I have a pair of 22-250s, and I am led to believe the 225 is a ballistic twin of the long ago legitimized wildcat. However: I find myself intrigued with a particular rifle chambered in the 225, and I would like to know your thoughts, opinions, experiences, pros and cons, etc. Do I gain anything other than another handloading proposition if I buy this rifle?

At one point in time I had a post '64 M70 in 225. Was a nice rifle and was very accurate using 55gr Sierras and 4064. As you say, the 225 and the 22-250 are really two peas in a slightly different pod. No con that I can think of. The pro being a rifle you like chambered in an old timey nostalgic round.

I have a 225 M70 manufactured in '65. It's ugly with its pressed checkering and wide gap for the free floated barrel. But it's surprisingly accurate. And I enjoy having it as a piece of rifle history. The 225 Win is basically a 22-250 less 100fps. Which makes it pretty darn good, IMO.

The only con is availability of ammo an brass for reloading.

What rifle are you looking at?

If you have to you can make brass from 30-30. Little more work then just forming as you have to turn the rim down.

I read an article about the .225 Winchester in an American Rifleman magazine back in the late 60's when I was in my teens. Ever since that article, I was really captivated by the .225 and always wanted one. I bought several other calibers through the years putting off acquiring a .225. Now, almost 50 years later, I have one.

What I have is a Ruger #1 single shot. This gun was originally chambered in .223 and was rechambered to .225. It is a varmint model with a heavy barrel. And, it is very accurate. With the 40 grain Z-Max bullet and 35 grains of IMR4350, it will shoot nearly one hole groups. It is also very accurate with a 50 grain bullet and H380 powder. I believe that Winchester still makes one load for it and I think they still make the brass. At least they did a couple of years ago.
joe

Mine is a model 70 and fast becoming one of my favorites. Maybe it's that us old farts like old calibers, eh?

It is hard to tell the difference on critters with both and it works well for culling deer.

It is a fun round to shoot because of the rifles is it chambered in.

Olarmy, of all things, it is a re-chambered NEF with a custom mannlicher forend.

I have one too, and I'll agree what others have said.

Mine is a post-64 Mod 70 and is particularly ugly. In fact, if such rifles were in a competition for "most ugly" I think mine would win.

I believe I paid $500 for it, and it came scoped, with dies and 200 rounds of loaded ammo in virgin brass (I know the guy who loaded it).

Not only does it have that huge barrel channel and uber-ugly pressed checkering, but someone slapped an ill-fitting recoil pad on it.

It has a short, heavy barrel and an old Tasco 6 X 24 scope atop it.

But . . . it has a wonderful trigger and it can shoot 5 into 0.5 MOA

I love the thing. It's an ugly rifle in an odd but excellent caliber and it shoots like crazy. It's just pure fun to shoot.

My rifle's uglier than your rifle!

There are no flys on the 225. If you want to have fun with a unique, but old, cartridge, try the 219 Zipper. Easily formed from 30-30 brass. Some have said the 225 was a pumped up 219 Zipper, but it was designed differently from the ground up.

I was enamored with 225 when I just entered the military in 65. I went to the PX and ordered a new Model 70 in that caliber. The wait that they said would be two weeks turned into months and I cancelled it and bought a SAKO 243 from a gunshop near my base.

I've thought about building a 219 Zipper. Many were built on Krag actions. The 219 Donaldson Wasp was another fine rimmed cartridge.

If you can get a 225 for a fair price, by all means get it and enjoy it even if another more popular cartridge equals or beats it.

Interesting.....was in a Houston, Tx Reloading and gun shop early this week. On consignment there was a Martini action octagon barrel rifle in 225 Win. Nothing special about the stock, but metal was in good condition...nice blue job. Price was near a thousand.

quote:

Originally posted by olarmy:
My rifle's uglier than your rifle!

quote:

Originally posted by Doubless:
Olarmy, of all things, it is a re-chambered NEF with a custom mannlicher forend.

Did you buy it?

Yes, did you finally get it"?
I've an M1885 Winchester chambered in .219 Zipper Improved...with a 28* shoulder. All the details are the same as the .225, except I make mine from .30/30 cases, so is fully rimmed. It has a 26" barrel, so the .22/250 has nothing on it...as if you could tell the difference in the field, anyway.
I'd put it up against anyrthing coming down the Pike, anyway...including the Swift. It MAY not win, but it'll hold it's place.
Have fun,
Gene

I believe I may have 100 loaded rounds of 225 left. Maybe some brass or whatever.

butchlambert, Would you like to sell or trade for the ammo/brass?

Send me a PM with your email address. I will send photos and price. Don't know about a trade, but who knows. I found an old Winchester-Western box of 225 that is in a sealed box saying 55gr. P.S.P. I have 105 additional loaded rounds and 112 rounds of used brass.

I bought a .225 Winchester in 1965....it was a post 64 push feed marvel....it shot great with factory ammo....I was never able to reload anything better than the factory 55 grain loads.

I finally shot it out after several prairie dog shoots and rebarreled it to 22-250.....but have never had such a fine shooting rifle since the old M-70 in 225 Winchester.....

I wouldn't buy another one.....I'd be looking for the far more popular 22-250....but the .225 was on helluva good shooter and IMO the ballistic equivalent of the more popular round....

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:
I bought a .225 Winchester in 1965....it was a post 64 push feed marvel....it shot great with factory ammo....I was never able to reload anything better than the factory 55 grain loads.

I finally shot it out after several prairie dog shoots and rebarreled it to 22-250.....but have never had such a fine shooting rifle since the old M-70 in 225 Winchester.....

I wouldn't buy another one.....I'd be looking for the far more popular 22-250....but the .225 was on helluva good shooter and IMO the ballistic equivalent of the more popular round....

I respect and support your choice. I don't own a .22-250 and I freely concede that it may be a hair faster and it certainly is vastly more popular than a .225 Win.

And the .22-250 may be as accurate as a .225 Win, when both are optimized for its own particular rifle.

But the fact that the .225 Win. is . . . what . . . a little off the beaten path, that everybody and his pet dog Fido owns a .22-250 and that I'm a hand-loader . . . well . . . I'm irresistibly attracted to the exotic .225 Win.

It's an emotional thing for me, a thing of love for the rejected "ugly duckling" of the cartridge world, an inability to resist the exotic in favor of the familiar.

Please forgive me. I am weak. I have been seduced . . . I cannot return to my virtuous past.

(Now, please, please, please . . . don't tell Kate, my loving wife of 49 years, about my .225!)

I got hold of an Australian built martini cadet in a form of 219 imp. I just cleaned up the chamber with a 225 reamer. I make cases from 30-30 brass with 225 dies. I dont push the vel. but it's shoots very well.

The .225 WW is an excellent varmint cartridge but not quite the ballistic equivelent of the .22-250. It holds about three grains less powder and will usually come withis 100 fps of .22-250 velocities. I shot PD's with my No.1 .225 for about 15 years before rebarrelling it to .204 Wasp in '09.
[URL=http://s702.photobucket.com/user/219DW/media/oldgunpics4.jpg.html][IMG]
Dave

Looks like the 225 that I traded to David Christman. He rechambered it though.

Butch,
I bought this No.1 .225 from a gunshop in Logansport, In. in 1995. Found the 15X Unertl 2" scope at a gunshow a couple of weeks later. Always liked the way it looked and shot.
Dave

quote:

Originally posted by 219DW PDK:

Excellent No.1! As a lefty who has a desire for a 225 Win the Ruger is a nice option. Already have brass and dies in my stash of supplies for "Rifles yet to come". Interesting thread.

Thomas

It's a good caliber, does it all, but so do a lot of others such as the 22-250 that match it balistically..I would not buy one for various reasons mostly already stated in the above posts.

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
It's a good caliber, does it all, but so do a lot of others such as the 22-250 that match it balistically..I would not buy one for various reasons mostly already stated in the above posts.

Winston Churchill famously said: "A man who isn't a liberal at 20 has no heart. A man who isn't a conservative at 50 has no brain!"

With apologies to all, especially Winston Churchill, I'd adapt his wisdom as follows: "A man who doesn't like a .225 Win at 20 has a brain. A man who doesn't like a .225 Win. at 50 has no heart."

BL: I was at a gun show last week looking for a M70 pre64 '06. Didn't find one, but there was a pristine 1964 M70 in '06 for a great price. I took it, since I had had such good success with the ugly 1965 M70 in 225.

Guess what, it's just as ugly, but it's a tack driver, too!

quote:

Originally posted by olarmy:
BL: I was at a gun show last week looking for a M70 pre64 '06. Didn't find one, but there was a pristine 1964 M70 in '06 for a great price. I took it, since I had had such good success with the ugly 1965 M70 in 225.

Guess what, it's just as ugly, but it's a tack driver, too!

Most excellent! Congratulations! (And you win . . . your 2 uglies to my 1! )

FWIW . . . I have a Pre 64 Mod. 70 Featherweight in .270. I cut lawns for it back in the day, and bought it new when I was in my early teens for $119.00 at Don Harder's Sporting Goods in Hayward California. It's in excellent condition, I've put thousands of rounds through it, it shoots at or close to 1 MOA, it's elegant and I love it. Plus, it's a reminder of my childhood, and how much I loved reading articles by Jack O'Connor (no relation).

But my ugly, wallflower .225 Mod 70 found a way to my heart that my elegant prom-queen of a rifle could not. I think it's a "late life" crises sort of thing.

It is a pretty neat cartridge. Winchester thought it might replace the Swift, but we know better.

For those of you who use 30-30 brass to make your version, I have something you may be interested in.

1. nearly 200 rounds of Federal 30 American brass in the boxes. Some of the BR guys on the East Coast wanted something other than the 6PPC for competition. Something about a russian assault cartridge-based case being "UnAmerican". A gunsmith named Seeley Masker began competing with a wildcat he named the 6mm Seeley Masker Wasp. Basically a 219 Donaldson Wasp necked to 6mm. Others wanted one. They conned Federal into making a run of cases. They had their match brass crew, the ones that made the runs of 222 and 308 Match Brass make them. Standard 30-30 case, but built to tight tolerances, and a small primer pocket. I would think it a bit more accurate than large primer.

2. I do have 200 rounds of new Winchester 25-35 brass, 50-round bags.

Rich