Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Re-chamber 222 to 223 Question

I'm considering having a Valmet BBF re-chambered from 222Rem to 223. Since there's no way to set the barrel back, is this too risky?

Not familiar with your rifle at all, but why are you considering the conversion?

Here you go.

I have a jillion rounds of 223 and have no reason to keep it a 222.

Pick your 'smith very carefully. Getting a proper chamber cut with that rig is a challenge.

These aren't high volume rigs, first of all the barrel is irreplaceable when you shoot it out, 50 222 Rem cases should last a lifetime. Other than not having a rim the 222 Rem is the perfect round, the only thing a 223 can do better is rip through an AR.

There are far too few .222s in the world and plenty of .223s.

I don't want both types of ammo kicking around is one reason to do the change. I tend to get some brass and ammo mixed in with similar other brass and ammo.

How much real world velocity gain is there between the two? Which handles 70gr bullets better?

I've never been a small bore enthusiast and have little experience with most things under 30 cal.

Not to mention that by doing that you will probably have diminished the value of the gun considerable . I say keep as is or sell it to someone who appreciates it as is and buy a 223. Just my take. Cheers NC

LOL. I’m rebarreling a 223 to a 222 for a customer right now... too funny

NC

These guns are strictly utilitarian and didn't come in 223. I have one in 22 Svg HP, also, but that's a different problem altogether.

Other than the "cult of 222", what's the advantage?

I'm considering a 223 AI Job on mine. These aren't one little bugger sized hole shooters, so the 222 isn't any real advantage, IMO. It's ok...nothing major, except it would be the only 222 I have among some 223s.

I've been told that. I guess if the 222 chamber is on the fat side things would go bad. And, combination guns tend to have slightly "roomier" chambers to aid extraction.

Would an AI version 223 be a workaround?

The concern I would have goes to the concentricity of the new chamber to bore. I'm sure it's a job that would have to be done by hand .

Bruce, the other thing to remember about your wish is, what’s that 222’s twist rate? It’s probably 1:14. If your wish is to shoot 60gr partitions or 70gr somethings, it may be a non-starter, you know?

Have got this gorgeous wood cz 527 222 and went down this mental path, same goal, only to shelve it and roll with the 222rem for this reason.

Good point!

I think I'll run a patch through and count the turns.

While you're counting check the SAAMI web site for specs on the two cartridges. There might be some conflict there.

Yes, twist rate would be my first concern. I am a big fan of the 60 gr bullet in my 22-250s, and now a 22-243AI.

My favorite bullet in 22 caliber is the Hornady 60 gr spire point. And it has shot well at 3650 to 3700 fps in several 14 inch ROT barrels. But the Nosler 60 gr ballistic tip tumbled from the same barrel and same powder charge.

I used to see Savage Model 24 over/under combos in 222 that had been rechambered to 223 every now and then, but I havent seen one in awhile

You seem like a pretty intelligent fella, so what's the problem with keeping .222's separate from .223's? I own 6 .30-06's and can keep their individually tailored loads apart from each other, and my intelligence is debatable sometimes!

I acquired a L46 Sako a few years ago. It was in a box of parts and the barrel and action were the only two parts attached together. Surprisingly, we found enough parts to assemble a complete rifle except it had to be used as a single shot. There were large rust blisters on the barrel that cleaned up better than I expected. At any rate, while checking the single shot feed, I used a 223 round as I had no 222 on hand. The 223 slicked all the way in! It had been rechambered but not remarked on the bbl. Careful examination showed that the work was done without removing the barrel, or at least without setting it back.

As near as I could measure, the twist was somewhere around 1:13.5 to 1:14. It is the most accurate rifle I own, consistently under 1 MOA and often under 1/2 MOA even though no reload fine tuning has ever been done for it.. Checked the zero about 2 weeks ago and shot a sub 0.4" group. Anything under 60 grains shoots lights out except the 55 gr TSXs I tried. The 60 grain Partition shot about 1.5 MOA. Everything bigger than that was a waste of time.

Leave it be. Buy some nickel-plated brass for the .222 to help you keep it separate. I'm using that trick to keep the brass used for light Trail Boss loads separate from the real ones, in case the shoulders get pushed back and to keep from taking a poke at Bambi with a 1200fps load. Already had the shiny brass.

No shame in using memory aids, once you get to be "that age".

Hey Pappy, where'd you get the nickeled .222 brass?

I had this conversion done on an older Remington 722 that was given to my daughter, mainly because she couldn't find .222 ammo anywhere near where she lived. It shot just as good as or maybe a little better as a .223. She shot it quite a bit, and ended up selling it for a good price to a friend of hers who uses it for fur harvesting.

Sorry, that was .308 brass. Never looked for nickeled .222, just assumed it would be available. Guess I'd better check or withdraw my idea.

A Sharpie might do the trick too.

EDIT: Just looked and Midway has a bunch of nickeled, but no .222. A feller could reform nickeled .223 I suppose, but don't know if the plating would cause a problem.

They have nickel 6.5 Grendel, .30 Carbine, .375 Win, and others I never would have expected.

Morning, hope its going good. Years ago I had a 222 opened for 223 it was on HR single shot . It would split necks all the time. Took it back to gun shop & the second smith in there shop said it shouldn't have been done & said to go to 222mag. Not interested so they gave me credit for it's worth . Maybe it was done wrong in the first place ???? Ya could go to the22-204 that would clean up the chamber or yes 222mag but cases for 204 are everywhere . Hope it helps. It would clean everything up & I don't think the cases would fit into yr 223???? Bill out 🐾👣🐾👣🇨🇦

Not real difficult to set up and cut though one might have to make a fixture. I use a Palmgren milling attachment to hold the barrel and drive the reamer from the headstock. There are numerous ways to accomplish the same task. GD

I might utterly brilliant, but I'm stupid a lot.

I toss ammo from my pockets all sorts of places in my haste and get everything intermixed. It would be simpler to have no 222 at all, and the ammo is very expensive in comparison. My limited income now makes me do things I would never consider otherwise. I can have the work done for free, but it appears there is too much chance my 222 has too generous a chamber for this to work.

Also, the work would be done by a friend who is a very skillful machinist, makes precision aircraft parts, does gunsmithing, and builds large caliber military type barrels on contract. He has a modern shop with all sorts of precision equipment. I have no fear of his skills, and he will soon make me a set of claw rings for a second scope for my 6.5X57R drilling that has a ginormous scope on it now. Maybe a chamber cast first would be in order?

Might you try to shoot say, an elk with say, a .22/250 cartridge in a 7/08?

(Probably a wasted dig, since ol' Flave's among the missing, but he might be lurking)

You could tell the difference between 222 and 223 in the dark. Those rounds are not alike despite same bore and head size. You may be surprised at the response if put that rifle up for sale. Many of us have handloaded 222 for years and could care less what's in the Big Box. Paying attention to the twist was an excellent suggestion.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that none of the reasons you give provide a compelling argument for what you want to do. I'm sure many of us here have .222's and .223's (I do) and never have had a problem keeping ammunition sorted out. The longer neck on .222 is very obvious (at least to me.) There would be no appreciable performance gain and I'm almost sure bullets heavier than 55 grains would be out of the picture. It's a nice gun, a little unusual, leave it be.

what do you want for it??

More like a 270 round in an '06.

Bruce,

You're not stupid--you're nuts!

And I state that fondly, after our years of acquaintance and mutual "nutness" about various firearms.

Well...OK then

What's the initiation like into The Cult of the Triple-Deuce? Will it hurt? To ascend up the ranks will I eventually have to get a Scandinavian bolt action and an Uber-Glass scope?


I relent.

I resemble that remark.

Sako Vixen 222 Rem


It does earn it's keep though


Then there is a nice Model 70 222 Rem. if you want to save a buck


And if you need something to kill Blue Bottle flies at a hundred
Custom Savage


The 222 Rem kind of grows on you once you get to know it. Invest in a Sav. Axis to shoot up that 223 ammo so you can resize the brass it to 222 Rem.

Painless, totally painless. In fact, every time my Scandinavian bolt gun is at the bench, its Nirvana. 70 Speer semi pointed soft points have shot just under an inch in my gun. Chronographed the load, but can't recall the mv.

Nickle 222 cases

Federal also made nickle plated 222 Match cases in the 80s. Some are still floating around.

Being around salt air is the only advantage to them and it would have to be pretty bad to go that route, as every nicked case Remington makes pretty much suck.
http://bhshooters.com/rifle_brass.htm

I'd consider rechambering to 222 Mag, but not 223. The twist, chamber/throat cleanup and changing the cartridge stamp for starters.

To keep similar cases apart (or cases for different rifles), make the cases black instead -- much cheaper and more convenient.



LINK to buy, about 10 bucks

John

Sure is easier than finding those shiny 222 cases.

Maybe I'll go whole-hog and do it into a 22-250!

Or do it like it should have been done in the first place, the 5.6x50R Magnum a .224 cartridge designed for a break action rifle.

It works well, sorry this only has one shotgun barrel.

That's one cartridge I would like to mess with.


Krico supposedly made some rifles that made it to the U.S.. Cases are gold plated Hen's teeth and Hornady dies suck, but I still think (dream) of making one on a Rem action or clone.

I toyed with the idea of suggesting that, but I thought it might overcomplicate things. I have a single shot in that chambering, and I do like it quite a lot. Here in Oz I can get S&B and RWS factory ammunition, and RWS brass.It has worked well for me on game up to feral pigs, even with the S&B 50 gn SP factory load, and a bloke I know has dropped a number of fallow deer with his, using 63 gn Sierras.

You'd easily tell the ammunition apart from your .223 of course, especially as it has a rim. The same would apply to another option which would need no more than modifying the extractor, and that is our .222 Rimmed. Brass for the latter might be a bit hard to get in the US, though I believe it can be had. It would be easy enough to resize and trim RWS 5.6x50R brass to suit too.

Alternatively, you could just pay attention to segregating your ammunition, and use the gun as-is.

dan,

I was thinking the 5.6x50 magnum, not rimmed, which is way more difficult to procure than the 222 rimmed here.


Midway stocks the 222 rimmed, maybe even the 5.6 x 50 R. The rimless version of the 5.6 x 50 is just plain difficult to get in the U.S.. Huntington's has it, perhaps. But it might be cheaper to just shoot a 416 Rigby...

There is no ammo 5.6x50R available but I have been able to get brass, RWS and S&B off the internet, single shot break actions don't go through a lot of brass. Dies were off the shelf from Hornady and C&H carries them also. Hornady has load data.

I had a combo gun in 222 Rem/12ga and seriously looked into 222 Rimmed but the only factory brass was Bertram and I've had poor luck with their stuff in my 6.5x58R Sauer. Brass can be made from 357 Max but it is a lot of work.

I only ever neck size, so when I got my 5.6x50R I simply used the .222 dies I already had on hand, and they work fine.

I used Bertram's brass in my .222 Rimmed. I'd have to concede that it didn't seem quite up there with premium brands like RWS. I think that if I was to have a .222 Rimmed again I'd use RWS brass, sized and trimmed. It is admittedly pricey, and the initial preparation would involve some work, but once you'd made 50 or 100 pieces you'd be set for a long time as long as you didn't make a habit of losing cases, didn't load them up to the ragged edge and annealed the necks every now and then.

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