Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 22-243

does anyone have any info on this caliber. i want to build one. reloading ease. accuracy. availibility of dies etc.. thanks in advance

It is, in my opinon, THE most practical and best of the Uberfast 224's. Neck down 243 brass and GO. Most of the brass I made for my 3 22 Cheetah's was merely 243 stuff necked down, as I saw zero advanage in the small primer pockets called for in the original wildcat design. Cheap and common brass, easy to load for, megafast speeds, what is not to like? Some would say barrel life but these are not fo all day prarie dog shoots and 90% of the time when an uberfast 224 is said to have a worn out barrrel it is hard powder fouling that IS a PITA to get out but black powder gel is good there.

What twist barrel ????? In my opinion this chambering is a waste of time and barrel in a slow twist (1-10" 1-14").
In a 1-8" for the heavy VLD bullet's is where it would be at it's best, even then it is too much of a good thing as barrel life will be shorter than need be. In my experience a 22-250AI is about max capacity for a 22 cal. bore.

i have the 22-250 220 swift im just looking for that nex step up in 22 cal i was thinking lighter bullets like 60 grains i live in iowa and all we have to do is shoot coyotes

matt,
Just a couple of idea's, if 60gr. bullet's is as big as you want to shoot then a 22-250AI will do everything a 22-243 will do with much better barrel life. another idea is a 22-6.5x47Lapua.

Did a 22-284 years ago (not that much bigger than a 22-243)and barrel life was about 500 rounds, not hard carbon as safariman suggest's but 4" of firecracking in the throat.

btw Lapua makes great new 22-250 brass that fireforms nicely to AI

My 22-243 is AI'ed.

It will push 60's to 4000 fps w/ RL19, 3.900 fps w/ H4831.

It is a Savage 112 long action single shot which used to be a 22-250, and it still has the 14 inch twist barrel. It was rechambered by http://www.sharpshootersupply.com/ The savage 26 inch varmint weight barrel groups inside 1/2 moa with the 60 gr Hornady spire point. I Moly plate the bullets.

I purchase Winchester 243 brass and neck size it in my AI sizer die. The fire form shot is just as accurate and kills stuff just as dead as subsequent shots.

My dies were ordered from CH-4D. And the price was quite reasonable, but somewhat more expensive than standard dies at the corner Sporting Goods Shop.


Barrel life?????

Good question. My rifle was about ten years old and had in excess of 500 rounds of 22-250 through it when it was rechambered. That was nearly ten years ago and I have put about another 500 rounds through it since. I shot 50 through it last weekend and have not observed any loss of accuracy.

But I only shoot two or maybe three shots and set it aside to cool.

I am sure that it must be on its last legs. It has to die someday. When it does, I think I will have the new barrel built in the same shop for the same chambering. But I will go with a faster twist to accommodate 69 to 78 gr bullets.

I've had a few over the years. All were set up to run the 75gr Amax. Standard load was 48gr Rel 25 and a Fed 210. 3500fps at 4500'asl. All were 8 twist barrels. Mine were all standard 22-243 Winchesters. Dies were readily available from Redding. No fire forming is needed. Simply run 243 brass through your sizing die. The most rounds I've had through one is about 800 and was still getting .5 moa. Recently got away from the .224 and started running the .243 105 amax. They seem to handle the Wyoming wind a little better.

thanks for all the great info guys. i really like the .22 caliber and we cant use our high powers for anything but yotes and fox so thats why i like to stay smaller. i think im going to keep going for the 22-243 just because no one else around her has one... got to be different

I have tried both the 22-243 Middlestead and 22-6mm (22 TTH?) in 1-14" ROT rechambered 22-250 barrels without great success.

The 22-6mm was a post-'64 and pre-USRA Winchester 70 and was the fastest throat burner/eater that I've ever owned. The 22-243 Middlestead was only slightly slower, but appeared to be much easier on the barrel throat.

I have decided that, for me, the 22-250 and 22-250AI do everything that I need a larger capacity .224" bore rifle to do. If I need more performance, I'll just take a 243 or 257 Roberts or 25 WSSM out of the rack in lieu of a .224" bore rifle.

Jeff

the barrel life isnt a huge concern with me because when it comes to coyote hunting your going to get one maybe two shots off at each one... that means more than likely it will get shot a max of 5 times and outing 1000 rounds that over 200 times. this may sound like a dumb question but there must be many different variations to the 22-243 i seen the 22-243 winchester is that the most standard. and once again thanks for all the info guys im a newbie to the custom guns.

I think that the 22-243 Middlestead is the standard/most common 22-243 variation.

I'm thinking that if I was building a dedicated long(er) range walking coyote rifle, it would be very similar to the 700 CDL-SF (short action) restocked with a McM McMillan Hunter style stock in 22-250AI, 243, 25 Souper, 257 Roberts, or 260.

Jeff

At the bullet weights mentioned, a standard 243 with 55 BTips will outrun the 22 caliber everytime. For coyotes, it's a great combo. With the advent of light 243 bullets, the 22-243 is an answer to a no-longer-asked question.

Unless one likes to run 36-40gr bullets at 4300-4400 fps and see the fireworks on small rodents. Some do

Then there are the high BC 224 bullets which will outrun a 55 from a 243 w2hen the ranges get REALLY long.

I still have dies for 22-243 and 22 Cheetah, will build one or the other when $$ again allow.

I had a 22 Cheetah....It was the most accurate .22 centerfire I ever had my hands on...I usually shot 50 Nosler BTBT..when it had about 1200 rounds though it I sold it to a pal for the price of the action...he shot it a bit more then offered to sell it back to me for the same price...I needed an action at the time, so I bought it...before I made the buy, I looked down the barrel..he said when he last fired it it shot super, but he didn't clean the barrel before setting it in his gun rack..the barrel had some deep dark pits in it so I never checked the accuracy..but rebarreled..not I am not sure to what...but it was a shooter....

You can run the 55 BTip at 4200 out of a plain vanilla 243. Not too many 22 cals can touch it to 500 yards.

matt_allen,

If you talk to the bench rest shooter at Hornady you will find he tried the .22-243 and the .22-6mm Rem. He discovered the .22-6 gets about three times the accurate barrel life.

If after you talk with him you decide on the .22-6 I will sell you my reloading dies for less than any you can find for sale. I moved on to other projects now.

I agree and have found this to be the case also, have found it to be odd but true the only explanation I can come up with is the much longer neck.
It is the same story 243AI ...VS 6mmAI even though the 6mmAI has a slightly larger case capacity than the 243AI it has better barrel life and faster velocity. Many will disagree but the 6mmAI has an accuracy advantage also.

Have a 22-243 mdlstd in the works now. 700, #5 Krieger, McM A3 Sporter...I must find the pic of the stock to post....camo pattern in 3 shades of gray. I got the bbl with a couple hundred rounds thru it......gent i obtained it from sent 53 gr TSX through antelope shoulders. I sent 55 gr NBT through a muley doe rib cage with the same rig.

Dies are pricey i believe.

I've toyed with the idea of a 22-243. Currently have a 22-250AI...think if I could do it over I would just do a Swift.