Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles .222 Newbie

I use the SPSX and Blitz bullets in my .221 Fireball, and I'm about as happy as a puppy with two peters.

My CZ likes them even better than the plastic-tipped bullets so many people prefer nowadays.

I like their price, when I can find them.

Tom, we tried FMJ's out of the .222 and others.. Poor choice.. Turkeys get away. My suggestion is use a 50 or 55 hr. Horn. or 50 Sierra over about 19 gr. of 4198.. Use the regular bullets not the super explosive ones.I have shot about 70 turkey with a rifle and only partly ruined one breast.. shoot for the wing butts or across the back.. Guys who shoot them over bait can make head shots.. Baiting is illegal where I hunt.
Killing a gobbler with a rifle and making a clean shot is under appreciated.. I tried a shotgun after hearing how sporting they were.. BS.. From now on my gobblers will be killed with a rifle or not at all.

Thanks Wyo... sounds like sound advice

Ive yet to kill a fall turkey period. So very much appreciated.

H4198 Nosler 50 gn if you can find them. Best 200 yd combo I ever worked up. One ragged hole. Rem 788 and 700.

Tried the hornady 50's with 19 and 19.5 grains of H4198 with about a .020 jump. The 19 grains produced a .500" group, the 19.5 went .750" but I pulled one (too much coffee).

Also managed to find some Sierra 63 grain bullets at the recommendation of a fire member. They did about 1" with 23 gr of H4895, 22.5 did 1.5". Going to try pushing them a little faster to see if accuracy continues to improve.

All in all, a pretty good day out. Still getting used to the rifle. Has suprisingly good piece of lumber for a tikka hunter. Most look like plantation pine. The Hornady load should be a good one for groundhogs, if it ever cools down a bit.

Here's a pic...

24grains of imr 4895, 55grain Sierra hpbt king .Very accurate,and works good on everything from gophers to deer. This is a compressed load,but it shoots fine,not too hot. Just under 3000 fps. The 52 grain match king shoots even better,but this bullet doesn't open up very good on game. It has a thicker jacket.

Nice looking rifle. I love to see nice wood and blued steel.

Thanks. My other Tikka is a blued/Syn 30-06, it is significantly lighter. It is the most accurate rifle Ive ever owned (probably had 15-20 different 30-06's over the years). Between these two Tikka's and an heirloom 760, Ive got everything covered in my mind.

Another half a grain of H4895 got the group under an inch with the 63 gr Sierra's. Think Im done with load development. Tomorrow I'll be groundhog hunting

Well my day started good this morning, here was my view at 9:00 am


I missed the first 'hog at a little over 100 yards, I'll blame that on a cold oiled barrel:) After that, it was lights out. Got 6 in about 2.5 hours of hunting. There was still several popping up here and there, figure I'd leave them for any ambitious teenagers (do any kids chuck hunt anymore?)

The biggest

Tag

This thread has officially put me back in the "gotta find a LH 222 Rem" mode.

Welcome to the 222 club, Tom.

There's great fun to be had with this cartridge as you've found out already. And as they say, Tikkas are the bomb! I have three. Two are Tikkas. The other is a 788. All three like 40 to 50 grainers, and load work ups are very easy.

If you do run with 50 gr. bullets and either of the 4895s, you can fill the case with no pressure worries. 4895 won't produce the fastest velocities, but you might be surprised with how tight your rifle shoots. Using a Tikka gives you most of the edge anyway.

Enjoy.

Surprised nobody mentioned BLC2

I resurrected this thread from many years ago to be able to quickly sort through load recommendations vs going back 50+ pages of post.

Of all the rifle musical chairs I’ve played, I’ve never once thought of parting with this Tikka 222. Just a perfect walking varminter.

My biggest trade offs are 308s. Mind you, I have a HB 308 Tikka that I've never considered getting rid of.

LT-32, 10x, RL-7 and H4198 are all great 40gr. bullet/222 powders. Load them up to 3,500-3,600 and call it good.

Of the 2 222's I still shoot regularly one prefers 40gr Blitzkings and the other 50gr Blitzkings, VVN130 is the powder of choice for both.
Honorable mention Speer 50gr TNT with H322

Dats a good looking gun!