Thread: New 223

Good to see someone else using Melamine as a target backing

How full is the case with 31 of 2206H ?

I run out of cardboard and real estate signs aren't up long enough to borrow in Canterbury these days. Cabinet makers must make alot of stuff ups, there are always plenty of large bit in the wood pile outside their shops.

With the 2206H I run out of room to seat a bullet at 33gr. I did fire one round with 32gr last night...................... it didn't go well for the case. Speed was around 3650, but the case could be mistaken for a belted round, maybe a mini 7mm Rem Mag. It hit the target well, but I certainly didn't want to fire another one! the 31gr good ok(ish).

Still could do some work with powders and various loads, and will over the next little while, but I really want to get out and shot it at the moment.

Another pro over a 22-250 is I can fit 6 rounds in the mag and one up it. The feeding issue is resolved and is now flawless.

I guess a 22-250 could run faster, but I've never loaded for one, so only know what the loading manuals states.

Have you had a go at FFing without projectiles yet? If it works, my .223 barrel may get a makeover for a laugh.

Not yet, but will next week. If it works, thing may be very different in the 223 world


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Maybe W748 would be worth a try to. Very dense ball powder, might go well with the lighter bullets too.

If anyone has a surplus Rem700 varmint barrel, I would be interest in it for this rifle and ongoing development.


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So tried this fire forming without a bullet. Results and process below.

Trying to form case with less steps and removing the .270 or 7mm step.

I annealed the neck, size to .223, trim the case so the neck just touches the start of the rifling when closing the bolt, worked up a load of 7625 (all I could get for free), this then had a small cleaning patch to hold the powder in. Not really sure where to start, I fulled a case, weighted it, and start at 10% of that(this turned out to be too low when just using a small 10mm patch, this didn't give enough resistance). After 20 odd case later, 18-19gr does the job.






Adding some Cream of Wheat of something similar might be better for driving the pressure up and being able to the powder load.

Also, from about 16gr, there was a flame out the end of the barrel. At 19gr, the flame was about a foot long.

Looks good. A bulkier powder will help fill the case a bit better. And you will use less.
I use 19 grs of AS30N (red dot) to form .260 cases.


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Alarm went off a 4:30 this morning, I turned it off and went back to sleep. 5:30 I finally dragged myself out of bed. It looked pretty wet in the mountains and a mate pulled out due to the forecast. So, it was off to the backup spot not far from home.

Got to the road end and the was another car there! The main valley didn't have enough scope for two. quick look at the map and noticed another couple of clearings to the west of the road end. After a bash through the wet bush and scrub from the light rain over night, I got to the clearings.

Walked along the edge for about 20 meters, heard a flax branch break and something pushing through the flax. Another slow 4-5 steps and found some fresh sign, still warm, another 10-12, even slower this time. Turned to my left and about 15 yards away, head down, facing toward me in the sun, there he was.

Now this isn't the animal I was looking for at this time of year, but the freezer is get down and all this development needs to pay for itself at some point.

I raised the rifle and touched off low in the chest, he still had his head down and was unaware of my presents.

He ran all of zero steps and dropped in a heap!





The bullet enter the heart just to the left of the knife tip, and left the heart a few inches back. It continued through to the gut and is still there. I didn't go looking for it in there. At some point on another animal I will recover one of these Partition bullets.




Overall, this wasn't the test I was hoping for with the 223 Maximus, but I had told the wife I would be home for lunch.

This post might get repeated in the Magazine section.

Going to back off the Partition load a little, bolt lift was a bit tight after hitting this stag. There were well defined extractor marks on the case head and rim. Need to fire a heap of them to work out if there is any speed inconsistency to create this issue, the previous ones I fire with is load grouped well and had good consistence speed, but it was only three shots.

Really getting into the fine turn now and may need to sacrifice some speed in to return for keeping my face attached to my head. Maybe a powder between 2206H and 2208, say IMR-4895 as suggested earlier, or do I go faster burn and reduce the load?

Could it be that they have now fully fire formed into chamber increasing pressure a bit due to case no longer having a bit of room to stretch out?

Nice work US. He was on his way to a nice rack but will have to settle for being a nice steak instead.

So I finally got around to running some 63gr Serria Semi SP.

Using 2206H again;
30gr gave 3280fps
31gr gave 3422fps

Looking at the 22-250 data in ADI's book, I've got these running about 50fps less than their max for the 63gr(3485fps) and 220fps faster than a 223Rem(3200fps). I need to get a few more bullets and add another 0.5gr to hopefully get 3500fps.

I've been shooting it a bit, mainly at steel targets and rocks out to 750 yards with both the 53gr V-Max and the 60gr Partition. Shot a hare at 530 yards and hitting steel easily enough at greater distances. Must admit, have missed a couple of hares in close though(just because the target is closer, doesn't mean the brain shouldn't be as engaged as at 700 yards!!!).

Just loaded a heap of Partitions for a Wanganui road trip at the end of the month. Maybe a few goats, fallow and even a sika. Running the 270WSM for the Sambar might be a better option though.

I have just loaded some cases for the 11th time and they still are looking good. I haven't have a case fail other than a few during fireforming and the 2 that I over charged and had excessive pressure.

Still haven't run a light 40gr bullet yet, maybe due to the 53 Vmax flying very true and being cheap enough. I will try some just to complete the full range of bullets and log the velocities. 4000-4100fps would be nice, but not sure if i'll get that high with the narrow case. Would need to run BM2 or similar too I think.

In summary, a 22-250 isn't going to cut it really anymore. Maybe a 22-250AI would be worth it, but I can get 6 rounds in the magazine of the Maximus so it winning!

Pretty easy build; get a 223rem(say a Rem Model700 or Tikka), have Robbie chamber it for this round and do a slight mod to the mag well to allow the extra length. I had a BDL model 700 already I brought a couple of years ago second hand, and the gun smith work cost $260 including 100 cases and new mag spring(308 spring). Just using 223 Rem dies and 7mm spacer on the shell holder.

Where there other "blank" cartridges available? I was wondering if you could increase a 22/250 by the same amount.

Originally Posted by Kimber2506

Where there other "blank" cartridges available? I was wondering if you could increase a 22/250 by the same amount.

I emailed Igman and they said they could supply in batches of 200, 800 or 1000 and ship to NZ(never asked how much as Robbie already has heaps and at a pretty low cost(about $65/100 is I recall correctly). I've fired these over 10 times now and still going strong! All up I've hard about 130 cases since the start and after damaging and learning a few things about would I was doing, I have about 90 formed now. So if 10 times each, 900 rounds down the barrel. I'll form another 100 shortly for winter wallaby trips.

Igman only do them in 12.7x99, 7.62x63, 7.62x51, 7.62x39, 5.56x45 - These are military cases so unlikely that 22-250 would be possible(but not 100% of that).

I would suggest reaming to 22-250AI for a bit of extra capacity. But I understand that most 22-250 barrels only have a 1:12 or 1:14 twist so you would still only be pushing about a 65gr bullet.

Been shooting this a bit lately, mainly hares and wallabies with the 60gr Partition. Going well and have now got the 15 fires from a couple of the cases. These still look good and are only getting neck sized at the moment.
@xring is sending me some of those great looking 53gr he is making.