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Just purchased a 1974 model 70 standard in .222 Remington and wondered if anyone has any experience using 50 grain (non boat tail) Hornady bullets. 22" barel with 1 in14 ", twist rate, so I figured 50 grain would probably be about max for stability and accuracy.

Welcome to the Winchester Owners Forum skinner-t !!

Sorry, no experience with that particular round...

WOW ! this rifle is awesome ! It was my first day shooting with it today, also had my old savage 340 .222 along . Fired some factory winchester 50 gr. ammo that I had bought just to get the brass, and some 50gr. handloads. I got better groups with my handloaded ammo using 50 grain hornady sp bullets and 24 grains AA-2230 powder, (same load I use in the Savage). Groups were around 1/2 MOA without a proper rest, so I was more than pleased for the first day out. There is absolutely no comparison between these two rifles....The model 70 is so smooth and fast, it really makes me wonder if I will ever use the old 340 savage again.

Good deal. Hope your success with the rifle and round continue.

My next trial with this .222 load is going to be 50 grain Vmax bullets with the same AA2230 powder charge as the 50 gr. SPSX. Also got some Lapua Brass arriving in the next 2 days or so. I will try to post some velocity / accuracy results when I set up the Chronograph.

Thought I should post a pic.... Its quickly becoming one of my favorite rifles...

Nice rifle skinner-t. They are very accurate the pushfeed models. I have two in 243 Win and they shoot great. It looks like the nicer grade model with the black tipped stock and the jewelled bolt. Very nice.

I'm a mollydooker (Australian for lefty) so those montecarlo stocks are not my favourite but I can still shoot accurately with them. I love the feel of a Win 70 in your hands, they shoulder really well and have a nice weight to them.

Looking forward to seeing your results with the Lapua brass.

Cheers

Jorge

This stock is a bit of an oddity, there isn't a raised cheek piece on the left side like most of them, it's the only one I've seen like it.

That's nice, that stock would suit me fine. Beautiful stock.

I own and shoot a .222 Remington Model 700 that was purchased in 1962. Jack O'Connor actually shot this rifle for about five rounds and pronounced it as "a beauty and VERY accurate". All of the model 70s I own are not in that caliber and range from .243 Winchester to 30-06. Almost nothing is that accurate as a 225 yard rifle. The round you mention is VERY hard to find. In fact that is the great current problem with that great rifle. Jack O'Connor owned a custom Sako that was awesome. The round though if you not reload is going to be a problem. I think the .223 Remington is comparatively less desirable and I have a LOT of experience with that round but now there are so many .223s out there and they are available in many different powders and bullet choices. Still I'd rather have a .222 Remington.

The US Army spent a lot of money and fired many thousands of rounds trying to figure out why the .222 Remington was so much more accurate than the .223. Now though the situation has greatly changed and the .222 Remington is the expert's only choice. I use both standard Winchester 50 grain rounds and Remington boat tails and Winchester Silvertips and they all shoot incredibly well in this rifle. Since I am so happy with that rifle I have never bought another as it would never see so many hours of use. I once dropped a big bull Caribou with it with one shot. The range though was about 100 yards and I would not have fired at that big an animal any further away. The shot hit the exact point of aim.

The stock on this rifle looks exactly the same shape as my my 1962 Remington .222 with one huge exception, mine has a raised and very attractive cheekpiece. It fits me quite perfectly even after all these years. Your barrel is somewhat longer on this Model 70 at 22 inches. Which is about the right length. The shorter barrel gives a louder muzzle blast but easily shoots a 1/2 MOA. I would never sell this rifle. It has a fairly figured stock too. It also has a steel but plate which I strongly favor in a lighter caliber.

I would agree 100% with your comments on accuracy, I don't own a more accurate rifle than my .222. Its not a problem for ammunition if you handload, .222 brass is not plentiful, but is available and it withstands being reloaded many times. I have reloaded my .222 Winchester brand brass many times, using either 50 gr. hornady vmax, 50 gr. spsx hornady and 53 gr. sierra match kings. I haven't yet needed to reject any cases after multiple loads (all more than 6 times). I have some Lapua brass that I will use to replace the Winchester stuff I'm currently using. Ideal bullet weights are between 50 and 53 grains for my 1 in 14" twist barrel. AA2230 powder works great for me with Remington small rifle primers. If you are interested in reloading... its probably not a bad combination to try as a starting point. The loads I have worked up to are 24 grains of AA2230 over 50 grain hornady bullets and 23.6 grains over 53 grain both of these yield very similar results in my rifle. Its really a shame that more rifles aren't being offered in this caliber, the average person can't afford any of the new rifles that are still chambering it.

I am going to try and save your data on hand loading the .222 Remington. I used to hand load and stopped as I began to wonder if I had enough safety in my loading. I am sure I did not. So I will have to get really geared up to resume. The .222 Remington would be the biggest reason to resume hand loading. I have even bought calibers like the .243 Winchester MOSTLY over close to it rounds like the 6mm Remington because the rounds were cheaper and available to purchase factory ammo. My THANKS to Skinner T!!

I have even looked at Dakota rifles partly due to two factors....handloading.... and being able to get the wood stock I want exactly! But the price tag is beyond what I can afford! That in fact is why I buy Model 70s now!