does anyone have any info on this caliber. i want to build one. reloading ease. accuracy. availibility of dies etc.. thanks in advance

It is, in my opinon, THE most practical and best of the Uberfast 224's. Neck down 243 brass and GO. Most of the brass I made for my 3 22 Cheetah's was merely 243 stuff necked down, as I saw zero advanage in the small primer pockets called for in the original wildcat design. Cheap and common brass, easy to load for, megafast speeds, what is not to like? Some would say barrel life but these are not fo all day prarie dog shoots and 90% of the time when an uberfast 224 is said to have a worn out barrrel it is hard powder fouling that IS a PITA to get out but black powder gel is good there.

What twist barrel ????? In my opinion this chambering is a waste of time and barrel in a slow twist (1-10" 1-14").
In a 1-8" for the heavy VLD bullet's is where it would be at it's best, even then it is too much of a good thing as barrel life will be shorter than need be. In my experience a 22-250AI is about max capacity for a 22 cal. bore.

i have the 22-250 220 swift im just looking for that nex step up in 22 cal i was thinking lighter bullets like 60 grains i live in iowa and all we have to do is shoot coyotes

matt,
Just a couple of idea's, if 60gr. bullet's is as big as you want to shoot then a 22-250AI will do everything a 22-243 will do with much better barrel life. another idea is a 22-6.5x47Lapua.

Did a 22-284 years ago (not that much bigger than a 22-243)and barrel life was about 500 rounds, not hard carbon as safariman suggest's but 4" of firecracking in the throat.

btw Lapua makes great new 22-250 brass that fireforms nicely to AI

My 22-243 is AI'ed.

It will push 60's to 4000 fps w/ RL19, 3.900 fps w/ H4831.

It is a Savage 112 long action single shot which used to be a 22-250, and it still has the 14 inch twist barrel. It was rechambered by http://www.sharpshootersupply.com/ The savage 26 inch varmint weight barrel groups inside 1/2 moa with the 60 gr Hornady spire point. I Moly plate the bullets.

I purchase Winchester 243 brass and neck size it in my AI sizer die. The fire form shot is just as accurate and kills stuff just as dead as subsequent shots.

My dies were ordered from CH-4D. And the price was quite reasonable, but somewhat more expensive than standard dies at the corner Sporting Goods Shop.


Barrel life?????

Good question. My rifle was about ten years old and had in excess of 500 rounds of 22-250 through it when it was rechambered. That was nearly ten years ago and I have put about another 500 rounds through it since. I shot 50 through it last weekend and have not observed any loss of accuracy.

But I only shoot two or maybe three shots and set it aside to cool.

I am sure that it must be on its last legs. It has to die someday. When it does, I think I will have the new barrel built in the same shop for the same chambering. But I will go with a faster twist to accommodate 69 to 78 gr bullets.

I've had a few over the years. All were set up to run the 75gr Amax. Standard load was 48gr Rel 25 and a Fed 210. 3500fps at 4500'asl. All were 8 twist barrels. Mine were all standard 22-243 Winchesters. Dies were readily available from Redding. No fire forming is needed. Simply run 243 brass through your sizing die. The most rounds I've had through one is about 800 and was still getting .5 moa. Recently got away from the .224 and started running the .243 105 amax. They seem to handle the Wyoming wind a little better.

thanks for all the great info guys. i really like the .22 caliber and we cant use our high powers for anything but yotes and fox so thats why i like to stay smaller. i think im going to keep going for the 22-243 just because no one else around her has one... got to be different

I have tried both the 22-243 Middlestead and 22-6mm (22 TTH?) in 1-14" ROT rechambered 22-250 barrels without great success.

The 22-6mm was a post-'64 and pre-USRA Winchester 70 and was the fastest throat burner/eater that I've ever owned. The 22-243 Middlestead was only slightly slower, but appeared to be much easier on the barrel throat.

I have decided that, for me, the 22-250 and 22-250AI do everything that I need a larger capacity .224" bore rifle to do. If I need more performance, I'll just take a 243 or 257 Roberts or 25 WSSM out of the rack in lieu of a .224" bore rifle.

Jeff

the barrel life isnt a huge concern with me because when it comes to coyote hunting your going to get one maybe two shots off at each one... that means more than likely it will get shot a max of 5 times and outing 1000 rounds that over 200 times. this may sound like a dumb question but there must be many different variations to the 22-243 i seen the 22-243 winchester is that the most standard. and once again thanks for all the info guys im a newbie to the custom guns.

I think that the 22-243 Middlestead is the standard/most common 22-243 variation.

I'm thinking that if I was building a dedicated long(er) range walking coyote rifle, it would be very similar to the 700 CDL-SF (short action) restocked with a McM McMillan Hunter style stock in 22-250AI, 243, 25 Souper, 257 Roberts, or 260.

Jeff

At the bullet weights mentioned, a standard 243 with 55 BTips will outrun the 22 caliber everytime. For coyotes, it's a great combo. With the advent of light 243 bullets, the 22-243 is an answer to a no-longer-asked question.

Unless one likes to run 36-40gr bullets at 4300-4400 fps and see the fireworks on small rodents. Some do

Then there are the high BC 224 bullets which will outrun a 55 from a 243 w2hen the ranges get REALLY long.

I still have dies for 22-243 and 22 Cheetah, will build one or the other when $$ again allow.

I had a 22 Cheetah....It was the most accurate .22 centerfire I ever had my hands on...I usually shot 50 Nosler BTBT..when it had about 1200 rounds though it I sold it to a pal for the price of the action...he shot it a bit more then offered to sell it back to me for the same price...I needed an action at the time, so I bought it...before I made the buy, I looked down the barrel..he said when he last fired it it shot super, but he didn't clean the barrel before setting it in his gun rack..the barrel had some deep dark pits in it so I never checked the accuracy..but rebarreled..not I am not sure to what...but it was a shooter....

You can run the 55 BTip at 4200 out of a plain vanilla 243. Not too many 22 cals can touch it to 500 yards.

matt_allen,

If you talk to the bench rest shooter at Hornady you will find he tried the .22-243 and the .22-6mm Rem. He discovered the .22-6 gets about three times the accurate barrel life.

If after you talk with him you decide on the .22-6 I will sell you my reloading dies for less than any you can find for sale. I moved on to other projects now.

I agree and have found this to be the case also, have found it to be odd but true the only explanation I can come up with is the much longer neck.
It is the same story 243AI ...VS 6mmAI even though the 6mmAI has a slightly larger case capacity than the 243AI it has better barrel life and faster velocity. Many will disagree but the 6mmAI has an accuracy advantage also.

Have a 22-243 mdlstd in the works now. 700, #5 Krieger, McM A3 Sporter...I must find the pic of the stock to post....camo pattern in 3 shades of gray. I got the bbl with a couple hundred rounds thru it......gent i obtained it from sent 53 gr TSX through antelope shoulders. I sent 55 gr NBT through a muley doe rib cage with the same rig.

Dies are pricey i believe.

I've toyed with the idea of a 22-243. Currently have a 22-250AI...think if I could do it over I would just do a Swift.

anybody got any load data for a 22-243 win with 75gr Amaxs?

What kind of terminal performance did you get?

48gr Rel 25. Fed 210. 2.750 Oal. Lapua brass. Got right at 3500fps at 4500'asl.

DakotaDeer the holes in either side of the rib cage were half dollar sized, exit in the hide was pinhole. Blood trail wasn't much but she only went 40 yards.

If I was building a 22-243 i would look at the 6mm SLR. It is a 243 with the shoulder pushed back and a longer throat. This seems idea to me. Still has 95% of the case capacity of the original 243 but a couple of other features that have proven beneficial. sharper shoulder angle and longer neck.

Long necks are bad, not good. Yer goin the wrong way with that one. Makeing ammo becomes MUCH more difficult and time consuming as well with no benefits.

Having played with a number of hotrod 224's including more than one each of 22-250AI, 22-6mm and both versions of the Cheetah I am now persuaded that a plain vanilla 22-243 is high capacity 224 nirvannah.

I could not disagree with you more.

That is one of the thngs that make this place so great. Fun to banter and wring out differing idea's. Short necks for minimal contact with the bullet (Better accuracy with less contact)and more powder capacity make for a win win in my view. Loading a bullet down into the case shoulder area or case body is no big deal to me and in 90% of the cases even the short necks are long enough for most of the bullets we use. I am getting ready to take a rifle that is now a 7mm Remington Magnum and open up the chamber to either 7mm MAsburn Super or the nearly identical 7mm/300 WinMAg. Both have lots of room for propellant and itty bitty chort necks. LUV em! My wildcat 340 Tyrannosaur is basically a 340 Weatherby with the shoulder blown forward to give more room for more powder and a shorter neck for better accuracy. No problems with bullets coming loose even with the very long 225gr Barnes TTSX slugs either over here or in Africa and up in Alaska. Running those 225gr all copper slugs out at 3100fps with a MILD, accurate load and man alive do it ever put the STOMP on stuff Completely eviscerated a warthog with it on one trip with a fronal shot and it puts 2000+ pound eland bulls and tough zebra stallions right on thier arse. Faster is almost always better.

Why do you like longer cartridge necks? Or less powder capacities?

You're making my heart flutter.

Hmmmm... a 60gr V MAx at 4,000 would be a reach out and TOUCH something load fer sher!