The 244

They are the same, ammo is interchangeable. Heavier bullets in 6mm Rem loads may not shoot well in rifles marked .224 because of their slower twist.

edited below

Offfhand said:

6mm Rem loads may not shoot well in rifles marked .224

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Care to edit that?? hehe

They are one and the same. Originally introduced as .244 to compete with .243, twist was for varmint weight bullets, .243 would handle deer/antelope bullets of 100 grains. Changed twist and name to catch up but didn't.

I own a 722 in .244 Rem and as a general rule, though the 6mm is the same cartridge, you'll want to use bullet weights of 90gr or less for good accuracy. .244 barrels, at least in Remingtons, have a 1-12 twist and 6mm in 1-9. It makes all the difference.

My individual rife will drive tacks with old 105gr Speer round nose soft points but those are long out of print and mine may be an anomaly. 85 SGKs work great.

What Burrhead said. I had a Rem 725 in 244. It liked 85-90 gr but 100gr opened up the groups. It was still accurate enough for deer where the shot were close but the 90gr Speer was laser accurate out to 300 yards.

Walkalong said:

The biggest issue with 6MM Remington was the slow twist designed for lighter varmint bullets/shooting varmints, but people tried the m for hunting and found them wanting (Duh). The .243 Winchester, while a near ballistic twin, had a faster twist and proved a good hunting caliber. The .243 caught on, the 6 Rem died out, except for varmint hunters who liked it.

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The 6mm uses a 1/9 twist. The 244 uses a 1/12. The 243 uses a 1/10.

The biggest reason the 243 out-sold the 6mm is because the 243 was based on the 51mm (308 family) case and the 6mm was based on the 57mm case (7x57 family).

The 57mm case is too long for US short actions and too short for long actions. If you notice, all cartridges based on the 57mm case are dead, dying or have faded into obscurity- 6mm Remington, 257 Roberts, 7x57 & 8x57.

The 51mm case is just right for US short actions. A few actions were made for the 57mm case, mostly Mausers, but are hard to come by. I don't think any are in current production.

The longer neck and slow twist of the 244 makes it preemo for cast bullets.

I have a 1980 700V in 6mm and is one of the sweetest rigs here. 6-18,5* Redfield on top. Love that old gun.

And time marches on. The 10" twist of the .243 and even the 9" twist of the 6mm (9.125 and 9.25" in some guns) are fine for 100 gr flat base spitzers but not adequate for the current crop of boattails with long ogive noses and weights sneaking up over 100 grains. A 95 gr Berger VLD wants a 9 twist but their 105s need 8" twist.

An old Gun Digest or Handloaders Digest article wrote of cutting the exposed lead off a 100 gr soft point which shortened it enough to shoot accurately from a .244.