Remington 722 .222 Rem

[RedRaider3]

Yesterday a widow that I know gave me a Remington 722 chambered in .222 Rem. the gun was manufactured in October of 1956. The gun is not in real bad shape, the stock could be refinished and it looks like the widows husband knocked the rear sight off of the gun to accommodate a low mounted scope. Are these guns worth anything? I have 2 Remington 700s; 1 Sendero SF II in 7mm Rem and 1 ADL in 22-250 Rem. Provided the gun groups decently, I am thinking about restoring the gun, putting a gloss Leupold VX1 scope on it and hanging onto it for my wife and our future children to use. Where is a good source of parts? I have checked Brownells for the rear sight already to no avail. Any info on this gun would help!

 

[StrawHat]

The 722 was the forerunner of the short action 700 and is a very good rifle. It was designed by Mike Walker and used a tube for the action instead of a flat bottomed receiver. There is quite a lot of info on them.

As for spare parts, they are a bit harder to locate. Numrich is usually out of anything I ask them for so maybe contacting a sight company for an alternative would be an option.

 

[witchhunter]

Mount a scope and shoot it. It might surprise you, the triple deuce is known for accuracy. I'm building one soon.

 

[Byron]

The 222 is very acurate.While not seeing the stock,if it is not bad,I would leave it alone.I have a 700 Clasic and a Ruger No.1 in 222. My favorite caliber of all time.

 

[CZ223]

Great little gun

I had one but sold it.:banghead:

 

[RedRaider3]

Attached (I think) are pics of the rifle, the broken rear sight and the most significant damage to the stock.

Thanks for everyone's input, I have hunted with a .222 as a kid but have always overlooked the caliber. I am considering loading IMR 4198 or CFE223 under a Sierra 55grain Gameking or a Nosler BT. I have killed several pigs and deer with 55 & 60 grain Nosler BT's in the past, I am considering letting my wife use one of these loads for 150 yard or less deer. Does anyone have any good .222 loads for varmints/medium game? I realize the standard 1 in 14" twist may not stabilize anything over 55 grains.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

[RedRaider3]

Pic

 

[RedRaider3]

Broken sight

 

[Byron]

From what I can see in the pictures, I would leave as is.
I have used Winchester 748 for many years and a standard SR Primer.Yourbullet choices are good. I have used the Hornady 55 grain for my 700 and hornady 60 FBSP for my No 1.

 

[Byron]

I have used Hornady manuals 3 and 4 and Speer manual #10 as my data source only varying with the use of Standard Small Rifle primers.

 

[RedRaider3]

Has anyone tried to push one of Nosler's 60 grain .224 bullets with the .222? I have several boxes on hand to load for my .223, just curious if the .222's 1 in 14" barrel will stabilize the 60 grains.

 

[mbopp]

Rumor has it......

Mike Walker of Remington had a theory that a 50 gr bullet with a MV of 3200 FPS was the ideal benchrest round. The 222 was the result. It since morphed into the 222Mag and the 223. A 222 was the first CF rifle I used on woodchucks.
Brass can be hard to come by. Usually the big manufacturers make only one run a year.

 

[targetshooter22]

Go with the scope.

You won't know about the heavier bullets until you try it, but for shorter range, it might be fine. You can make 222 brass from 223 with a little work. Load data is not terribly hard to find. For 223 and 5.56, I have had some success with AA2230 and Win748. I'm told that H322 and H335 are other good powder selections but they didn't work so well in my 223. Also, 4198 can work well too based on some actual rounds I shot but did not load. Basically, it's not usually a fussy feeder.

Good luck, and enjoy. I have a close relative with a 222 and he absolutely loves it (his application is woodchucks).

 

[WVRJ]

You should have a good shooter there.I have one in 300 Savage,and it shoots good.The 222 is an easy round to get along with.If I were a betting man,I'd bet you won't get very good accuracy with anything over 55 grains in that twist.

 

[GooseGestapo]

re: 1/14" twist

It may suprise you. I have shot up to 55gr bullets from a 1/14" twist .22Hornet. It shoots them just fine (under 1" at 100yds). But, I was using Sierra and Hornady flat-base bullets. I doubt that you'll get good results with a boat-tail plastic tip bullet over 55gr however. (I don't). The Nosler isn't that pointed or any longer than most other 60gr bullets. However, for my use (deer), I've found that the 60gr Hornady's PtSpt work most splendidly. I've only recovered one, and it penetrated ~20" of deer and was just under hide in a 38gr perfect mushroom. (76% weight retention; 2800fps launch speed, 40yd shot).

My .22-250 shoots up to 64gr (Winchester) and 63gr (Sierra) semi-pointed ammo to around 1/2" at 100yds. It too, has a 1/14" twist.

However, I don't think you "need" a 60gr Nosler for any concieveable use of the .222 to include deer. But nothing wrong with them either. My best friend shot many, many deer with his .222 (a Thompson-Center Contender carbine) to include both his daughters killing their first deer with the little T/C using 50gr Winchester factory loads
.
Indeed, Win748 and BLC2 will be splendid in the .222. Joyce Hornady printed in an older manual I have that at the Hornady factory, they used 25.0gr of BLC2 in a .222 for many years to test production runs of .22 bullets. Frequently got 1-hole groups at 100yds.

fwiw; my 1/14" .22-250 shoots "patterns" with 55gr V-max and usually misses target at 100yds with 60gr V-max. However, with 55gr Sierra BtSpt has shot 1-hole 5-shot groups (in the "3's").
It just depends on the bullet and the rifle.....

 

[bjlatt]

I have had good results with h322 and 50vmax and use IMR4198 with 55gr sierra game kings. Both are tack drivers in my 222.

 

[NCsmitty]

In my 722, I've used 21.5gr of H322 with the old Nosler 50gr Expander that I still have in stock, and that long 26" barrel with a lot of wear still can do MOA.
The slow twist barrels will handle the heavier flat base bullets easier than the boattail versions.


NCsmitty

 

[RedRaider3]

CFE223 or IMR4198

Gas anyone used any CFE223 with .222? How about IMR 4198 or 4320?

 

[airedaleman]

IMR 4198 is all I use in the 222. Mike Walker's recommendation - 20 grains even - works with everything...

Have had two 722's, and now an old Savage 340C (mfd in '53). The 722's were 5-shot sub-MOA guns, and the poor-man's Savage will hold an inch for 5-shot groups.

 

[targetshooter22]

+1 on 4198, I had a small batch that I got from another reloader of 20.2 grains 4198 under a 50 grain bullet. This is well under published max in the new manuals. Shot like a dream from an NEF Handi Rifle in 223 (which is very, very close dimension wise). Never shot these in my other 223 bolt gun, but that's because something else worked so well.

 

[RedRaider3]

Results

5 shot group with factory Remington 50 grain soft points. Not the best but considering I was using the original 4x weaver scope offhand at 50 yards, it'll do. Now I can justify putting a leupold on this gun. I scored 100 pieces of new Remington nickel plated .222 brass for $28 plus S&H from powder valley under specials (http://www.powdervalleyinc.com) that I am about to load up some IMR 4198 with Sierra 50 grain blitz for coyotes and possibly a less that 100 yard doe. Any experience with this load?

 

[sage5907]

Matt3439, I had a 722 Remington in 257 Roberts. It was a very accurate rifle. I sold it to a friend who used WD-40 to lubricate the trigger. I bought the rifle back several years later and the trigger was so gummed up that it would fire when you flipped the safety off. Had to replace the trigger to get the rifle safe again.