Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles Favorite 222 Remington loads for Tikka T3

Recently picked up a Tikka T3 Hunter in 222rem..... I own several Tikkas and have not had one that would not shoot 1/2 moa. Was wanting to jump right into loading a load that works in another Tikka T3. Would like to stick with 40 gr bullets and may be an occasional 50 gr........ all depending on what the gun likes. Thanks for your help in advance

50 grainer 19.5 grains IMR 4198

I bought a new 222Remington last year to go along with a couple others I already have, I did quite a bit of load developement as I was working with 2 other rifles at the same time. my new rifle did not like 40gr bullets as my others did it much preferred the 50gr SBK. In all of my 222Remington's I use Lapua brass to keep things simple. for some reason the case weights vary greatly from different brands in this chambering + it is the best brass.

On several rifles I have found VVN130 to be the best powder for every 222remington I have owned, 23gr for 40gr bullets and 22gr for 50gr bullets. Not very easy to find at your local store but bought some at Powder Valley last year as my last lot# ran out.

mistem,

I tried a bunch of powders in the .222 a couple of years ago, including some new ones. The new Accurate LT powders turned out to be the definite stars, LT-30 with 40-grain bullets and LT-32 with 50-55's.

Thanks for the info...... I live in your neighborhood John, only about 80 miles north

You must be north of the banana belt! But then all of Montana was this winter, at least for a while....

I have an old 722 in 222.

I've had real good luck with 50 gr Sierra BlitzKing with 22.6 grains of Benchmark behind it.

Loads run around 3200 fps.

22.2 0f H322 and a 50 grain bullet ...

John did you test Tac powder or CFE223 in the 222 Rem?

TAC did pretty well with 50-grain bullets. CFE223's a little slower and worked best with 55's.

Thanks... picked up a pound of LT-30 today. I'm hoping my gun doesn't like this powder- at $33 a pound Midway has 45 gr sp blems for $ 9.40 per 100.... this bullet in a hornet worked very well for me in the past

While doing load developement last year on my new 222 I tried 10 different powders. Benchmark in my rifle was the worst with 40,50,and 52gr bullets. did not find one load that did not have at least 100fps E.S.

That's why we do load developement every gun is a bit different

What ingwe said.. That has been working since the .222 came out in the 50's!!!!!!!

I was at a BR match in 2015 sitting next to Rodney Brown (President of the NBRSA), he had a bottle on his loading bench labeled LT31. I asked him "what is LT31" he said he mixes LT30 and LT32 50/50.................he cleaned house that day. I thought I would try it, did not work as well in my PPC as it did in his but tried it in my 222's and 223's and it's awesome still in my rifles N130 is the best for 40-50grainers but the LT31 has some real promise for some bullet weights in the 223.

boatanchor,

Interesting! I'll have to try some "LT-31"....

In my 6mm PPC, LT-32 is by a slight margin the most accurate powder I've tried, and have tested all the usual suspects. More recently I found Sellier & Bellot SR primers beat out both F205M's and CCI BR-4's.

Only problem with that argument is that IMR4198 was not the best powder for it then, but yes it did work then and now just better choices then and now

That is something I will have to try, never even thought of trying S&B primers.

I noticed my local store had some today will go buy some tomorrow.

I've been using S & B primers as they were real cheap at Cabelas for quite a while... $18 per brick with a military discount...

have had real good luck with them... not target shooting duty, but certainly minute of sage rat... which is good enough in my world...

Like a number of companies, S&B makes a couple of SR primers, a standard and a magnum. The one I tried is the standard, the 4.4 SR.

It was more-or-less by accident. A magazine asked me to try some S&G rifle primers to see how they worked, so I tried both SR and LR in several rifles with their most accurate loads, and the 4.4 SR worked very well in my 6mm PPC with 65 Bergers and LT-32, as well in the .204 Ruger with 35 Bergers and CFE223. In others it worked all right, but not as well as the primer normally used.

Ive had good results with R7, LT-32 and R10x in almost every 222, but Ive gone to 40s for pretty much all my 222s.

I4895, while slow, also makes wee groups with 50s.

Yeah, I prefer 40's in .222's myself, especially plastic-tips.

I used the 40 gr. Blitz King and LT-32 a bit on one of those towns last June, using a mix of new Lapua and NOS Herters cases.
I wish I had used it a bit on the "cattle pasture" the next day, but I'm glad I gunned a 204 a bit.

It worked pretty darn good for popping the dogs good inside 200 yards; but the ones inside that "sweet spot" have a tendency not to last long!

If one could shoot numbers "all day long" inside 250 yards and keep the wind under 15, one (maybe two) 222's shooting 40's would be all one needs for entertainment, IMHO.

One has to do a lot of shooting to get a 222 too hot.

When I started reloading in 1974 I quickly hit on that load, 19.5 grains 4198, with 50 grain Sierra SP's. Shot bugholes and killed woodchucks and crows at ungodly distances with my 788. I never looked back.

I've only done some preliminary testing with LT-32 in .222 Rem, three sessions with 50-grain V-Max and one session just this morning with 40-grain Ballistic Tips. Each time I have seen sub-1/2" groups. This morning I saw 23.0 grains of LT-32 deliver five 40-grain BTs into .33 inch. The stuff is freekin magic!

[color:#FF9900][/color] Finally got around to testing the LT-30 and 40 gr Ballistic tips.....no groups out of my new Tikka went over 1/2" at 100 yards. Never played with seating depth, primer..... several 3 shot groups were one hole Thanks for info on this powder.... will be buying a couple 8 lb jugs soon

My 222 load for many years was 20.0 grains of IMR 4198. Also 20.5 grains of RL7. Now I use 21.5 grains of N130. All three run around 3,200 fps. With 40 grainers I like 24.0 grains of AA 2200 for around 3,500 fps.

My rifle is a rebarreled 1950s Sako Vixen with Canjar single-set trigger. Barrel is a 23" Hart sporter weight. I have owned this rifle since the late 1980s and love it.

On another predator forum a well known shooter says he loads his with 40gn noslers, cci450s and 26-27 gns of H355 and is getting 3700+fps with superb accuracy.

Ive got some preliminary starter loads readied for testing this combination, just havent been able to get to the range yet...

In 2006 mine liked 22.5 of Win 748 50gr Nos BT. Time to clean the cobwebs out of the 22 cals.

Glad the LT-30 worked out!

I've had great luck with both LT 30 and 32 so far.

tag

One last bit of fiddling with LT-32 this morning...good news/bad news.

MD says LT-30 is the berries for 40-grain bullets and I have not tried that. I have been messing with LT-32 though, using both 40-grain BTs and 50-grain V-Max. I have seen some very nice results with LT-32 and 40-grainers, but I wish I had a nickel for every combination I've tried that was magic one day and dung on another.

Today my 40-grain BTs turned in an average just under 3/4" for five each, five-shot groups. Best was .49 inch, worst was 1" even. Not so hot.

Next, I shot five each five-shot groups of 50-grain V-Max powered by LT-32. Group sizes went .28, .45, .62, .37, and .43 inch for an average of .43 inch. I think I can live with that. Charge weight was 21.0 grains even, if anyone is curious.

I'll be sticking with the 50-grain V-Max since I have a ton of em.

A medium to top load of H-322 and 40 gr Blitzkings or B/tips does very well with all of my 222's.

i like the 40 grain sierra plastic tip and the 40 grain hornady v max in my Remington 700 .222.

my stuff it in any gun and get half inch groups is

21.5 grains reloader 7
Winchester case
40 v max
cci primer
2.142 on the length.

with the sierra 40 grainer I like imr 4198 at the same length as the above load and also in Winchester case

25.5 grains h335 in a Remington case with a cci br4 and a barnes 45 grain tsx will poke holes through the vitals of a whitetail from just about any angle.

I ran 40 Vmax over Lil Gun at 3700 in a BDL sporter. Very accurate.. seems like the 3's @100 yds.

My Mohawk liked 50 RP PLHP over BLC-2, 10 in a dime to nickel sized groups.

Up for new life

Nosler 40 gr bt or Sierra 40gr with Re 7 has put the the hurt on thousands of prairie dogs for me.

A Tikka in .222 has got to be a real stick-in-the-eye to the short-action crowd, almost like an M70 Hornet! Sounds like it's a shooter.

Have you tried any .22LR or .22 mag equivalent loads? Those can be fun and useful.

I've found that 21.0 grains of LT32 under a 50-grain V-Max shoots *lights out.*

I shoot a similar load of H335 in my .222 with 40gr noslers. Excellent accuracy. I got the load out of the old Varmint Hunters magazine in the early to mid 90's I believe.

IMR 4198 and a 52gr Amax . Been meaning to try some new powders in it.. but it’s already nearly perfect. I really like the 52 amax in the 222.

I have two Tikkas chambered in 222 Rem. A hvy barrel and a lovely T3 Lite coyote rifle. They both shoot well with either H322, 4198 or LT-30 and 40 gr. bullets. My first load of 20 grains of IMR4198 with any 50 grain bullet still works great. Pressures are so mild. I still have 200 Rem cases that are over 30 years old, but have been shooting Lapua for many years because of the snob factor.

It's hard to find a bad load. There are all great or outstanding ones. I find myself shooting 40 grainers almost exclusively now.

My overall favorite caliber of all time. Some good information here and I'm glad to see lots of discussion on it. thanks.