Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles .223AI - Best Varmint Cartridge of all time!

Won't ever go back to the vanilla .223.

22-250 recoils too much.

20 Vartarg might be cool, but brass is spendy and my big hands have a hard enough time with 40 gr Vmax in .22 cal

20 Tactical? Nah.

20 Practical? Maybe with the cheap brass.

Thinking they are all VERY similar and it comes down to nit picking. Love the .223AI and it's at the top for me.

What's yours?






This place is as dead as the classifieds....

My varmint targets are p/dogs..............this year's pups are up & running........

will start shootin' in a week or so.........my hardware............

17 M2.......20 Vartarg......20-222.......20 Practical.........223AI........6BR.........

can't say that I have a fav........but this is my 2nd 223AI barrel............

How many rounds you get out of it?

Load?

If I recall...........approx 9500 rds..........

load was 27.5/Benchmark.......55 Nozler & 53 V max............12 twist Pac Nor......

replacement is 9 twist Pac Nor.........28" long no taper full cylinder......

Savage Target action..........17 # w/glass..........

the 223AI is awesome on p/dogs.......

the 17 M2 is soooooo amazing inside of 150 yds..........

Can't comment on the Ai'ed 223, as I have never used one...

Guess the 223 itself is versatile enough...

but I do have 22.250s and a 20 Practical that do see action....

a 17 Rem and 17 Fireball are in my future... need to order the barrels... they'll be going on Ruger actions.

I do use the 17 HMR for Sage rats also, but not as much as many other people do..

My only excuse is the addiction to RED Mist...

My favorite: .22 Maximum Lovell.

Over the decades I've used the following rounds to shoot ground squirrels and prairie dogs: .17 Mach 2, .17 HMR, .17 Hornet, .17 Fireball, .17 Remington, .20 VarTarg, .20/.222, .204 Ruger, .22 Long Rifle, .22 Magnum, .22 Hornet, .22 K-Hornet, .221 Fireball, .222 Remington, .223 Remington, .223 AI, .22-250, .220 Swift, 6mm PPC, 6XC, .243 Winchester, .25-20 WCF, .250 Savage, .257 Roberts and 6.5-06. (There were probably some others, but those are what I remember offhand.) Oh, and have done some big-game practice on small rodents with rounds like the .375 H&H and .45-70.

These days I use a .17 HMR for shorter-range shooting. Used to use a .17 Mach 2 but grew weary of the ammo shortage--and then when some appeared, having to pay nearly as much as for .17 HMR.

For general shooting out to 300 yards or so I use a .17 Hornet with 20-grain plastic-tips at around 3650 fps. In the past have used cartridges from the .17 Fireball to .223 AI for the same purpose, but finally realized they weren't required--and also grew weary of trying to buy either .17 or .221 Fireball brass. .17 Hornet brass is easy to find, cheap, and the cartridge does an amazing job with only 12 grains of powder--which keeps the barrel from heating up nearly as much as cartridges using more powder. Plus recoil is so minimal I can easily watch bullet impact at any range, and a bunch of rounds will easily fit in a shirt pocket when I decide to hike around and shoot. (For ground squirrels often use the .22 or K-Hornet instead. They have the same virtue of minimal recoil and compact ammo, but aren't as good as the .17 Hornet beyond 200 yards. For ground squirrels 200 yards is plenty.)

For ranges over 300 have used everything from a fast-twist .223 with heavier bullets on up. Finally decided on a .204 Ruger for 300-500 yard shooting, since with 40-grain plastic-tips wind drift is less than with .224's of the same basic size. For beyond 500 yards I've come to the conclusion that a moderate 6mm (smaller than the .243) is about ideal. Am giving a 13-pound 6XC a trial this year.

The biggest virtues I found with the .223 AI were cheap brass, and no need to trim piles of cases. But the .204 has enough shoulder angle that when neck-sized it doesn't need trimming either. If I hadn't acquired a bunch of .204 brass cheaply during its first few years, would probably be using a .20 Practical instead.

I've shot a few with slugs just to see.

It kills them.

FYI

I think JB hit on it when he mentions different types of varmints. For Ground Squirrels I like the .222, prairie dogs, I like the .204, For fur I like the .222 or a downloaded .223 or 223AI. For coyotes on up to deer sized varmints, I like the .223AI...If I had to pick an all-purpose varmint cartridge it would be the plain vanilla .223...hands down.

I'd probably pick a .223 for one all-around varmint centerfire too--if I had to! Have found the standard .223 will get within 50 fps of the AI if loaded up to the same apparent pressure, where "pressure signs" don't appear. But do like the AI feature of not having to trim brass much, if at all.

For just small-rodent shooting, however, I'd be pretty happy with the .17 Hornet, and ground squirrels and PD's are the only varmints I shoot in most years. Some people do have trouble handling the tiny bullets when handloading, but I only drop a few--and find them again anyway after my periodic sweeping of the loading room. The cases do require trimming after a few firings, even when neck-sized only, but I have a Gracey trimmer than zips through them quickly, trimming and chamfering around 20-25 cases a minute. But who knows? Maybe next year somebody will introduce another small rodent round, and I'll be as fickle as a typical rifle loony.

What defines "best"?

I'm very fond of .17s. If I were being strictly practical, I'd keep my current .17 HMR and own nothing else smaller than a .25-'06. The distances here are generally short and most of the shooting is at rodents slightly smaller than a prairie dog. The number of shots fired at things the .17 HMR won't handle well are few enough that using a .25-'06 for them doesn't create any issues.

At the same time, I really like the .17 FB and .17 Remington, and my current .204 is great. The .204, especially, does do things the HMR won't, but there aren't that many such shots in a day, so much as I like it, it might not be the most practical choice. I'd have to say the same for the CF .22s.

If I lived somewhere else with a different mix of varmint sizes and / or different shooting distances, the answer would surely be different.

I think my next varmint rifle project will being life as a .223 and get rebarreled to .17 Remington.

Tom

Higbean: I have been Hunting all manner of Varmints (and predators) for 60 years now (I am 69 soon to be 70!) and I have used them ALL, in my pursuits.
Including some Ackley Improved versions of factory cartridges along with some "wildcats".
I won't bother to list all the calibers of Varmint guns I have owned and used in the past - just suffice it to say I currently own 92 (ninety two) centerfire caliber Varmint Rifles and 39 (thirty nine) rimfire calibered Varmint Rifles
If I were starting out today and wanted an "all around" Varmint cartridge that will do 99% of all Varmint and predator Hunting and do it VERY WELL I would not hesitate an instant, to declare the 204 Ruger to be that cartridge!
Day time, night time, close range, rather long range, in extreme cold or in extreme heat the AMAZING versatility and wonderful attributes of the 204 Ruger make it my clear choice for "best Varmint cartridge of all time" (all around Varmint cartridge!)!
Just a few of the wonderful attributes of the 204 Rugers for your consideration as best Varmint cartridge of all time:
#1: Amazing accuracy!
#2: Amazing lack of recoil (this helps in all Varminting situations but especially helpful while spotlighting at night).
#3: Slow to heat a barrel.
#4: Ease of reloading (and economical to reload).
#5: Amazingly flat trajectory over distances where 99%+ of all Varmints (and predators) are shot.
#6: Excellent wind bucking ability over distances where 99%= of all Varmints (and predators) are shot.
#7: Excellent selection of 20 caliber high quality (accurate and lethal!) bullets to choose from.
Long live the amazing 204 Ruger!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I can't get past a .223 or .223AI due to the simple economy of the brass availability. I had looked at the .22-204 and .204 and while they are appealing, brass is harder to come by in bulk. Just stand around at the range and watch a new AR owner leave brass on the ground.

No tits?







222RM, 204R, 22-250







I only opened this thread for the tits.

A good, sensible answer. The primary consideration is what you are using it for. That changes with the region.

I bought a 223, but don't use it. I have two 222s, and they do everything for this area. Coyotes, groundhogs (the tubby marmots - up to 6 lb.) and foxes. I've tried all kinds of bullets, but settled on 40 gr. Sierra BKs. Load 'em. Shoot 'em. This bullet works for everything. I have never had a 300 yd shot where I'm living now, and this bullet with H4198 is a 250 yd everything gun. Like you said, Tom, it does everything for where I live. And that's the key.

There was a time when I tried other cartridges, but got rid of them all. My 222 Rem load develops 48k pressure, according to my computer, which is supported by the fact that case stretching is a non-issue. 3/4"@100. It's golden. But may not suit the requirements of others.

Edited to add: around here, 223 brass was made to be rechambered to 6x45mm. It seems better suited for the purpose.

.223

I've been using the 222 Magnum. Parent case for the 204, the 223AI before the 223 existed and the benchrest lineage of the std. 222.

Its a good step in between the 222 and the relative fuel/steel hogging 22-250, Swift and varmint 6's. With its longish neck and miserly volume, it might wear a barrel throat a trifle better than some of its contemporaries and case stretch isnt even close to the 22-250/Swift either.

I think the military effed up on the cartridge selection; varmint shooters dont have to...

I've settled on the 223 "Practical" for pretty much everything under deer (and even then). It's just too easy.

.223 Practical... I like it.

A whole lot easier than .223 Tactical too.