What is the best .22 centerfire? My choice is clearly the 223wssm, as i recon they are the greatest things since the .22/06 Accelerator, which in itself was the greatest thing since sliced bread!

Boy...! That's like asking whats best, blonds or brunettes! Everyone has their favorites and can back them up with many a tall tale. Each cartridge in the .224" range has its uses within certain parameters. It's all a matter of choice and what works best for your needs. If the .223 WSSM fills that bill for you, great and have fun!

I am personally cautious on the subject of the .223 WSSM however. It seems destined to follow the way of the Passenger Pigeon to extinction. Not that it's a bad cartridge, but it really doesn't offer enough extra for the average shooter to want to part with hard-earned cash to exchange it for something in their closet that will do the same job cheaper and not have to worry about the availability of components such as brass.

I have a friend that has a Browning in .223 WSSM (unfired) that keeps trying to talk me into buying it. As intriguing as the ballistics seem when reported from a 27-28" barrel, they lose their shine when subjected to real-world 22-24" inch barrels. Case capacity is a generous average of around 54.8 grains of water as compared to 45.0 grains for .22/250 Remington cases. Using published load data, the .223 WSSM achieves 3,856 fps (in a 27-inch barrel!) using a 55-grain bullet and 40.5 grains of Varget. The .22/250 hits an honest 3,740 fps with the same bullet and 35.5 grains of Varget in a 26-inch barrel. This translates to a gain of 116 fps for the .223 WSSM at a cost of an additional 5.0 grains of powder… over 14% increase in powder for a bit over 3% velocity gain!

Now to be fair, with different powders the WSSM can surpass the .22/250 by an average of 200 fps or so…but is that enough increase to warrant the newer cartridge as a replacement for the venerable old .22/250? Even a 200 fps improvement makes a difference of less than .83 inches in trajectory and 43 fpe at 400 yards! The only realistic advantage to the .223 WSM is in the realm of heavier bullet weights. The listed 1 in 8” twist should make those who want to use 69-grain or heavier bullets very happy and should help turn the .223 WSM into a fine extended-range varminter with a relatively flat trajectory and acceptable wind-drift resistance.

At least that's what I keep telling myself and have manfully resisted my friend's increasingly low offers!

Well! The .220 Swift of course! Classic and FAST! But then there's the .22 Hornet, another classic. And the .223 and .22-250 and ...

If you looked at number of shots fired or rifles made, .223 Remington would probably win by a landslide. Probably more imbalanced than you would find in any other caliber choose.

Hi singleshot lover, Well mate the same thing has been said about the Weatherby with a 26 in barrel etc, and it still seems to sell well. Same again with the 308w when ballistics are compared with a 30/06, theoretically, the 308w should have destroyed the 30/06, but i don't see that happening soon! As far as brass is concerned i don't know about state side, but here in Aussie i have no problems with supplies of brass or reloading components especially as Winchester has a plant over here. I also had a 22/250, and it's a great all round cartridge. The beauty of the 223wssm is the thickness of the brass, which has the advantage of stretching less giving you more reloads. The short stack of powder tends to burn more evenly & consistently, and the stumpy case matching a shorter action makes the whole thing much stiffer, which is conducive to better accuracy, and a slicker action as well.
But in the final analysis, you are right, what ever you are happy with.
Cheers erny.

Hey Mike, nice choice of calibres, especially the underrated little Hornet.
Had a little Sako in that cal, & it shot half MOA all day. Was one of my all time favorite rifle/cal, especially for the more populated farm land as it was less offensive to the cokies & their neighbours. (Farmers) The only thing i didn't like about the hornet is the weakness of the case design, as it wasn't real strong. I considered rechambering to a K hornet, because of this reason, but in the end decided against it, as i didn't want to alter the Sako, so i just put up with the standard case!

What can you say about the mighty 220swith, 223, 22/250 that hasn't been said a thousand times before!

Cheers erny.

223WSSM, 223 REM, 22 Hornet, 22KHornet...........I like them all. They each have there place.

There's a lot of good ones. It depends on what you want out of it

The ones I mentioned are all I own. The 223 WSSM is the most powerfull one, Its borderline to much rifle for the distances here in SOuthern Michigan. The 22 Hornet is perfect for my needs at 200yds and under.

The 221 Fireball If ya need more than that.........go to a 6mm !!!

Closest I've come to owning a .22 centrefire rifle is my .243 WIN...so I suppose that anything I comment on is not really from personal experience...other than my 5.56mm usage whilst in the Army.

I suppose I am a little biased when I consider the .223 because I would much rather have carried a 7.62mm NATO when in the Army (more hitting power), but having said that, I shot some of my best ever scores and qualifications with the M16 and F88 Austeyr in 5.56mm. I also have a couple of mates that simply loooove their .223 rifles, and would have nothing else.

I remember back in the days when "men were men, and pansies were flowers" seeing a .22 Savage for sale in the local sports store...I wanted that rifle, right wrong, or indifferent...it looked magnificent. I never heard a bad word said about the calibre, but like a lot of older calibres it has faded off into oblivion with the new offerings available today.

Cheers, Vince

It all depends on where your interests lie. I've owned several little wildcats in the past that couldn't do a single thing better than could be done with factory cartridges but were fun just because they were different. If everyone agreed on specific cartridges the world would sure be a dull place!

So far I have had a 22 Hornet, 221 Fireball. 222 Rem, 223 Rem, 22-250 Rem, and a 220 Swift rifles. Not one of them are worth owning if you can not get them to shoot 1/2 inch or less 100 yard five shot groups. With equal barrel lengths the 223 Winchester short mag will give the highest bullet velocity of the current .224 caliber factory rounds. There are wild cat rounds with faster rifling and higher B.C. bullets that will shoot flatter for long rang shooting. A rule of thumb is the faster the bullet velocity the faster the rifle barrel will birn out. No one round if perfict...

In all honesty I think cartridges, and guns, are like golf clubs. You can't play the game effectively with one club, each one has its particular uses. There is obviously some overlap but you still need a whole set to do everything.

I like you reasoning and way of thinkin' Punkin....now all I gotta do is convince the missus that this is the way to go.

Cheers, Vince