Some cartridges display such great versatility that they find use in many types of shooting sports.  For instance, by using bullets of different weight the .243 Winchester and 6mm Remington (introduced as the .244) can function well for varmint hunting or for hunting medium game.  However, the development of specialized cartridges for particular uses has a long history.  The quest for high performance varmint cartridges led to calibers such as the .219 Zipper by Winchester and wildcat calibers such as the .219 Donaldson Wasp, .22-250 (which was eventually standardized as the .22-250 Remington) and many others.  In some cases, the cartridges were developed by changing the neck diameter of an existing case or by reaming out the chamber and creating space for a blown out case that held more powder.  An example of the former is necking the .250 Savage to hold bullets of .224 inch diameter to produce the .22-250 and an example of the latter is reaming the chamber of a .22 Hornet to produce the .22 K-Hornet.

            With varmint hunting being a time-honored pastime, one of the dedicated varmint cartridges that achieved almost instant success was the .222 Remington.  It was introduced around 1950 along with the Remington 722 bolt action rifle.  The cartridge was developed primarily by Mike Walker, one of the engineers at Remington, who was also a dedicated bench rest competitor.  It was not long before special rifles were built for bench rest competition to take advantage of the inherent accuracy of the cartridge.  Even the relatively inexpensive Model 722 rifles displayed outstanding accuracy and that used by one of my shooting buddies in the 1950s accounted for many varmints.  The Model 722 was discontinued when the Model 700 came along in 1962.

            Modifications of the .222 Remington case soon took place.  Although some will be mentioned, a complete description of such changes need not be given.  Lengthening the case by 0.1 inch and shortening the neck resulted in the .222 Remington Magnum case having a longer body and larger powder capacity which resulted in an increase in velocity.  The enormously popular .223 Remington was developed by shortening the neck and lengthening the body which also results in velocities slightly higher than those produced by the .222 Remington.  The 5.56 X 45 NATO is another development based on the .222 Remington case.  It was designed to give an effective range of 500 meters for military use.  The most common factory loads in .222 Remington give a 50 grain bullet a muzzle velocity of approximately 3140-3200 ft/sec.  That means that an accurate .222 will perform well on varmints out to about 250 yards.

            My first .222 was a Savage Model 340 bolt action that performed well.  In retrospect, I am afraid that I did not fully appreciate the capability of the rifle and after a few years I traded it for something else.  After that, my varmint hunting was conducted with one or more .22 WMR rifles and I became more of a rimfire addict.

            Along about 1965, I came across a Remington 700 ADL that had a Weaver K4 scope attached and the price was right so I bought it.  I did not know it at the time, but the previous owner had tried to adjust the trigger to a ridiculous low pull and had broken some part and tried to fix with an adhesive of some type.  I just knew that the trigger was too light to be safe so I took it to a gunsmith for adjustment.  He discovered the problem and the solution was a new Timney trigger which the gunsmith installed and adjusted to a pull weight of around three pounds.

            By this time, I had started loading ammunition and I knew that the rifle was very accurate.  In an effort to make better use of the accuracy potential, I mounted a Weaver K-10 scope that had a focusing objective, and I had a superb combination for doing rude things to varmints.  The first group that I shot with 50 grain Sierra spritzers and 18.5 grains of IMR 4198 produced a group of under an inch with the shooting done prone and a box used as a rest.  Since that time long ago, I have tried many loads in my Remington 700 and have never found a bad one.  On the contrary, almost all of the loads will give five-shot groups of an inch or less at 100 yards.  Loading the .222 Remington is very simple and many combinations of powder and bullets work well.  Since it is a mild cartridge, I have found that case life is quite good.

            Factory ammunition in .222 Remington is not nearly as common as it formerly was and it is more expensive than is that for the .223 Remington.  The major performance advantage of a .223 Remington is that most rifles in that caliber have a faster rifling twist and will thus stabilize heavier bullets than can be used in a .222.  In fact, using bullets of 60-70 grains, many .223 rifles are used for hunting medium game.

            New factory rifles in .222 Remington are now few, but over the years, the caliber has been quite popular in Europe.  At one time it was also quite popular with subsistence hunters in remote places such as the Arctic.  The extreme popularity of the .223 Remington has not diminished the capability of the .222 and it is still an excellent varmint caliber.  I may use my .223 more than I do my old .222 Remington Model 700 but it is not going away any time soon.  However, it could be made more elegant by the addition of a Boyds walnut stock.

For almost 60 years, this Remington 700 in .222 Remington has been destroying varmints.

The .222 Remington (left) has been modified to produce other cartridges such as the .223 Remington (right)

Factory .222 Remington ammunition is hard to find and rather expensive.

These are some of the powders that work well when handloading the .222 Remington.

From the bench, the 700 Remington has always proved to be very accurate.

This 0.49 inch group was produced by factory Fiocchi ammunition that utilizes the 50 grain Hornady V-Max bullet.

A handload with the 50 grain Speer TNT bullet and IMR 4198 powder produced this 0.59 inch group.