Help! Just bought a rifle with 2 different calibers marked on the barrel!

[John Wayne]

EDITED TO SIMPLIFY THINGS:

Basically I bought a CVA break-action rifle on sale in .223 Remington. The gun is marked .223 remington on the side, and .222 Remington on the bottom of the barrel. Initially I didn't know if the gun was safe to fire, but I have established that the two cartridges use the same diameter bullets, and that the gun does have a .223 chamber.

Update--

Basically, either CVA screwed up and marked a barrel twice, or as someone suggested, they rechambered .222 barrels to .223 to use up old stock.

Will a twist rate optimized for .222 have a negative effect on .223? (24" bull bbl.) Will it limit me to certain bullet weights for best results?

I did some research and the CVA Optima barrels I found were listed as standard contour 25," with .222 and .223 both having 1-10 twist rates. Guess that makes sense as a cost savings option, so long as it works for both. Now that I know that, I don't really have a problem with the gun, assuming everything works as it should. I initially recieved an unsafe firearm that was the result of a factory mistake.

Assuming this is a 1:10 twist barrel, how will it do with 55 gr. ammo? This is almost exclusively what I plan to shoot through the gun.

 

[Runningman]

The 222 Remington and the 223 Remington both use .224 Dia bullets. Since you stated "223 rounds chamber in this gun fine" than it is a 223 Remington. Because the 223 Remington will not completely chamber in a 222 Remington because of case length issues.

 

[John Wayne]

Ok, from what you've said, the gun should be safe to fire. Is there any chance I have a gun chambered in .223 that has a twist rate optimized for .222, or does the .222 use the same twist rate?

If the gun has simply been mis-marked then I guess that's not a big deal (in this case, in some other cases it could prove disasterous!), but I do not want a gun that's going to have horrible accuracy because it has the wrong twist rate for the .223 cartridge.

 

[Zanad]

try taking the action out of the gun and see what a .223 rem looks like in the chamber. if the .223 rem sticks out a little then you know you got an unintended caliber.

 

[Jim Watson]

A real .222 Remington would have a 14" twist.
That would be adequate for .223 Remington Viet Nam era 55 grain bullets (Unless you are in Alaska, the Army went to a 12" twist for cold dense air.) and lighter (shorter) varmint bullets.

You can measure the twist with a swivel handle cleaning rod, a tight patch, a piece of tape and a magic marker. Start the patch down the barrel and put the tape on the rod to form a little "flag." Mark a starting point on the rod opposite some part of the gun, the rear face of the barrel would be easy on this break action single shot. Push the rod through until the little flag makes one complete revolution and make another mark. Pull it out and measure the distance between the marks, that is the twist rate which is inches per turn.

Assuming this is a 1:10 twist barrel, how will it do with 55 gr. ammo? This is almost exclusively what I plan to shoot through the gun.

It will do just fine. The first use I know of for a 10" twist was by the USMC at the first attempt to shoot M16s in Service Rifle competition. The intent was to improve accuracy with 55 gr bullets, not handle the heavier ones that came out later.

 

[NCsmitty]

You can bet that they rechambered the 222 to 223 to use up the old stock of barrels. Chances are good that they used the same twist for all the 22 centerfire barrels.



NCsmitty

 

[husker]

yep i have a 222 rem mohawk 600. re chambered for 5.56
& you could not get a 223 in it. be fore dad did the back shop work to it.
so if its cambering 223 or 5.56 its been back shopped at some point in time.
but if your still worried bout it i would take it to a gun smith

 

[John Wayne]

husker, what twist rate was your Remington, and how did it do once it was rechambered?