Re: 223 vs 22-250
As with anything, it depends.
Factory guns stick you will slow twist rates for 22-250's, so there's some limitations there.
Assuming a custom rifle, any drawback inherent in either design can be overcome except for one thing - velocity. You can modify your twist and your bullets, but you can not get any more velocity out of a 223 that even approaches a 22-250. I have seen great accuracy from both cartridges. But, I would not call either one a target cartridge.
If it is about fun on medium to short range varminting, and you want to see your targets jump, then the 22-250 is worlds apart. The 22-250 is a lot of fun to shoot Prarie Dogs with, and the velocity helps buck the wind quite well even out to the longer ranges.
For target you may want to consider a 22BR if you are very serious about it. But, if you were serious about it, you wouldn't need to ask us.
You'd know. Anyways, I had a 22BR/6BR switch barrel BR gun that had a 20" BR legal profile and a 26" varmint barrel. The rounds I used for the 22BR varmint were 40 grain Nosler BT's with Norma or Lapua brass, BR primers, stuff full of VVN 133, and a velocity of 4100 FPS. It was 1/4 MOA accurate and simply exploded anything inside 250 yards. At 300 yards, the varmints looked like they were hit by a 55 grain VMAX 223 at 100 yards.
There used to be an argument about costs, but nowadays I have seen 22-250 ammunition go for the same as loaded 223 ammo. In any case, I think the costs of cartridges is nearly moot if you reload and don't use something silly like a Lazzeroni.
WYK