not a 358 Win! Not me.

[ 04-30-2003, 18:30: Message edited by: Savage99 ]

Another vote for the Hornet or K...

To me, the Hornet and its varients are more fun than a guy should be allowed to have!

Another good ol' rimmed varmint cartridge... the .45-70 Government! Ha! That ought to ruffle some feathers! Anyway, aint nuttin' wrong with shootin' varmints with a .45-70!!! I've done it myself! If you load 'em down, you'll have no problem keepin' the scope on your critter! I know one poster here who is a proponet of reduced loads! Maybe he'll agree with me on this one....Na! I know better than that!

There's nothing wrong with the K-Hornet, but if starting from scratch, the .218 Bee will give you a little more velocity, a slightly heavier and more durable case, and still not enough recoil to disturb the sight picture.

I wouldn't recommend the .22 Jet because of its extreme taper, but if you want to go wildcat, the ".22 Jet Improved" or .256 Winchester necked down to .224, would be a nice round with just a bit more power than the Bee. Brass is made from cheap and plentiful .357 cases. For that matter, the .256 Winchester itself, using 60 grain bullets, might be the ticket you're looking for (too bad that Speer dropped it's little 60 grain .25 spitzer -- it was a little beauty.)

When I hunted prarie dogs 20 years ago, the old rancher provided a 17 Rem, 220 Siwft, and .243.

With all three I could watch the hit.

I think they had lower power scopes than we use today.

A freind of a freind is obsessed with prarie dog hunting now, and he uses a .17 barrel with 3 grooves, and say that he has to us a 17 to see the hit.

I think his scope is to powerful.

I am thinking about a lever action varminter in 25-35.

How about a 2-R Lovell, aka .22-3000, made from the ever-popular .25-20 Single Shot case, just to be weird...

I have a 222 Rimmed on the small Martini action with a light weight barrel, and recoil and muzzle rise are minimal. Anything larger would make it harder to see bullet impact.

Jim

My vote goes to the 218 Mashburn Bee!!

Ol' John

I would like to try the 17 Ackley Hornet. It takes some doing to get the brass formed but then it seems to be a very user friendly cartridge. Check out Varmintal.com and look at his Reloading page. Cool Stuff!!

Girth Improved

Whilst I see the performance of some of the suggestions I would imagine you would have a hard time getting Merkel to chamber in anything other than hornet or 5.6x50R. A 222rimmed would perhaps be possible as they would only have to rebate for the rim and supply a 5.6x50R extractor.

However you would still have to use 5.6x50R brass to case form.

I myself have gone for the 5.6x50R (on the advice of Montero and DanielM who kindly gave me dies and brass! as deer are in the equation and I wanted something less fiddly to feed under the barrel lump. I intend to load at 222rem type velocities and take advantage of the reduced pressures to increase case life and reduce muzzle flip/blast.

I cannot imagine that the merkel (or my intended blaser K95) are accurate enough platforms for there to be any meaningfull accuracy advantage between 222rimmed and 5.6x50R.

Whatever you get will be fun!

(One of these days I want a 6x57R made simply using a 6mm rem reamer, rebated for a standard x57R rim and extractor. This would allow the use of 6mm rem dies with a 6.5x57R shellholder and brass)

One thing that hasn't been addressed here is distance. What kind of distance are you shooting at? What kind of accuracy does the .218 Bee give? How does it compare to the .219 Zipper? And last but certainly not least, What the heck is a germanic merkel? Curious minds need to know!

I am still trying to determine where the muzzle flip point is. It appears around 222 for most setups, and maybe a little higher for heavy rifles. The K-1 is only a 6 and half pounder, so need a bit lighter load.

It appears a choice between 5.6X50R and a 222 rimmed, but Merkel ads dont show stock chambers for 222 rimmed, but for a price...
perhaps the 5.6X50R magnum is the way to go, with the rim and all.

and a germanic merkel is naught more than a precoffee way of describing a Merkel k-1 as being from from germany.

How long a barrel do these cartridges take for max efficiency? is a 24 inch barrel adequate?

.25-35 usta be fairly popular in Europe. Merkel might chamber for it. Makes a very decent varmint round w/75 grain bullets.

Somehow, .22s never interested me.

5,6x50R (magnum) would be my choise any day.

Jameister
If you are having the bbl made from scratch I would suggest the following: Cases are easy to get and should be able to get adequate velocity with low pressure that will help with the recoil.
Neck down a 30-30 to a 6MM. You could use an Ackley improves shoulder[which should cut down on case stretch] but it is probably not necessary as you are looking for a low recoil ctg. With lower pressure the muzzle blast should not be as loud or as sharp as say a 22/250.
What rifle are you building this on?

Will you be reloading? The .218 bee can be loaded substantially higher than factory in a solid action. It would be as effective as a .222R and the brass is easy to get.

I've been shooting a T/C Contender carbine with a custom bull barrel K-Hornet. Using the 35 gr Hornady V-Max bullets, it is fast and destructive. With either my Leupold 4.5-14x or 6.5-20x on it, I can watch the prairie dogs do backflips.

I have a Sav 99 with rotten 303Sav barrel that I have been wondering what rimmed varmit cartridge would be possible for rebarreling.

The .225 Win and 25-35 look very good when driven to modern pressures. There is brass and dies available.

Another vote for the .22 Hornet. Then again - depending on how far you are trying to reach these buggers at - you may want to look into a .32 H&R Magnum - if your targets are within 150 yards.

Jameister,

I think the key question will be what reamers Merkel has, or if you can supply them will some wildcat reamers from the US.
IMO the 5.6x50R will be a fine choice for a varmint cartridge. All you need is to get enough cases from Europe.
The idea proposed by NE 450 (.30-30 necked down to 6mm) reminds me of a recent German cartridge, 6x52R Bretschneider, the .22 Savage necked up to 6mm. There is a recent thread on that over in the European Big Game Hunting Forum.

Regards,
Martin

Why hasn't anyone mentioned the good old Donaldson Wasp? It all started with a couple of 30/30 case based wildcats necked down to 22 caliber.

A breakopen in one would be a natural,and brass cheap and plentiful.

Dies are still around, and available.

I must either be too old or too nostalgic for this crowd.

Gosh...do I count only 1 vote for the 225 Winchester to date? It could not be more perfect for the application. Handloads duplicate the 22-250 without the case stretch problems, and accuracy is legendary.

Seeing the bullet impact is dependent on rifle weight, configuration of stock, power and field of view of optics, etc. Top loads in the 225 will generate about 4 ft-lbs of recoil in a 10 lb rifle, and a good reduced load will only be 2.5 ft-lbs, so seeing the hit is a matter of keeping your eyes open.

There ar many good reduced loads for the 225 with charge weights similar to the 223 Rem that actually equal the 223 in velocity.

Here's another vote for the 225 Win. My old M70 shoots rings around my Sako 22-250. And as Sabot says, it's easy to find load s that will duplicate factory 22-250 or 223.

[ 06-09-2003, 18:11: Message edited by: olarmy ]

You may want to look at the .303 British as your base cartridge.

In Australia, they've been necked down to .22 calibre for years. Up here in Canada, Ellwood Epps took his blown out .303 Epps and necked it down to .22 producing a cartridge in the .220 Swift/22-250 class.