A quick look at .222 Remington, the parent case of the ubiquitous .223 Remington.
The .222 Remington was introduced by Remington in 1950 for the 722 bolt-action rifle, which was later superseded by the current 700 series. For a short time, the Remington Model 760 pump-action repeater was also available in this cartridge. Much of the credit for the .222 is due to Mike Walker, a longtime Remington employee. The cartridge became very popular with benchrest competitors in the 1970s, and varmint hunters also found its performance excellent. But, by the early 1990s, the .222 Remington had lost much of its popularity to the .223 Remington.
General Comments
The .222 Remington is in about the same class as the older 219 Zipper but is rimless and adapted to modern bolt-action rifles. It’s not based on any older case necked down but is of original design. It’s a more-or-less scaled-down version of the .30-06 and fills the gap between the .218 Bee and the .220 Swift. It’s well suited to the needs of the average person who desires a high-velocity .22.
A great many benchrest matches have been won with the .222 Remington, and it has a reputation for superb accuracy. It’s an excellent 200-yard cartridge for many varmint, small game and some big game animals including deer, with appropriate bullets. For bigger animals, bullets such as Nosler’s .224-caliber 60-grain Partition bullet, Barnes’ Triple Shock bullet and Swift’s 75-grain Sirocco bullet are adequate for animals up to 250 pounds or so, as long as impact velocities are high enough to ensure complete expansion, about 2,300 fps or so.
However, these bullets are often too long to work with standard twist rates common to the .222 Remington cartridge, so to find acceptable accuracy, a new barrel with a faster twist rate is often needed. Big game hunters should check their state regulations to ensure .22-caliber rounds are legal to hunt with, though most do allow the hunting of deer with a centerfire .22-caliber round.
.222 Remington Loading Data and Factory Ballistics
| Bullet (grains/type) | Powder | Grains | Velocity | Energy | Source |
| 35 V-Max | H4198 | 22.0 | 3,591 | 1,000 | Hodgdon |
| 40 HP | IMR 4198 | 20 | 3,300 | 967 | Speer, Sierra |
| 40 HP | W748 | 26.3 | 3,400 | 1,027 | Speer, Sierra |
| 45 SP | H335 | 24.5 | 3,100 | 960 | Hornady, Speer |
| 45 SP | IMR 4198 | 21 | 3,300 | 1,088 | Hornady, Speer, Sierra, Nosler |
| 50 SP | W748 | 25.8 | 3,100 | 1,067 | Speer, Sierra, Hornady |
| 50 SP | RL 7 | 20.9 | 3,150 | 1,102 | Hornady, Speer, Sierra |
| 50 SP | IMR 4198 | 20 | 3,200 | 1,132 | Speer, Hornady, Sierra |
| 55 SP | H335 | 24 | 3,200 | 1,174 | Sierra, Speer, Hornady, Nosler |
| 55 SP | IMR 4320 | 25 | 3,000 | 1,099 | Hornady, Speer |
| 55 SP | IMR 4895 | 24.5 | 3,000 | 1,099 | Speer, Hornady, Sierra |
| 55 | Varget | 25.0 | 2,095 | 1,170 | Hornady |
| 60 HP | IMR 4895 | 23 | 2,900 | 1,121 | Nosler, Hornady, Speer |
| 50 HP | FL | – | 3,140 | 1,094 | Remington 29174 |
| 55 FMJ | FL | – | 2,887 | 1,018 | Lapua LU4315020 |
Editor’s Note: This article is an excerpt of Gun Digest’s Cartridge’s Of The World.
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