Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 22 Creedmoor the hard way

I wanted a 22GT but talked myself out of it.

Then a 1:8 low round Pacnor 22-250 take off barrel popped up here in the classifieds. I had a stock and a donor so I figured why not.
Turned out the barrel had been on a trued action so it wasn’t a cheap barrel swap and ended up a 22 Creedmoor. Oh well. Faster is better anyway.
22” barrel. Weighs 6 pounds without the rail. Currently it’s in an old school Bansner sheep hunter stock with BDL metal. I plan to swap it over to DBM when I get the motivation to dremel it out. It’s off to get threaded shortly.



I picked up a bore scope which has been enlightening. The tool marks in this barrel were a surprise.

Hopefully it shoots as I’ve been stocking up on 88 grain Hornadys.

Cool build Nimrod

What is the longest bullet that a 1-8" ROT will stabilize when fired from a .22 CM?

That will be a nice rifle Joel

Thanks everyone. Looking forward to shooting it when the scope arrives next week.

I don’t know this answer. There seems to be a good debate about twist from 7 to 8. There are reports of blowing the jackets off bullets because of speed and twist. If I was going to shoot the 90 grain A tip or with less case capacity I would go 1:7 or 1.7.5. I know Horizon Firearms makes a “factory” 22 Creedmoor in 1:8.

Well...........how does it shoot?

I don't know the answer to that but a guy at either Hornady or Sierra (I forget which one now) told me to stick with the 8twist for the 22CM. According to him, the long bullets were made for the 223 F-class shooters so they have thinner jackets. He said what they are seeing is that the long bullets work great in the 7 twist Creed at first but as the throat gets worn and starts to get some fire cracking that the combination of the extra rpm, rough throat and thin jackets is when you start having problems with shedding jackets.

I think I'm on week 7 of a 10 - 20 week wait for my 8 twist barrel. Waiting sucks.

Hell of a nice build. Lot of pragmatism there. I’m thinking something of the same. Since I’m not Scenarshooter (who I hear is running the 22GT), I’ll probably follow your thought process and fast-forward to the 22 Creedmoor.

Dave284,
Yeah, waiting is not the fun part. I waited 18 months for my first custom rifle build. The final product was worth the wait, but it was not fun.

Sorry for the slow reply. This time of year I get stretched for time and shooting and load development have fallen to the wayside.




Loaded up a few for sighting in. The last 3 shots clustered together look promising at 100 yards. The Athlon dot doesn’t lend to holding precise I’m finding.

I printed a better target for the dot scope and picked up some StaBALL HD. Loaded up some test loads and I think I’m happy. I’ll have to find my chronograph and figure dope.