I mentioned when I bought my .204 Ruger, I already had a .223. A .223 is what I always recommend for a
first and last Varmint rifle if for no other reasons than great performance for the money and availability as others have mentioned. A .223 is great to first to start with and last in the sense that it is the last to be sold...to me. It's kind of a great all around multipurpose round. Some say that a .223 maybe slightly less ballisticly (sp?) stable than the .222 theoretically...or at least it used to be said to be such, but now a days it's pretty dang good. It performs overall very well but unfortunately it is not on the top or the bottom of the power grid compared to 22-250 and 220 swift. It is, however, essentially a NATO round and will always be easy to acquire in large quantities and is interchangeable with those "other" firearms that also quietly hide out in our gun safes.
(Yes I know it is not exactly the same as a 5.56 and no I don't shoot them...especially out of my rare Brno but if the SHTF kinda thing ever happened...I could.) I can and do definitely use the brass though. That said the .223 also has an enormous bullet selection and performs very well on all sorts of applications. This is some of the reasons I recommend it first and last. But...I already had one...so it was time for something new and fancy...just because...and I finally could finally rationalize it.
(Oh...On the .222 Rem: I used to have a Brno Fox II in .222 Rem but ammo was a pain to acquire in comparison to a .223 and a bit more expensive since I didn't reload much. )
On a different note, I think the .22 Hornet is a neat little item and will most likely add one at some point but can't justify it...yet. To
me while it's neat, it's just that...neat. I just don't gain anything that I don't have already. (It's on the list to get eventually...just because.) Next, I really like the performance of .220 Swifts and 22-250's but I've had several friends and acquaintances that have had both of these rifles and have left me with second thoughts of ever owning one. I have spoken to more than one .220 swift shooter who is on his second barrel and hear life expectancy seems to be in the 2000 round
max range. (Probably true of many larger center-fires anyway I guess, but most of us will never shoot our other hunting center-fires that much.) Hence why I would never (or be very discriminating) before ever buying either of these calibers used. JMHO.Additionally they both require full size actions and tend to be a larger and heavier rifle. IE the when it comes to CZ it mandates the larger, heavier full size action of the CZ 550 over the smaller lighter and nicer to carry in the field CZ 527.
Additionally on the 22-250 & 220 Swift, some of the serious prairie dog shooters I know, in order to be able to get more shooting in shorter periods of time....many times have two of these set up and take them both to the hunt. Why?...cause they get bloody hot in rapid fire shooting and need to constantly be switching rifles to keep them cooler every 3rd or 4th shot...even if a BBL. I never could afford this or justify it before. I guess, now I could but still can't justify it. I have also spoken to many who find they are both a tad less pleasurable to shoot, reload...both for recoil, visualization and noise. As noted, they are both based on full size actions as well as a full size necked down shell. Hence why you do
not see them on the 527 action..too big of a shell. Their ammo can be a bit expensive off the shelf in comparison to the .204 and especially the .223. They are a bigger pain to reload as well and use easily 2x the powder of the .204 with only slight variation in ballistics. But
DANG!!!!!...do they ever perform! :t So....for my needs, until the .204 cam along I have mainly stuck with a .223 but realize that I do give up on a bit of performance.
Here is my .223 Brno:
Link: Brno ZKK-601 .223 Rem: "The one that DIDN'T get away..."
A quote from another thread that you might find helpful....
so I've been reading up on .223 vs .204. I've been hearing nothing but praise for the .204 but it still seems the .223 is more popular. Could be because it has been around longer, I guess. If you don't mind my asking, what led you to the .204 over the .223?
See above on the "whys" of the .223. Bottom line even though the .204 Ruger is higher in performance, do not discount the .223 little round as there is a reason for it's popularity beyond being nearly a NATO round...it is very practical but is also very effective. Okay...the .204 Ruger, it's bottom line is it is near 22-250/220 Swift performance (or close enough for my needs) but with out the majority of the downsides including cost and barrel degradation. I don't really have to give up anything in performance to or for this round. That does not mean it doesn't get hot as speed in general is component of this. (Even my .223 gets hot with several successive shots..just to a lesser degree.) I understand that the .204 does this with less powder (less burn) than even a .223....bonus! There isn't near the bullet selection as the .223 (yet) and may or may not struggle with very heavy bullets. But...so what? The numbers and accuracies stats look good to me and I'm willing to give it a go with my trusty .223 in reserve for a while.
I went for 223 for cheap and widely available brass, and a huge selection of bullets from 40gn up to over 80.
Exactly.
Now...for what I finally arrived at. I really came close to purchasing the following rifle as it is totally beautiful and would be a matching near twin to my recently acquired CZ 17 HMR "Fancy" American.
Link: CZ 527 AMERICAN, .204, rare! fancy walnut!
But...I ultimately wanted something else...or more accurately I wanted even more.
I wanted that exact rifle but I wanted the heavier barrel of the Varmint. Which lead me to look very strongly at a CZ Kevlar Varmint because this was to be a working rifle. In the end the 3-6 month wait and little gained from this $160+ upgrade (beyond scratch resistance) was overshadowed by my desire for nice wood, cost savings and availability (couldn't find any for sale and heard there was a wait for this in .204). Keep in mind that if you want a .223 that it does come in a different/faster twist for heavier bullets than all other 527 variations (1-9 vs the standard 1:12)...but this is not so in the .204 so it becomes irrelevant as it is the same in either configuration (1:12 only in all CZ configurations and seems to be the case for many manufactures.) Also, according to the CZ website the Kevlar is actually
heavier than the walnut version. So one day I stopped in a major CZ retailer locally and came across a very NIB CZ 527 Varmint .204 with quite nice walnut for $499 out the door...just couldn't turn it down. Oh...did I mention it had an absolutely stunning single hole factory target. May not mean much for sure...but then again it might. :bthumb: Hope this is helpful.
Cheers,
TOU
).
