Scorching-shooting 22-caliber cartridges are nothing new, so what may newcomers just like the 22 ARC or 22 Creedmoor supply that’s totally different? In any case, basic medium-sized cartridges just like the .243 Win., .250 Savage, .25/06, and others have thrived alongside .22 powerhouses just like the .220 Swift and .22/250. What, if something, do these new .22-caliber cartridges do higher than their predecessors, not to mention the big-game/varmint crossover cartridges? The reply may shock you. I’ve a sense that cartridges just like the .22 ARC are going to show their versatility and skill to serve hunters—and sure, accomplish that higher than a few of the outdated favorites.
The Delicate Cartridge Candy Spot
Medium-sized and smaller calibers have been in style amongst hunters for greater than 100 years, particularly for deer-sized sport. Early on, the .25s have been fairly prolific, and Jack O’Connor thought of them as prime selections for varmints and smaller large sport. Within the Fifties, the .243 chiseled out a distinguished place on this class.
Medium-sized .24- and .25-caliber cartridges typically hearth 55- to 125-grain bullets at wonderful velocities with delicate recoil. Till the comparatively latest creation of laser rangefinders, the flat trajectories of those cartridges provided hunters a variety of forgiveness at longer distances in comparison with different cartridges of the time.
For a lot of hunters, the .243 turned the last word choice in versatility, and it has been used with nice success for bigger animals like black bears, sheep, and moose. Because it seems, correct, smaller-caliber cartridges which can be simpler to shoot are likely to do exactly high-quality at killing sport successfully.
What Do Cartridges Just like the 22 ARC Must Supply?
Probably the most frequent criticisms of newer cartridges is that they’re merely re-hashing an outdated thought to re-invigorate gun gross sales and preserve the advertising machine turning. Although firearm and ammunition firms are actually within the enterprise of conserving enterprise going, they’re additionally motivated to realize a aggressive edge and enhance merchandise. When contemplating the attributes of a brand new .22-caliber scorching rod, it’s straightforward to take a look at one or two traits and assume that it will possibly’t do something that the .22/250 can’t do. Nevertheless it’s not that easy.
As with all of the latest cartridges developed with the rules of fashionable cartridge design, the advantages are about greater than uncooked pace with a given array of bullet weights. In 1925, evaluating cartridges on velocity and drop made sense, however contemplating the precision rangefinders and optics that shooters have at their fingertips, these velocity numbers are now not of major significance. With customized chambers, tight-twisted barrels, and handloaded ammunition, many elderly cartridges can actually be elevated, however as an entire, they merely don’t match the entire suite of advantages that a few of these new rounds supply.
For instance, the 22 ARC, which was designed to present .22/250-like efficiency from a .223-length cartridge with heavier bullets is cool, positive, but it surely’s the bullets it’s designed to shoot that make it particular (you possibly can learn concerning the particulars in taking pictures editor John Snow’s overview of the 22 ARC). Even I didn’t actually begin to see the potential within the 22 ARC till I constructed a few them and began taking pictures at distance.
The day I spotted that there is likely to be one thing to it, I used to be taking pictures a 20-inch-barreled gasoline gun that I’d put collectively. It was a fairly normal barrel nut design with a button-rifled barrel, but it surely printed surprisingly small teams. I used to be taking pictures targets out to 1,000 yards, alternating with a 6.5 Creedmoor utilizing 140-grain Sierra MatchKing bullets. Firing Hornady’s Black 75-grain ELD-M load, which I recorded at 2,938 fps, in a ten to 12 mph crosswind, the 22 ARC had a flatter trajectory and was a one-to-one match for wind deflection with the heavier 6.5. The place stretching the .223 to that distance can change into fairly troublesome, I simply made first spherical impacts and fast follow-ups, watching the hint arc into the goal. And bear in mind that is out of a gasoline gun, not utilizing probably the most environment friendly bullet within the cartridge.
I’ve lengthy thought {that a} .22/250 would make a hell of a sheep rifle, and legendary market hunter and predator management agent Frank Glaser touted his .220 Swift as killing hooved sport faster than some other cartridge he’d tried. However in comparison with my long-favored .25/06, the newer 6.5 Creedmoor, and others, selections in .22-caliber bullets merely gave up an excessive amount of wind drift for my liking. That’s now not the case. Hornady’s 80-grain ELD-X is a thick-jacketed, extraordinarily environment friendly .22-caliber bullet that gives some clear ballistic benefits over some bullets, and matches traits of others — all with basically zero recoil.
Pursuit of the Good Rifle Cartridge
An ideal looking rifle cartridge would ship a projectile that creates an sufficient wound cavity to shortly kill quarry, and accomplish that with a wonderfully flat trajectory, zero wind drift, and nil recoil — however in fact no such cartridge exists and we should compromise on these qualities. Within the case of the .243 to .257-class of cartridges, I’ve no qualms about taking pictures a moose, sheep, and even grizzly bear beneath the appropriate circumstances, with a great, stubby 90-, 100-, or 110-grain bullet. I’ve taken a variety of sport with them. So why not undertake an 80-grain bullet of comparable properties, however with higher sectional density, equal or higher trajectory, and equal or higher wind drift? In reality, I feel that as bullet know-how continues to present us hyper-efficient, heavy .22s, the one factor we’ll be giving up is recoil.