22-250 vs. 223 for a long range beginner?

[KYlongshot13]

Hey guys,
Im new to this site, and this is also the first forum ive ever participated in before, on any site. Anyways, my situation is this: Im semi new the world of shooting, but not quite a beginner. My interests at the moment are in learning to shoot accurately out past 200, or 300 yards. Im buying a new stevens 200 in a few days and cant quite decide between a 22-250 and a 223. I like the FPS of the 22-250 but ive heard before that the high speed rounds tend to be less predictable downrange? Also, being a 22 yr. old college student, i like the price of the 223 ammunition, but i wouldnt mind raking out a little more change for better results.
I would really appreciate any insight you could provide.

Thanks in advance,
Shane..

(ps. i will also be looking for a decent bipod around 50-60 dollars: suggestions)

 

[foreign]

admitidly i havent shot a 22 250 but i love my .223. love it.. the stevens has a 1 in 9 twist barrel that will stabalise 80gr pills and that is easily enough to kill bunnies out as far as you can hit them. im trying for 600yrds on bunnies at the moment. once you start reloading ( you will trust me once the addiction sets in) the .223 is way cheaper. and the recoil is nuthing. admitidly i have mine in a choate stock too and that helps.

 

[RBetts]

22-250 has a standard size bolt face. If you choose to order a shillen barrel in a 308 based case size you can just swap barrels. With the 223 you need to change the bolt face
223 is very hard to beat if your on a tight budget though. Think what your plans are with the rifle. Are you going to learn and then sell to upgrade? Or or you going to learn then modify/rebuild what you have(better option IMHO). IF a get the 223. If B the 22-250
I like the 6mm bore size but that's just me

 

[J E Custom]

Hey guys,
Im new to this site, and this is also the first forum ive ever participated in before, on any site. Anyways, my situation is this: Im semi new the world of shooting, but not quite a beginner. My interests at the moment are in learning to shoot accurately out past 200, or 300 yards. Im buying a new stevens 200 in a few days and cant quite decide between a 22-250 and a 223. I like the FPS of the 22-250 but ive heard before that the high speed rounds tend to be less predictable downrange? Also, being a 22 yr. old college student, i like the price of the 223 ammunition, but i wouldnt mind raking out a little more change for better results.
I would really appreciate any insight you could provide.

Thanks in advance,
Shane..

(ps. i will also be looking for a decent bipod around 50-60 dollars: suggestions)

The 22/250 will best the 223 in almost every area "BUT" unless you are in to reloading
I would recomend the 223 because of ammo cost and availability.

You can buy 223 ammo for under $10.00 dollars a box and the 22/250 will be 3 times that.

Also you can find 223 ammo with bullets from 35 grs to 70 grs and the main thing is practice
and with all of the ammo you can find for less than $10.00 you can afford to shoot a lot
and get the practice needed for long range shooting.

The 223 is used very successfully in 600 yard+ matches.

J E CUSTOM

 

[X3MHunter]

+1 for the .223

-X3M

 

[roaddog1m]

I have both and my vote is for the 22-250. Admittedly, the .223 factory ammo is going to cost less, but if you are truely looking to stretch out your shooting distances, you will need to hand load. Factory ammo is more expensive and a lot less accurate than hand loaded ammo. Also, you will have a difficult time finding anything on the shelf for your .223 that is anything other than FMJ ammo. Sorry, just a sign of the times I guess. Yes other loadings are available but actually finding any to buy is going to be another story all together.

Handloading: Start out with a very basic single stage press. Lee or RCBS is plenty good enough. A set of dies, case lube, bullet tray, trimmer (just a Lee hand trimmer caliber specific and nearly impossible to break or screw up the lenth) powder funnel, scale (spend the money on a digital scale), primer pocket cleaner, hand loading book (your choice but I like RCBS or Hornady) and a Lee hand priming tool. That will most likely get you started. You will save enough $$$ the first year of shooting, to pay for your equipment and it should last many years. You picked a great forum to ask questions because although I have been loading for twenty years, there are many people here with vast amounts more knowledge than me. They will always try to steer you in the right direction to avoid mistakes many of us have already made. Don't try to load above the book recommendations it will only get you hurt!

More then likely however, I will still get critisized for some of the brand choices. I picked them due to cost, durability and simplicity. Good luck! If you have any questions, feel free to PM me. Like I said, I've loaded a lot of both.

Tom

 

[foreign]

just refering to Rbetts post. the bolt face on a savage takes about 4 mins to swap over so i dont think it a real issue. just incase that was swaying you.

 

[dk17hmr]

I would personally get the 223. Everything about them is cheaper to shoot. I have shot p-dogs with 223s out to 750 yards. For 200-300 yards about any centerfire will get there. My girlfriend has a Savage 223 heavy barrel and this spring when the weather breaks we are going to try to push 1000 with it.

 

[Dskiper]

Hello KY longshot, I have a .223 &a.22-250.Both are Remington VS(varmint synthetic).The other day I shot both getting .750"or less groups at 100yrds. I don't reload though I should. But you can buy agreat varitity of ammo for both. I shot Hornady Vmax in both calibers. You must buy &test a selection of rounds.Cabela's,MidSouth.midway,cheaper than dirt&many others offer good deals on ammo.I bought .223 55gr. @Cabela's for 7.99 last week.Ok for punching paper and having fun.

 

[KYlongshot13]

thanks for all the great advice guys, you certainly have given me much to think about. I almost bought a rem. 700 sps varmint in 22-250 or 223 the other day for 499$ at dicks, but ive read alot of good things about the cheap 'ol stevens 200. Ive saved up about 650$ dollars for this project, and i dont want to make the wrong decision. lol With the stevens 200 i would have more to spend on a good scope/bipod, and eventually id like to play around with the stock some. one more question though. I have read many opinions about using the extremely cheap 5.56 nato in a .223 bolt action. some say dont do it, others say its fine, and some say its okay but you wont be able to hit a car a 300 yards. what do you guys say?

Once again, thanks for the great advice. Im impressed by the knowledge that can be gained on these forums by simply posting a question...lightbulb

Shane...

 

[roaddog1m]

Shoot some of them and shoot some hand loads next to them. You'll see the difference and most likely become a handloader.

Tom

 

[eaglesnester]

I have a 22/250 in Weatherby SVM with a 1-14 inch twist heavy barrel. I also reload. The Weatherby shoots very accurate and I have found that I can load and shoot 70gr Speer SPZ with 39gr of Winchester 760 powder and a CCI250 cap and I get .5inch groups at 100 yards. A 1in14 twist is not recommended for any bullet over about 55gr but the Weatherby makes an exception to this rule in that I am able to drive the bullet over 3500FPS (chronyed round) which stabilizes the bullet. The rifle shoots 52 grain Burgers very accurate as well. When loading and shooting 70gr Speer SPZ I am shooting with about the same energy level as a 30/30 at 100 yards.
When shooting I use a military hasty sling that I bought from Brownell's and a set of homemade shooting sticks that cost me about 11 bucks to make. When in a sitting position and strapped into a military sling my position and platform is very, very stable and I have more height than if I was in prone an advantage when shooting in tall grass or brush.
I have not shot the 223 in a long range small game configuration so I can not speak on it.
I think that if I were to do it all over again I might have gone for the 6mm instead for the better long range performance.

 

[mike33]

+ 1 for 223. I have both and the 223 is very forgiving and fun to shoot. I picked up a rem. 78 sportsman in 223 about 16 years ago when i was shooting on the IBS circuit. I thought while practicing with my 6 ppc i would take it to the range as a second gun just to have fun with. I could not believe how well it performed. I liked the gun so well i would actually take it deer hunting in our doe season under 200 yards the 50 grain hornady sx would drop a whitetail as quick as any caliber mentioned on this site. As far as damage you better get hide off asap for the blood clotting. But they are inexpensive to shoot and very easy on brass.
mike

 

[rdsii64]

The are many reasons that either caliber will be a good fit for you. There are however, two places that the .223 shines. When it comes to price per shot you can't beat a .223 caliber gun. The .223 is not a picky caliber either. Get the barrel twist right and most any brand of quality ammo will shoot well. If you get into hand loading, I have yet to find a load that a .223 won't shoot well.