• Watch Out for Scammers!

    We've now added a color code for all accounts. Orange accounts are new members, Blue are full members, and Green are Supporters. If you get a message about a sale from an orange account, make sure you pay attention before sending any money!

.22 br

What do you consider heavy? I'd have to dig mine out of the back of the safe to look at twist rate on barrel. Been awhile since it's seen range time.
 
Worked up 88 eld's with varget and reloder 16 in a 21" Shilen 1-7".

Varget didn't seem to wanna shoot good anywhwere near like 16 but velocity was a little better.

2,950 with a case load of 16.

Need to chrony and check es/sd
 
Thanks for the report!

I made up a 22BR case this weekend with a 88 in it just to see it. As well as a 22PPC.

As much as I'd like doing a factory case/Norma 22PPC, there are other hurdles to deal with, mostly having to buy another bolt face for my Mausingfield and the modifying of mag lips, so I guess I'll put that project behind me until I have my AR rebarreled.

Here I go again doing another wildcat - 22BR.

Would you give us specifics on your load and OACL please?
 
88's touch lands @ 1.767" bto

32 grains of 16 is going 2,930 or so and is barely compressed if at all.

30 gr Varget went 2,996 with an es/sd @ 24/7 but groups were not great.

I will anneal and get neck tension to chill out and post more later this week.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tydex21
DB, was that you posting on AS with another alias about a Shilen 22BR?

Lapua brass? What's the measurement on a loaded round on the neck and how much neck expansion do you have going on, as well as at the shoulder and .200 line? Dies - factory or custom?

I ordered an action wrench today and a Bighorn barrel nut to start. Prefit 22BR as soon as I get some things figured out.
 
Lapua. Measured necks go .251" with seated bullet.

Shilen opened neck up to .253"

I have no idea what a .200 line is.

Diameter at shoulder is growing .004" on forming.
 
The 200 line is where the benchrest guys measure the web of the case. Virgin as compared to fired and resized compered to fired.

I'm more so looking at how much expansion at the 200 line on sized vs fired. No more than 1.5 thou and no less than .0008"

Same with the shoulder, fired vs sized, 1 thou to 1.5.

Less work on the brass if tolerances are smaller but not so small to cause problems - bolt click. Brass lasts longer as well.

The reason I'm asking is I'm trying to decide whether to order my own reamer or stay with a more common one.

Which dies are you using?
 
If there's any growth at the base, my calipers aint showing it.

I'm using a Redding fl Type S. Doesn't seem to be doing much at the base.

Fired brass sizes down .0015 thou at the shoulder.

You seem rather in tune with what you want a reamer to do and where, so I'd suggest ordering one exactly how you want it.

And then let me borrow it a couple times. :)
 
I would like to know what the advantages are of a 22br vs a 223wylde. I would assume 150 fps and better standard deviation but that is a guess as I have never fired a 22 br but I want to. The 223at less than 400 yards works very well but I am getting vertical stringing when taking it out to 600 yards and beyond.
 
I would like to know what the advantages are of a 22br vs a 223wylde. I would assume 150 fps and better standard deviation but that is a guess as I have never fired a 22 br but I want to. The 223at less than 400 yards works very well but I am getting vertical stringing when taking it out to 600 yards and beyond.

A lot more than 150 fps can be had. I wanna say Steve123 was pushing 88's in a .223AI @ 2,800 in a loooong bbl.

Varget was pushing 3,000 fps in my 21".

Brass is killer, oal is short enough to do whatever you want, aics mags work great and single feeding on top of empty mags kicks a .223's ass!

Love the .223AI and have another coming, but damnit if I aint having second thoughts.

Still more to shake out and will keep you guys in the loop.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 260284
I would like to know what the advantages are of a 22br vs a 223wylde. I would assume 150 fps and better standard deviation but that is a guess as I have never fired a 22 br but I want to. The 223at less than 400 yards works very well but I am getting vertical stringing when taking it out to 600 yards and beyond.

First off 22BR is a wildcat cartridge so necking down is necessary.

Approx 5 - 6 grains more powder capacity.

Plenty of room to seat the heaviest bullets above the neck/shoulder junction and to chase the lands during wear.

The 6mmBR case has the .059 flash hole. Lapua brass is high quality and very tough stuff with a long neck. Many records were set with the cartridge.

In my 223AI I've got a long barrel and very long throating, 2.614" OACL, but it's a light load at the low node.

The reasons I want to do a 22BR is to have a light recoiling repeater (more so - low rifle upset) with good barrel life, good brass life, and the 88's using 30gr of powder are cheap to shoot compared to the 43.1 grains of 4831sc and 105 hybrids I'm currently running.

I will experiment with the coolest running ball powders for play on steel and save the temp stable powder of choice for matches. High node for the temp stable powder and low node for the ball powder.

What got me going in this direction is how well my 223AI does in the wind, it's one click more out to 600Y than my 6x47L, 2 clicks at 1000Y. My 223 with 15" barrel and 70 grainer pales in comparison.

With 6BR the windage needed will be the same as my 6x47L if I use the 95 SMK! Only 1 click more with the 88's at 1000Y.

Finally, I hate walking around between stages all day with a 19lb rifle. This next barrel will be a medium contour and 4" shorter, 2-3 lbs lighter, and the rifle will balance much better.

Man, I'm long winded today, lol.

Your vertical stringing most likely can be tuned out.
 
I know a guy getting 3050 fps with the 88 ELDM and Varget. I believe he is running a 7 twist 24" barrel suppressed. SDs less than 5 and accuracy under .2, just running the virgin brass thru a Redding fl sizer. I am considering this for a comp rifle. Very little recoil and the same bc as a 105 hybrid. I am going to give H4895 a try.
 
Went and played in the wind today.

88's in a .22br are a damn fun ride.

1.5" vertical at 600 yards with 32 grains of Reloder 16 and a 2,940 launch.

18-20mph gusts.

Dope tracks right with my 6 Dasher out to 1,300 yards and runs $13 cheaper per 100.

 
Does anyone know what to expect for barrel life compared to a 6 BRA or dasher?
 
88's touch lands @ 1.767" bto

32 grains of 16 is going 2,930 or so and is barely compressed if at all.

30 gr Varget went 2,996 with an es/sd @ 24/7 but groups were not great.

I will anneal and get neck tension to chill out and post more later this week.

Watch out for the carbon ring with the 16. It bit me in my 6.5 Creedmoor. I pay a lot more attention to the throat now. A little CLR makes short work of it.
 
Watch out for the carbon ring with the 16. It bit me in my 6.5 Creedmoor. I pay a lot more attention to the throat now. A little CLR makes short work of it.
Will do.

Thanks for the heads up.
 
Went and played in the wind today.

88's in a .22br are a damn fun ride.

1.5" vertical at 600 yards with 32 grains of Reloder 16 and a 2,940 launch.

18-20mph gusts.

Dope tracks right with my 6 Dasher out to 1,300 yards and runs $13 cheaper per 100.

I'm happy to hear that RL16 is working out... I'm switching to it for everything I shoot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 260284
I am running a 26" 1-7" Bartlein in 22BR for my Match rifle this year. 27.3 gr of H4895 gets me 3005 fps with sd of 4 and .258" -.587" groups at 400 yards. I am at 1100 rounds so far and the throat is showing a little growth. Shot a high rate of fire team match the end of June and that was rough on the barrel.

Switched to 28.8 gr of Varget and was getting 3022 fps with a sd of 8 Saturday morning before a local match. We shot out to 1033 yards on .5-2 moa targets in 10-15mph winds that were switching from 10-2:00. I ended up getting 3rd in a tiebreaker. Spotted hits and misses with out any issues out to 1033 yards.

I am hoping Varget is easier on the throat. I do have over 10 lbs of RL-16 that I could try though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Strike_out
I don't think Varget will be easier on throats.

That said, I'd be curious how a .22 Dasher would do with RL 26 and 88's.

Maybe a guy would need to jump up to a .22 Gay Tiger to make it work.
 
Been running 90 gr VLD just thouching the lands at 3050fps with VV N150, 28" 1:7" barrel. Single digit ES and no signs of high preassure. Been hitting plate at 1100+ yards.

Going to test the 88 gr eld m soon, as it's easier to find and quite a bit cheaper.

Next barrel will be a 22 BRAI. :)
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: mpwolf
Anyone tried the 80 gr eld match yet?

Have a match coming up in the end of august, precision rifle with the longest range at around 650 yards or so.

So the 80 gr should be ideal, probably going for a quite a slow load(around 2950-3000fps) with N150.

The n150 powder had a 0.2% temperature sensitivity factor when i tried it with the 90 gr vld, went from 926ms to 928ms going from +13(55*f) to +27 degrees celsius(80*f). a difference of 6.5fps. So going to stick with it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DJL2
I don't think Varget will be easier on throats.

That said, I'd be curious how a .22 Dasher would do with RL 26 and 88's.

Maybe a guy would need to jump up to a .22 Gay Tiger to make it work.
I have been running a 22 Dasher this season. Rl 26 gets me 3120 with a 95 smk
I’m sure 3200 would be possible with 88s
Rl16 node is 3095 with 95 smks...26” 6.5T Barrel
 
  • Like
Reactions: Codiekfx400
I have been running a 22 Dasher this season. Rl 26 gets me 3120 with a 95 smk
I’m sure 3200 would be possible with 88s
Rl16 node is 3095 with 95 smks...26” 6.5T Barrel

How much Rl16 are you using? I am going to give it a try in my 22BR with the 88.
 
I loaded and shot 10 rounds with 32 grains of Rl16, CCI450s, 88gr ELDM out of a 26" 5R Bartlein 1:7 twist suppressed last night. Two 5 shot groups at 100 with the magneto speed. Faster than I thought it would be. Loaded them .020" off the lands. Accuracy shows some promise, will play with this combo some more, maybe start at 31 and work up .2 at a time.

3101 fps, 12 ES, 4 SD

3104 fps, 17 ES, 6 SD

Didn't take pictures of the targets, but they were sub .5 moa easy.
 
Tested the 80 gr eld match yesterday.

Looked really good on papper(extremely small groups at 100 meters) but the ES and SD was sky high(ES 65 fps and SD 32 FPS)...
Probably uneven burning of the N150 powder when trying to load them low(was aiming at 3000-3050 fps for competition).

Going fast looked way better with that powder tho, found max at around 3250fps. And no pressure signs loading them at at 3200fps, with single digit ES/SD. So think the N150 powder is performing best when near max load.

So going to try RL-15, and probably N140 or N540.

Varget would probably be nice, but a pain int he ass to find over her...
 
  • Like
Reactions: ScottH6x47
I have a couple thousand down the tube in my 22BR. I'm running g it as my competition PRS rifle this year with 88gr ELD-Ms and Varget. I get 3050fps with 28.5grs of powder. The beauty of this round is it is super easy to load. The accuracy node is ridiculously easy to find with a Magnetospeed, and the load lasts forever. I've been loading 28.5 grains for 1700 rounds, and it's still single digit SD.

It's a barrel friendly round. If you dont push it you'll see 2800 to 3000 rounds from your barrel very realistically. And it's cheap to shoot. 88gr ELDs are less than hundred dollars per 500 and less than 29 grains of Varget stretches a pound of powder pretty far.

It's silly accurate to 1300 yards. Easy peasy. Great round.
 
Going to give the 88 gr eld match a try this weekend.

Loaded up a ladder test and some 5 shot loads for testing(incase i get lucky and hit a node with one of those). Going to stick with VV N150 as it worked really well with the 90 gr VLD. Hopefully i find a nice load at 3000-3050 fps. If everything works out nicely i'm going to use that round for competition.

Need to find a more suitable powder for the 80's before i continue with those, probably going to test N135, N140 or N540 as VV powder are easy to get. Have some Varget and H4350 at home, but those are almost impossible to find over here now for some reason so wont go that route...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Birddog6424
What size bushing are you running with the Lapua brass?
 
I shot the Defy the Distance PRS match in Three Forks Montana this weekend. Both myself and my travel partner shoot the 22BR. We had a lot of long targets in heavy, shifting, gusting winds, but the round was up to the task. There were a lot of impressed shooters in our squad with how well that rifle performed.

On the second day when the wind was worst I actually had the highest score of the day. I edged out Jake Vibbert by two shots, he was the match winner. Everyone else was below him. We made multiple hits at 1229 yards (2.8 mils wind for me) and my shooting partner hit the 1620 yard plate and a little unicorn at 1200(?) on the side match.

This caliber is well up to the task for target and PRS.
 
Here's a couple videos I have running the 22BR in matches.

The first one is the recent Montana national PRS match. This is early morning so the wind is a fairly workable 4 to 7mph, but its shifting from 0 to full value. I got them all until my 3rd shot at 1106 was in a shifting wind and I dropped it off the left edge.

The second video is a local match two hours from my house. It's a KYL rack at 250 yards, then a KYL rack at 560 yards. The last shot taken is an impact on a 2" plate at 560 yards.



 
had the chance to shoot one recently and it was nice . If I could reload I would get one in a heart beat .
 
Does a 22BR setup for heavier bullets really offer anything over a 6mmBR? It would seem just easier to shoot standard 6mm Norma BR with Lapua brass.
 
  • Like
Reactions: danthecarpenter
Does a 22BR setup for heavier bullets really offer anything over a 6mmBR? It would seem just easier to shoot standard 6mm Norma BR with Lapua brass.
The 88 eldm BC is quite high and the 95 SMK even better and both can easily be driven faster than any 105 or 110 in a 6 BR
With the added benefit of slightly less recoil.
It’s just another choice , but for me better Ballistics with less recoil is a very enjoyable
Package. And most 22 bullets are cheaper too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DJL2
The 88 eldm BC is quite high and the 95 SMK even better and both can easily be driven faster than any 105 or 110 in a 6 BR
With the added benefit of slightly less recoil.
It’s just another choice , but for me better Ballistics with less recoil is a very enjoyable
Package. And most 22 bullets are cheaper too.

Pretty much nailed it.

A 22BR outperforms for example a 6BR running a 105gr Berger Hybrid at 2800fps. At 1000 yards in a 10mph full value crosser, the 22 has roughly 8 to 10" less drift, and has about 40" less drop.

And I know people like to toss out the "elevation shouldn't matter at known distances", but it does. I see plenty of high or low misses at a match.

And I pay $94 for 500 ELD-Ms versus $140 or more for good 6mm. I pay $155 for 500 DTACS for my Creedmoor. Shoot enough of those and it adds up.

Its accurate, load friendly, barrel friendly, competitive, and cost effective.
 
Tried out a new load with 80 gr eld match with the N150 powder.

3100 fps, single digit ES and super accurate. Seems like i just needed a little more powder to get low ES and still maintain somewhat low speed.

Should be awesome for the matches with shorter ranges.
 
Tried out a new load with 80 gr eld match with the N150 powder.

3100 fps, single digit ES and super accurate. Seems like i just needed a little more powder to get low ES and still maintain somewhat low speed.

Should be awesome for the matches with shorter ranges.

Its awesome for the matches at any range. My round doesn't go sub till 1450 at my home range. I've had no issues being competitive on any targets out to that range.

I chambered up this round with a lot of skepticism. A buddy talked me into it. But its won me over and is now my primary PRS rifle. I havent had any issues on long targets, windy days, spotting impacts or misses. This round is The Little Engine that Could.
 
Sounds good.

Only issue u have now is the round diving in to the mag(AI AW magazine with HRD mag kit) when trying to repeat to quick...

Going to try figure it out, probably got a bit short(coal 2.250"). But probably wont lose any point by taking it a bit slower.
 
I just ordered a Proof S.S. Med. Palma 26” 22 BR 7Twist. .050 free bore from Straight Jacket armory. I am really excited to launch some 75 and 88 gr eld bullets. Will be screwing it on to a Bighorn Origin it should be quite the rifle.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sportin Wood
I just ordered a Proof S.S. Med. Palma 26” 22 BR 7Twist. .050 free bore from Straight Jacket armory. I am really excited to launch some 75 and 88 gr eld bullets. Will be screwing it on to a Bighorn Origin it should be quite the rifle.

I just bought one of their AIAX prefits in 22br. Can't wait for it!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Codiekfx400
I just ordered a Proof S.S. Med. Palma 26” 22 BR 7Twist. .050 free bore from Straight Jacket armory. I am really excited to launch some 75 and 88 gr eld bullets. Will be screwing it on to a Bighorn Origin it should be quite the rifle.

I bought my reamer based on their specs. It has worked well so far. Not much to gain by running the 75 over the 88. The BC of the 88 beats any speed gains of the 75.
 
I just ordered a Proof S.S. Med. palma26” 22 BR 7Twist. .050 free bore from Straight Jacket armory. I am really excited to launch some 75 and 88 gr eld bullets. Will be screwing it on to a Bighorn Origin it should be quite the rifle.
I bought my reamer based on their specs. It has worked well so far. Not much to gain by running the 75 over the 88. The BC of the 88 beats any speed gains of the 75.
I want to try the 75 on prairie dogs mostly for splat factor. But yes the 88 will be superior from a bc standpoint.