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.