Can't deside on 223rem or 22-250. Will be used for target and varmint.
THANKS Jerry

Pluses of the .223 is mild recoil, cheap milsurp, and flat enough out to 300yds on varmints, and well past that on paper.

The 22-250 is much more of a specilized round for longer shots on varmints. More recoil so burning many hundreds of rounds a day will be trying for you, and your rifle, and the ammo is heavier, so you won't be packing large quantities of ammo long distances.

The best way to solve the dillema is one of each, but if I had to choose one, I'd take the .223 every time.

quote:

Originally posted by Paul H:
if I had to choose one, I'd take the .223 every time.

At one time I went "dog" shooting with six .223 rifles, a 220 Swift, a 22-250, a 25-06, a 225 Winchester, and a heavy barreled 243 superrockchucker.

Today the rifles I use are the 223 and the .243 superrockchucker and when the ammo for the rockchucker runs out I'll rechamber it to the 6mm Rem.

The .223 is every bit as good as Paul says it is and then some.

I think the only thing the 223 has going for it is cheap ammo. In my opinion, the 22-250 has better inherent accuracy and definitely has higher performance than the 223. I would take the 22-250 over the 223 any day.

Anyone that thinks 22-250 recoil is close to bad, must be very recoil sensitive. The average person should also be able to easily carry enough 22-250 ammo for a full day of shooting; it ain't that heavy. Admittedly, barrel life of a 22-250 won't be as good as that of a 223.

It is a choice of performance. Same bullets just how hard do you want to push them and how far ya gonna chunk them. With good barrels not much difference in accuracy. There is a price to pay for additional performance in powder and barrels. You might opt for a little more scope with a 22/250.

I really enjoyed shooting my friend's .22-250; no particular reason, just a nice mix of recoil and fps. Some states allow 22s for deer, and I'm seeing more reports that with modern bullets (eg. Barnes X and the G.S. HV), the .22-250 is now a viable (but not ideal) deer rifle. (Neither my friend nor I have tried it for that, though.)

A 22-250 with the right components and in the right hands is much more rifle than most people will give it credit for.

Depends on what type of varmints your going after, and your own syle and limitations. The 223 is a fine caliber and as stated above has some advantages, if your not going to be hunting large varmints ie coyotes ect.... all the time and your shots will be 300 yards or less the 223 is hard to beat. But if your main prey is large varmints at extended ranges, even at short ranges the 22-250 will kill with much more authotity than the 223. I used to hunt coyotes only with a 223 and since I switched to the 250 I wouldn't go back.

The .223 in my opinion is the best for colony varmints and high volume shooting. It is very effective on larger varmints as well but not always the best choice. I've shot but never owned a .22-250 and other than the muzzle blast wearing on you after a long day of shooting it is a very good round. I just never saw the need for one when my .223's and .243 will handle any varmint situation.

I will be building both a 223 and 22-250 ackley this year, both with match grade reamers, so will be able to ring out the accuracy from both. I'll also be using faster twist barrels to take advantage of the heavier bullets.

I think most people don't give the 223 the credit it deserves.

Lots of good posts here and it seems the value of the 22-250 over the 223 is in longer ranges and I agree....but IMO if you really need a longer range round you should step up in caliber.

My 6mm rifle will stand in the wind and range much better than the 22-250.

One is never out of place shooting varmints with a 22-250...it's a very fine cartridge and deserving of it's praise. That said, the 223 and 6mm combo beats it on a windy day or even at 400 yards!

my choice would be the 22-250 i prefer it over 223 my opinion only

I've dealt with and loaded for both, and I bought a 22-250. But I sometimes think I'd have done better with a .223 -- The .223 is definitely less expensive to load for and shoot, and I think in a bolt action rifle it may often tend to be a bit more accurate.

But the 22-250 is definitely more powerful, and will reach out to a longer distance, all else being the same (which it never really is, of course).

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the fact that the 250 has enough more recoil that it pulls your target out of the sight picture. This is only a factor if shooting colony varmints, cause you can't see if you miss, to make a correction on the next shot. Also you often miss the acrobatics of the hit. I shoot both calibers, but prefer the 223. I shoot only 40 gr. bullets in my 223 and have them coming out at 3850 fps. With the 250 and 50 gr. bullets I get the same speed. Might want to look at the 204 Ruger

jy,
There's really only one way for you to decide. Buy one of both in the same rifle and shoot them extensively for a year. After that you may decide that indeed the 22-250 is quite abit more cartridge and that it really reaches out there! You'll also find that you leave the house more often than not with the 223 in your hands with no complaint.
Either is a very good choice and you will not notice a lack of accuracy or lethality inside 300 yards.
Like others here have said, the 6mm's seem to hold a little better in the wind; and there's plenty here in Kans.
You can always buy a .243win and load some of the 55-58?gr.
V-max's and leave the 22-250 in the dust. In that vein you can have basically a 22-250 with the option of the heavier A-max for target. This all depending on how the light and heavy bullets like the twist in your gun.
Just know beforehand while you twist in your dilemna; you'll probably be quite pleased with which ever you pick. I only have four of each......at the moment.

Good Shooting

jp

I can't be without either...But you will see a lot more trigger time on the 223, if you own both and have them side by side out on a rich target environment shooting field...

I use my 223s, for all the work within 250 yds, and the 22/250 for the farther out there...

at times I have a 243 standing around for those occasional shots...but then the 10/22 is standing around and sees more action for those really close shots, or while the 223s barrels are cooling...

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

Today the rifles I use the .243 superrockchucker and when the ammo for the rockchucker runs out I'll rechamber it to the 6mm Rem.

Why would you rechamber,VD? The Super Rock Chucker is a real piece of Wildcat 6mm to factory evolution.I think Mr. Huntington's going to be pissed off at you. roger

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

Today the rifles I use the .243 superrockchucker and when the ammo for the rockchucker runs out I'll rechamber it to the 6mm Rem.

Why would you rechamber,VD? The Super Rock Chucker is a real piece of Wildcat 6mm to factory evolution.I think Mr. Huntington's going to be pissed off at you. roger

Roger...Huntington's reloading data on the superrockchucker is at least as optimostic as P O Ackleys!

I can't come close to achieving the results he claimed. In fact, a friend who shoots a plain jane 6mm Remington gets velocities nearly the same as I'm getting with a lot more powder burned.

One more thing.....I built two superrockchuckers...one for me and another for a friend and we bought a set of dies together and I chambered both guns to fit the dies with no more than .002 of clearance. He now lives 800 miles away and I just don't want to invest in another set of wildcat dies as I have a 6mm Rem chamber reamer and dies for the 6mm Rem....

The simple solution is to rechamber and loose onlt a little velocity. The barrel is a 26" stainless #7 contour Douglas XX and is heavy as hell.....2" shorter wouldn't bother me at all and I get to remove a bit of throat erosion at the same time.

At least it has been my experience that wildcats for performance is a myth...there's good reasons for them but if there was a real performance advantage some company filled it with a commercial round.

Neither of these is a real great cartridge. The 223 is like most governments efforts, a real screw up. How they came up with that short neck is beyond me. The 22-250 I have used for years but the excess body taper doesnt lend itself to long case life. How about this. Buy either, send it to a good gunsmith to unscrew the barrel, knock off a few threads and rechamber to 22 BR. Then you have something at a good price I might add

I would take a 22/250 any day of the week over the .223, I have owned a 22/250 in the past and I love what they do. Wish I had not sold mine.

I'll take the 223. No change that I'll take 2. Heck pick up a 204 while your at it.

Then I will use my 25-06 with 75gr Vmax or 87gr Berger's for any far shots.

I like the 22-250. It is an exquisitely violent little cartridge. .223 kills PDs, 22-250s disassembles them and can be used for larger game in a pinch (although I don't advocate their use on deer-size game.)

Decisions, I bought my 223 first, a CZ, for the handiness and the set trigger. I was disappointed at the range when I had to hold over for 3 and 4 hundred yards. So I got the 250. I was impressed, but now that I have both, I can't part with the 223. It is nice, light and handy, like a little 06. It works for everything, but perfect for nothing. The 250 is great, but I have when I do long range hunting, I need to decide whether to carry it or my 257 with lite pills. Really they are both great, and so far as groundhogs within 3oo yards, you can't tell the difference. Prarrie dogs might be different with volume shooting, I wouldn't know about that.
Bfly

I have both, and wouldn't part with either of them. The .223 is a single-shot NEF, easy to handle and accurate. The 22-250 is a Rem 700 VLSS, and is flatter shooting, but I do have to express one bit of disappointment: I was out plinking yesterday and was blowing up some almost-empty aerosol cans. I set one up about 80 yards out, and started shooting over sticks. Eight shots and it didn't move! Disgusted with myself, I got up to reposition the can, and low and behold, there were seven holes burned clean through it. Those little 45grainers are FAST!

THANKS for all who replied. I have found a CZ 550 varmit with a kevlar stock in 22-250. The price is $625.00 this is a new gun. Later I will get a 223.
JERRY

I shoot both for varmints right now. I like using my AR in 223 for coyotes for the quick follow up shots, but it won't hold a candle to the 22-250 in making prairie dogs explode. If you want to save the pelts, I'd stick with 223 for the smaller stuff. I would honestly have a damn hard time giving up either one, but around here varmint and furharvest are the big types of hunting outside pheasant season. Just my $0.02 wk

I have both and usually give the nod to my Sako AI in 223. The 22-250 is a great cartridge but most of my shots are well under 300 yards and thus don't need the increased noise and recoil.

Entering that into Quickload for a 26" barrel and asking for the optimum powder at max pressures for the brass:

75 gr Amax 22-250, 38.5 gr 760, 3,584 fps
75 gr Amax .223, 26.9 gr H335, 3,256 fps
--------------------------------------------
difference from Quicktarget = 132 yards

50 gr. Vmax: 22-250, 39.5 gr. 748, 4,186 fps
50 gr. Vmax .223, 23.7 gr. 5744, 3861 fps
-----------------------------------------
difference from Quicktarget = 61 yards

40 gr. Vmax 22-250, 38.5 gr. H322, 4,513 fps
40 gr. Vmax .223, 25.9 gr. W296, 4, 268 fps
-----------------------------------------
difference from Quicktarget = 35 yards

33 gr. Vmax 22-250 39.6 gr. H322, 4,848 fps
33 gr. Vmax .223, 27.8 gr. W296, 4623 fps
-------------------------------------
difference ~ ~ 25 yards


What does it all mean?
Except for Seafire's fast twist 22-250 project, all 22-250s should have been .223s.

quote:

Originally posted by seafire/B17G:
I can't be without either...But you will see a lot more trigger time on the 223, if you own both and have them side by side out on a rich target environment shooting field...

I use my 223s, for all the work within 250 yds, and the 22/250 for the farther out there...

at times I have a 243 standing around for those occasional shots...but then the 10/22 is standing around and sees more action for those really close shots, or while the 223s barrels are cooling...

I agree with seafire. I started out in the varmint hunting business with a coupld of different 22-250's and thought that they were the best and only ticket for varmint hunting out West. Now having purchased 223 and a 243 and developing some varmint loads for both of them that are at or approaching good speed for the flater trajectory and accuracy I find that I enjoy shooting all of them. Having said that, I do find myself reaching for the 223 a little more often than the others but will be rockchuck hunting this spring with the 22-250 just because it seems to be it's turn!!