.308 Norma
Member
But with all the great posts of the 223, and knowing myself as I do, I'll want a rifle chambered for 223 within 16 months time.

You sound a bit like me - sort of!
As I've posted before on THR, I had a 223 (one of those ugly, "boat paddle" Rugers) that I liked real well. Ugly or not, it worked great, and I killed a lot of ground squirrels, rock chucks and even a couple of coyotes with it. And back then, I could almost buy "remanufactured" 223 ammo as cheap as I could load it myself.
However, my wife went and got herself a 22-250, and I just couldn't stand the fact that my wife was shooting a faster varmint cartridge than I was. So, I sold my 223 and got a 22-250 of my own.
I'd love to have that ugly "boat paddle" 223 Ruger back again. It's one of the few guns I've sold or traded off over the years that I regret getting rid of. Not that I have any regrets about getting myself a 22-250. It's easy to load for, it uses the same ammo as my wife's, and it works just as well on varmints as the 223 did.
BTW, one of the sillier reasons I got myself a 22-250 was because I once watched through my binocular as my wife used her 22-250 to simply "evaporate" a vole (field mouse) that was running across about 40 yards out. That mouse disappeared in almost the same instant my wife's rifle went "BANG!" All that was left was a couple of pieces of hair that I saw come floating down out of the sky a few seconds later.