The Legendary 222 Remington: 75 Years Old and Going Strong

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Organized benchrest competition with modern rifles got its start in the state of Washington when the Seattle Sniper’s Conference was formed in 1945. Two years later the International Benchrest Shooters (IBS) was formed by a group of New York varmint shooters. There were no limitations on rifle weight, and most were built on 1898 Mauser actions, with the Winchester Model 70 action in a distant second place. A few competitors favored an extremely strong single-shot action built by Wilber Hauck of Arlington, Vermont, which was a spitting image of the Ruger No. 1 action that would come later. Most rifles wore high magnification scopes made by Lyman and Unertl. The .219 Donaldson was the most popular cartridge, although the .220 Swift, .220 Wilson Arrow, and .22-250 had their share of wins as well. Then came the .222 Remington in 1950, and it would upset all other apple carts.

A Real Record-Setter

Created by Remington engineer Mike Walker, who was one of the founders of the IBS, the little cartridge was a totally new design. It proved to be incredibly accurate. Walker also designed the Remington Model 722 rifle introduced by Remington in 1948. And during the summer of 1950, he installed a heavy barrel (also made by him) chambered for .222 Remington on a Model 722 action and used the rifle in a match at the Johnstown, New York Gun Club. His five, five-shot groups fired at 100 yards averaged 0.350 inch. That was exceptional accuracy 75 years ago. For many years the .222 Rem. held a firm grasp on the smallest five-shot group fired in registered benchrest competition. Officially measured at 0.009 inch, it was shot by Mac McMillan on September 23, 1973, during a sanctioned match at the Skunk Creek rifle range near Phoenix, Arizona. The record stood until 2013 when Mike Stinnett used a rifle in .30 PPC to shoot a five-shot group measuring 0.007 inch.

The .222 Rem. also excelled in other competitive sports. Remington Model 760 slide-action rifles fitted with Redfield International target sights and heavy barrels in .222 Rem. were adopted by the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit at Ft. Benning, Georgia, for use in 100-meter international running deer competitions, where a moving target is exposed for only a few seconds. The first win came in 1961, when the Army team took gold during the double-shot aggregate at the world championship matches in Oslo, Norway. Other medals in other countries, including the United States, followed.

The .222 Rem. also took the varmint-shooting world by storm. Faster than the .22 Hornet with longer barrel accuracy life than the .220 Swift, the .222 Remington’s 50-grain bullet launched at 3,200 fps put any varmint standing within 300 yards of the muzzle of the Remington Model 722 rifle in grave danger. Interestingly, Norma .222 Rem. ammunition appeared on gun store shelves across America almost as quickly as ammo from Remington. The .222 Rem. remains quite popular in a number of other countries, with Lapua, Norma, RWS, and Sako still loading the ammo. Hornady, Federal, Remington, Prvi Partizan, Sellier & Bellot, and Fiocchi are also in the fray. Hornady’s introduction of Superformance loads with a 35-grain FTX bullet at a velocity of 3,750 fps and a 50-grain V-Max bullet at 3,390 fps pumped new life into Mike Walker’s wonderful little cartridge.

A Cadre of Classic Rifles

Beginning with the Model 722 in 1950, Remington offered the most models in .222 Remington, and the company included the Model 700, Model 600, Model 788, and 40X. Browning, Colt, and Marlin built rifles in .222 Rem. on the Sako L461 action. Others riding the .222 train through the years were Kimber, Cooper, Krico, Anschutz, CZ, Wichita, Mannlicher Schoenauer, and Ultra Light Arms. In addition to the economy-grade Model 340 bolt action, Savage offered the Model 24V, a break-action double with a 12-gauge barrel over a .222 Rem. barrel. Ithaca also offered the same type of combination gun. There were others, but these are what I recall.

As .222 Rem. rifles made in America today go, the Savage Lightweight Varminter is still being produced, although sometimes it’s difficult to find. The .222 Rem. still has a strong following in other countries, with Anschutz and Sauer probably leading the pack in rifle options. The Danish-built Shultz & Larson Legacy may be the finest bolt-action rifle built in .222 Remington today, and it is still in production. Scaled to size for that cartridge as well as the .223 Remington, 6.5 Grendel, and .300 Blackout, it weighs just over six pounds. The rifle has nicely figured wood, flawless metal finish, and a reputation for excellent accuracy. A switch-barrel design, it can be ordered with two or more barrels in the four calibers. During one of my visits to the Sako factory in Finland, I bagged a capercaillie with a Sako L461 in 6x45mm belonging to a friend who was my guide and who worked at Sako. He also had a Shultz & Larson Legacy in .222 Rem., and what a beauty it was. Unfortunately, rifles built by Schultz & Larson are no longer exported to the U.S.

I have lost count of the number of rifles in .222 Remington I have owned through the years. While most are long gone, I have managed to hang onto several. Sako began exporting the trim L46 bolt-action rifle to the U.S. in .22 Hornet and .218 Bee in 1949, with the .222 Remington added in 1951. My L46 in .218 Bee has the thin barrel typical for those rifles, but my 1952-vintage .222 Rem. has the optional heavy barrel. It came with the standard three-round detachable magazine as well as a six-rounder offered by Sako at the time. My rifle was originally owned by a friend of my father, and it went up for sale while I was in college. I don’t recall how I managed to scrape up the money, but the handsome little rifle proved to be worth the sacrifice.

The .222 Rem. rifle I shoot most today is a Remington Model 700 CDL Limited Edition built during the 1970s. It has a stainless-steel barreled action and a 24-inch fluted barrel, and it is quite accurate. The walnut stock has nicely executed cut checkering, and it is quite thin, too. With a Shepherd 6-18X scope the rifle has always worn, it weighs 8.5 pounds, making it ideal when miles are to be walked and hills will be climbed in groundhog country.

While in high school, I bought a single-shot Martini Cadet action imported from Australia by Winfield Arms, a popular American mail-order firm specializing in military surplus firearms. It cost me $12 back then. Quite strong for its size, the action was popular among Australian varmint shooters, so the Bertram Bullet Co. Pty Ltd of Victoria made .222 Rem. cases having a rim sized for the extractor of the little Martini action. RCBS .222 Remington reloading dies and a shellholder for the .38 Special/.357 Magnum worked perfectly. Many years thereafter, my friend Dave Talley (who later founded Talley Manufacturing) fitted a fairly heavy 24-inch barrel chambered for the .222 Rimmed cartridge.

Most of the old single-shot varmint rifles built on actions made by Winchester and others had long target-style scopes attached to their barrels, but I never had the pleasure of owning one. The Unertl Varmint in 12X magnification with a 7/8-inch tube proved to be perfect for that varmint rifle when it was new (and still is today). Its optical quality will take your breath away. The stock and forearm are nicely figured American walnut, given a hand-rubbed oil finish and 24-lines-per-inch checkering. The very first five-shot group I fired with the completed rifle at 100 yards measured a very satisfying 0.552 inch.

Another oldie .222 Rem. in my battery is a Ruger No. 1 with a low-digit serial number indicating it was built in 1966, the first year of production. It was originally cataloged by Ruger as Model S26M and later changed to 1-B. The then-new .223 Remington cartridge was receiving tons of publicity and perhaps for that reason, not many nonprefix serial numbered Ruger No. 1 rifles were chambered for the .222 Remington. In those days, rifles often departed the Southport, Connecticut, factory with highly figured walnut stocks, and my No. 1 was among those graduating at the very front of its class.

There was a time when collectors of Winchester Model 70 rifles absolutely hated the .222 Remington, and some probably still do. Soon after it was introduced, demand from varmint shooters far exceeded production of the Remington 722 in that caliber for several years. This kept gunsmiths busy rechambering and modifying the boltfaces of rifles in .22 Hornet for the new cartridge, and many Winchester Model 54 and Model 70 rifles became victims of that “butchering,” as described by more than one collector. Years ago, I collected rifles in .22 Hornet and still have several, including a Winchester Model 54 and a Winchester Model 70. While I paid a premium for those two, a Model 70 modified for the .222 Remington that I also still have came to me at a near give-away price.

The .222 Remington Legacy

If not for the development of the .222 Remington, quite a few other cartridges would not exist. Shortly after its introduction, Remington became involved in the development of a new military cartridge for the Armalite AR-15 rifle by lengthening the .222 Rem. case by about 0.150 inch. Uncle Sam never drafted that one, but it was introduced commercially by Remington in 1958 as the .222 Remington Magnum. Its velocity exceeded that of the .222 Remington by 200 fps when both were loaded with 50-grain bullets. Not entirely satisfied with that cartridge, decision makers at Springfield Armory basically shortened its neck, moved its shoulder forward slightly, and created the cartridge that would eventually be called the 5.56mm NATO. Still involved in the project, Remington wasted no time introducing that cartridge commercially as the .223 Remington.

Moving to higher velocities, the 5.6x50mm Magnum introduced during the mid-1960s by the German firm of DWM is a lengthened version of the .222 Remington Magnum. Loaded with a 50-grain controlled-expansion bullet at about 3,550 fps, the cartridge was developed for use on European roe deer, which seldom exceed 100 pounds on the hoof. Load data with bullets weighing up to 60 grains have appeared in various reloading manuals published by Hornady through the years.

Going smaller, the .204 Ruger is basically the .222 Remington Magnum necked down and given a slightly sharper shoulder angle. Going smaller still, during the 1960s, .17-caliber wildcat cartridges on various cases became popular enough for Harrington & Richardson to offer the Model 317 Ultra Wildcat on the Sako L461 action chambered for the .223 Remington case necked down for 0.172-inch bullets. It was one of the few times that a major manufacturer offered a rifle chambered for a wildcat cartridge. That prompted Remington to neck down the .223 Remington case, move its shoulder back a tad, and introduce the .17 Remington cartridge in 1971. Advertised velocity of its 25-grain Power-Lokt HP bullet was 4,020 fps.

The .221 Fireball, introduced by Remington in 1962 in the XP-100 pistol, was created by shortening the .222 Remington case and giving it the same 23-degree shoulder angle. I had one of those and later bought a Remington 700 chambered for the little cartridge. The .17 Fireball was created in 2007 by necking down the .221 Fireball case, and it was a near copy of the .17 Mach IV introduced earlier by Vern O’Brien, who owned O’Brien Rifle Co. in Las Vegas. His rifle was on the Sako L461 action, and the one I shot for several years was quite accurate. Dimensional differences between .17 Mach IV and .17 Fireball cartridges are quite small, but they are enough to prompt Redding to offer reloading die sets for both. Moving up in caliber, in 1993, J.D. Jones necked up the .221 Fireball case for .30-caliber bullets and called it the .300 Whisper, now known as the .300 AAC Blackout. Last and most certainly shortest of the .222 Remington descendents is the Armscor .22 TCM.

Most benchrest shooters of yesteryear preferred IMR 4198 when loading the .222 Rem., and while it’s still an excellent choice, a number of other propellants, such as H322, Benchmark, CFE 223, IMR 8208 XBR, Reloder 7, Reloder 10x, Power Pro Varmint, VV N120, VV N130, Accurate 2200, and Ramshot X-Terminator are also capable of producing high velocities. There are others, and at a time when some powders are difficult to find, the fact that many work quite well in the .222 Rem. is good reason for hanging onto a rifle chambered for it.

In a pinch, the case can be formed by running .223 Remington brass through a .222 Rem. full-length sizer, trimming to 1.690 inches, and annealing, but there’s no need to bother since Starline has plenty of excellent cases ready to load. There was a time when I sent lots of Hornady 50-grain SX (Super Explosive) and Sierra 50-grain Blitz bullets toward yon varmints, but today I usually stick with the Berger 50-grain Varmint, the Hornady 50-grain V-Max, and the Nosler 50-grain Ballistic Tip. The 40-grain versions of the V-Max and Ballistic Tip are also fun to shoot. Nowadays, we cannot be choosy about primers, and I am quite happy if Federal 205 or CCI 400 is awaiting duty in my reloading room.

I wrote in the pages of Shooting Times several years ago that the .222 Remington is the cartridge that first showed shooters how accurate a varmint rifle can be. The accurate little cartridge turns 75 this year, and I for one celebrate the milestone. 

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