I just came into one of those homely little Savage 340s in this classic old caliber (It's three years old than I am!), and there doesn't seem to be much interest in it anymore. Looks like IMR4198, Re 7, H322 and H335 are all good powders to try. I'm starting with 50-grain Hornady SX bullets, have Remington and CCI BR4 primers to play with, and will probably buy a stash of Lapua cases.
I know the trigger is usually the weak point on a 340, but I also know they can shoot, if the nut behind the butt is up to it.
Reading the manuals, it seems this was the first new sporting cartridge released after WWII and was a complete original designed by benchrest shooter Mike Walker for Remington. Not only was it highly accurate, it was the parent for the family that led to the .223. Quite a pedigree!

damn right i'm still shooting one - several in fact. one of the grandfathers of many of so called modern cartridges & still well able to hold its own

Bill it's one of my favorites. Had a couple in Rem 600---gave one to a grandson. Had another in Savage combo gun 24V---20 guage one barrel and .222 other, gave to a son in law. Grandson and a great nephew have both taken deer with my Rem 600. You ask what powder and I found the question more so what will it not shoot. I think 55 grain Winchester bulk packed was only jacketed bullet I used. It would also shoot 58 grain RCBS mold cast bullets very well.

Dang, cast in a .222!

I have and shoot 2, an early 40x single shot built on the 722 action, and an early 700 ADL.

yup,

quite often.








With 45 gr. TSX's, I'm pretty much good to go.

Best

GWB

I have a XP-100 Remington converted to a rifle in 222 it was built by Dan Dowling and is quite a shooter. A couple hundred prairie dogs and squirrels each year. H322 is what the rifle likes. Great caliber.

BigB

Yes, I have an old Remington 700 in .222

The one with the Glossy walnut stock.

It was my Fox spotlighting gun.

Those cast bullets in a .222 were just the ticket for night time jackrabbit shooting. 2000-2200fps velocity --58 grain bullet. Reach out about as far as you could spotlight them. Low noise made it ideal for shooting from inside a pickup. Very low recoil--shoot all night long. Free wheel weights so bullets were cheap too.

I've bought and sold many .223s but will have to be really strapped for cash before I sell my CZ 527 Ameican in .222.
I have data on 186 different loads I would be willing to E-Mail. The powders that performed Good were 8208, 2230-C, 2520, 4759, 2015, 2200. roger

As an FYI, if you don't want to pay the tarrif for Lapua brass, any quality .223 brass can be converted to .222 in one pass through the die. There's still a lot of .222s floating around. My 788 is old and ugly (not quite as bad as a 340 but close) and it shoots like a house afire with home made ammo using domestic brass.

Bill,

The .222 Remington remains miles ahead of the .223 Remington here in Europe as a target & hunting cartidge.

Mine's a Keppeler 3-Position (DJV) rifle with all the Bell's & Whistles topped with a 4-20x50 Weaver TR-1 but from my way of thinking you just gotta love a .222 Remington; in most rifles; regardless of heritage and even with pencil thin tubes it's just a fun, accurate cartridge that cover alot of bases.

Since I shoot it so much I was looking for good value in bulk .224" bullets and settled on the 1K mini plastic ammo boxes of Speer 50 gr. TNT's.

The bullet weight I really appreciate for the .222 is either 50 or the 52/53 HP's but there's plenty of options available today, many prefer the currently vogue tipped lightweights, 35 thru 45 grainers. Their B.C.'s aren't much to write home about but out to 250 meters; who cares? With Keppeler and Speers I've shot some astonishingly good groups to 300 meters.

Of the easily obtainable stateside powders which are currently in short supply here; IMR-4198 and H-322 are just superb; my option for The Fatherland is VVN-130; 21.5 grs.,Speer 50 gr. TNT, 2.18" O.A.L. with pretty much any reputable brass (I prefer R-P) & primer (again Remington 7 1/2's) will = .20" 1-hole for 3-shots day at the range.



Have fun with your Savage 340.

I shoot both a Sako 222Rem and a Martini 222Rimmed. One of my favourites for foxes and cats is also a Martini 17/222Rimmed!

geedubya: That fine, 55 year-old Sako Riihimaki is a lot prettier than the hog you've pictured with it.

I seem to keep acquiring 222's despite the fact that I have more of them than I can put to good use. I've never come across an inaccurate one. And although the SAAMI specs for the .222 keep its pressure somewhat lower than that of the .223, if loaded to equal (and reasonable) pressures, there is so little difference in the two as to be negligible. Basically, the .222 will shoot a 50 grain bullet at the same speed a .223 will shoot a 55 grainer.

The only cartridge in the .222 family that I like better than the original is the .221 .

I have a second year production Remington 700 ADL with 20" barrel.

With a Barnes 36 gr. Varmint Grenade, 22 gr. of Reloader 7, sparked by a R-P 7 1/2 primer it will do 3525 FPS. For bobcats ,fox and coyotes no pelt damage.

Bartsche, PM incoming.
Carpetman, so the 58-grain cast bullets are plenty stable in the 1:14 twist?

Bill--If a Rem 600 or a Savage 24V have 1-14 twist, yes they are stable. I also shot that bullet with good results in my 22-250 which has a Shilen barrel and I don't recall the twist. I have a Win mod 70 in .223 and it is probably the most accurate rifle I have with jacketed bullets. It will not shoot that cast bullet with any combination I tried. Most likely the twist is wrong. I gave up trying to get it to shoot cast as I had other .22 cals that would and if it only shot jacketed, that was fine with me. The mold I mentioned is a gas check variety, but I have shot bunches of them without the gas check and could not detect a difference.

I've had very good luck with Ramshot X-Terminator in my single shot Sako L461 with 50gr Speer TNT. The nice thing with this powder is it pours like water out of a powder measure and throw to throw variation is nill.

I have a Steyr and am looking for another .222. Mine likes H4895 and Varget.

gzig5--If you have other powders that you can't get to meter well in your powder measure, try a Belding&Mull powder measure. Looked like an antique when I got mine over 45 years ago and it is slower than most, but I have not found a powder it wont throw consistent charges.

A 788 for me as well, kept thinking I'd up-grade to a Sako or Rem 7, but it shoots damn well.

I have a Sako L461, Harington & Richardson, pretty rare. Topped with a Leupold 2X10. I have been having lots of success with a Sierra 45 Grain Bullet, and Tac powder. Gonna try IMR 3031 next.

Jerry

Bill, I got the hots for one recently, and found a perfect older Rem 700 BDL, then bought a Steyr SL in 222 as well. My new Coyote rifles.

Bill,

My old Remington 788 really likes 24 grains of A2230 pushing the 40 V-Max

Here's a pic of my H&R 317, in 222 Rem, that makes a nice coyote calling rifle.

My 40XBR 222 is good PD medicine.....shooting 40BT's, with N530, at 3800 fps. A VERY stiff load.

Kevin

I too have a 788 in .222. Mine is one of the rare ones with a walnut stock. I have even had guys on other forums argue with me that I must be mistaken because they said that the 788 was never made with a walnut stock. That just ain't so. Some of the early ones were definitely made with walnut stocks and I have one to prove it. Anyway, mine likes RL-7 with the 40 grain Hornady Vmax, and BLC2 with the 50 grain Hornady. Hard to find a load that it won't shoot accurately, however. I believe the Savage 340 was made in .225 for a short while. Would sure like to find one of those.
joe

FWIW,

A few different combo's @ 100 yds.

GWB

GWB: Dang, mister, those are some fine groups.
Checked my powder stash and am coming up short on a lot of those listed, but do have H4895, Re7 and 748. Getting tough to find bullets, but did manage to find a box of 50-grain Hornady SX's.

I just obtained a very nice Browning Varmint Stalker from our own LWD. A very nice rifle and it will take it's first trip to the range this weekend for the start of load development. I'm going to try T-32, GI-322, VV133, and H-4198 for powders and Berger 52 grain match bullets.

Kevin: How long did it take you with those brown, black, and yellow Sharpies to draw that wood pattern on that stock? You did a pretty good job, but of course, nothing that squiggly would ever occur in natural wood.

Stone,

Leave it to you, to notice what an "arteest" I've become over the years. To give you an idea of the age of the photo........the cordless phone, sitting on top of my vise, has a telescoping antenna!!

Although you did miss the Conetrol mounts and rings........so old that the rear mount has a slight forward off-set/taper, that positions the rear ring slightly more forward.

Then there's my second favorite scope.....the Leupold 3-9XAO Compact.

I would mention the Anderson scope caps "story"......but that's another tale.

Kevin

Kevin, I figured that you had just picked up that cordless phone last week at the Goodwill store to replace your dial model that broke!

Whadayathink? Reckon that piece of wood was some of the inventory that H&R received from O'brien. It's sure an extraordinary piece.

Stone,

I'll have you know that SW Bell came and got their old red(you know.....the phone that no one ever calls) rotary phone, many years ago. After a dozen or so antenna repairs, my wife insisted on a new 2.4 GHZ phone......a phone that now hardly works, due to interference from the new DSL wireless modem!!!!
Let's see....I think I stored the old cordless phone with my 8-track collection........

Stock vintage?....don't know for sure, but the L461 action is in the 899XX range.
For comparison, here's another H&R 222, with a s/n in the 1038XX range....a model 317P.

BTW, I seem to remember a 17-223 of your's that had a nice chunk of fence-post wood.....huh?!!

Kevin

Nah, all of my wood looks like an engineer with a straight-edge drew it. I'm excited just to find a pin-hole knot in one of my stocks. The wall studs in your house have more character to them, even viewed through the sheet rock.

Heck yes, my favorites are B models of the 722 Remington. These are the ones with the 26" barrel that has the same outside dimensions as my 721s in 300 H&H, so you end up with a long stiff barrel in a great cartridge. Just bought #14 complete with a vintage Unertl Condor 6X scope.
Here is #13 bought from G&H (sold the airgun scope) and #12 that was a benchrest gun from the 60s with a Shilen barrel and Canjar SST. New 700 stock and bottom metal. Everyone is a tack driver and as the bullets and powder keep getting better the groups keep shrinking. Have a friend who has a 722 222 bought by his Grandfather. For three generations the family has documented every shot ! 5000+ rounds and still shooting bugholes.

Joe - I too have a 788 with a walnut stock in .222, good shooter with the lighter bullets.

quote:

Originally posted by Joe R. Lock:
I too have a 788 in .222. Mine is one of the rare ones with a walnut stock. I have even had guys on other forums argue with me that I must be mistaken because they said that the 788 was never made with a walnut stock. That just ain't so. Some of the early ones were definitely made with walnut stocks and I have one to prove it. Anyway, mine likes RL-7 with the 40 grain Hornady Vmax, and BLC2 with the 50 grain Hornady. Hard to find a load that it won't shoot accurately, however. I believe the Savage 340 was made in .225 for a short while. Would sure like to find one of those.
joe

Joe
First year production 788's came in a walnut stock. FS

I have some mighty nice 222's.
The first one I got is an old IthacaHB Ls55
The 2nd one I got was a new kimber of oregon custom classic
The 3rd one is a 3 yr old Steyr Mannlicher classic.
I gotta learn to post photos these guns are worth showing to all you 222 lovers. FS

222 still rules the 100 yard benchrest...I have an older savage 112 single shot in 222.I'm actually jealous.because it shoots better than I can.and to make things worse my wife can win with it...

I shoot three .222 remington rifles:
Heym 55 O/U combo 16ga/222
Sako L461 Vixen
CZ Brno ZKK601
they all shoot well, and all get used.