.222 shooter please help-no17HMR.222 OK?

[Big Dog]

N. Ireland gun laws are doing my head in. On Saturday past I went to my local gun dealer to talk about .17 v .22 mags and of course the big question, how much. It was all going well until I told him I wasn't taking my .22LR off. He then informs me that it would be increadibly difficult to get a 2nd rimfire on and that it would be easier to get a .22 hornet or .222 on. I want to be able to use Subs (moderated) and get more range for those grey crow/bunnies that know as much about shooting as I do. I also want to have the capacity to take the odd fox if I need to.

 

At first I was going for a .222 but changed my mind as I though the 17HMR would have been easier to get certified for, suit my primary shooting needs better and be cheaper to feed. Now that I have invested the time into researching the 17HMR I was looking forwards to getting one on latter this year.

 

.222 SHOOTER PLEASE HELP. The research starts again. I have a cash flow problem right now so it will be about Dec-Jan b4 I can do anything about this but heres what I want to know:

1. Is there a lot of ricochet from the .222?

2. What distance will a .222 ricochet bulet travel (Full Metal Jackets) ?

3. Am I correct in thinking ballistic tips will explode when that hit something as does the 17HMR?

4. It will take about £300 to screw, monderate and re-proof. Is this really worth the cost and will it make a significant difference to sound?

5. As I want to shoot grey crows at distance (150m), and I know the .222 will be a bit overkill, would a bullet travel through the bird and deflect of in a different directing? :*)

6. The gun the dealer recommended is a Tikka, your thought?

7. Any other good tips

 

Thanks :wacko:

[dunganick]

222 SHOOTER PLEASE HELP. The research starts again. I have a cash flow problem right now so it will be about Dec-Jan b4 I can do anything about this but heres what I want to know:

1. Is there a lot of ricochet from the .222?

2. What distance will a .222 ricochet bulet travel (Full Metal Jackets) ?

3. Am I correct in thinking ballistic tips will explode when that hit something as does the 17HMR?

4. It will take about £300 to screw, monderate and re-proof. Is this really worth the cost and will it make a significant difference to sound?

5. As I want to shoot grey crows at distance (150m), and I know the .222 will be a bit overkill, would a bullet travel through the bird and deflect of in a different directing? 

6. The gun the dealer recommended is a Tikka, your thought?

7. Any other good tips

 

good questions,

 

okay, 222 will not ricochet as much as a 22rimfire as it is going alot fast, however if you are using metal jacket bullets i think this would make it slightly more liable to, but still no where near as much as a rimfire

 

a ricochet bullet could go any distance, depends what youve hit, how hard, etc etc.....but you dont want it to happen put it that way

 

B/t will 'explode' by saying this people mean they expand very quickly, on a fox your talking about 4 or 5 inch exit wounds, something to note, a b/t bullet is less likely to ricochet as it breaks up easier

 

having a 222 mod'd is well worth the money, it turns it into a completely different gun, it also allows you to hear the hit more clearly

 

at 150 yards on a crow (unless you have BIG crows) the bullet will deff go through, however it should never ricochet, as it is your job to make sure your shooting at ground which is soft (but not too wet) and that your not shooting without a good backstop, this means if you do get a ricochet at least its going to be caught by your backstop (please make sure you have a backstop and your not shooting over the brow of a hill....for your own sake)

 

a tika is a great choice, they have sako build quality, not too much plastic, and use an old sako action if im not mistaken, they also look nice and are easy to get hold of.

 

my otehr tips would be to not skimp on the type of ammo you use (use the best you can afford) as this gun will shoot amazing groups when its given the chance,

 

the same applys for optics, i would say get the schmidt and bender 8x56 hungarian, its about £300, and is the same quality as the £500 german made one (makes sense dosent it) make sure you get a 30mm tube for extra light gathering ability, then go out and commit dread slaughter

 

hope this helped

[jon78]

Nick, I have got my new Tikka 22-250 with hungarian 8x56 and im over the moon with it (only at testing stages). Hopefully let it loose on some foxes this week. Will try and post some pics when i can

 

Cheers

 

Jon

[dunganick]

good to hear, good luck with it

[Hodmedod.one]

the same applys for optics, i would say get the schmidt and bender 8x56 hungarian, its about £300, and is the same quality as the £500 german made one (makes sense dosent it) make sure you get a 30mm tube for extra light gathering ability.

I hope you are wrong on the price Dunganick........

 

Recently, Riflecraft (Suffolk) had my SSG for barrel threading for over 4 WEEKS. I ordered a S+B 8x56 Hungarian 30mm from them when I took the rifle in. I phoned after 2 weeks to check on progress. I was told that my scope was on the bench and waiting for me. When I was eventually informed that my rifle was back from proofing, I went to pick it up and got told by Riflecrafts owner that he didn't have my scope & Mounts as Sportsman had "sold them out from under his nose" (He had obviously forgotten that he told me he had got them on his bench 2 weeks previously). He also informed me that he had phoned all over the country for a scope, but nobody had one. Since I took my rifle into this guy, I have spoken to 2 people who both told me "you will be sorry you took it into him". I wouldn't argue with that statement. :<

 

I phoned York Guns (S+B UK importers) and ordered the scope from them. I was told that they were out of stock but should be in by next Tuesday, or we will let you know whats going on. Next Thursday came around and I got a phone call, still out of stock. The following Tuesday, I was so ****** off that I phoned and cancelled the order. :<

 

I went on the S+B UK distributors list and started phoning. I eventually found that Macleods of Tain (Ross-Shire) had one in stock. They even offered to post it to me for no extra charge.

 

I could not find one anywhere for cheaper than £389. Most expensive was £436. York wanted £10 postage.

 

How the hell most people in the UK gun trade stay in business is beyond me. :wacko:

[dunganick]

this writen in gunmart, in the sportsman gun center, the big spread in the middle, a hungarian s+b advertised £309

[rjimmer]

I had a look through an S&B 8 x 56 and a Swarovski 8 x 50 and the latter seemed better!

 

Sportsman got 2 Swarovski 8 x 56's in and sold them the same day, one to me.

 

I still think you should be able to get 2 rimfire 22s on your ticket!

Edited April 29, 2005 by rjimmer

[Big Dog]

Thanks Nick for you reply . The back drop isn't a problem as that is how I treat all my shots with the LR but the power of the 222 being alot more I appreciate hot tips from those who use them.

 

If the ballistics tips blow a 4-5" hole in charley, WoW!, what are they designed for then?

 

I used to shoot a lot of foxes years ago and in those days we sold them for pelts. Does that still happen or has the "Bleeding Hearts Society" managed to get that stopped too?

 

The Scope 8x56 I assume that is a fixed scope not zoom. Is that the best thing to go for with a 222??

 

 

 

Have a good weekend guys, I,m taking my kids to the NI Game-fair in Ballywalter tomorrow. :wacko:

[dunganick]

Thanks Nick for you reply . The back drop isn't a problem as that is how I treat all my shots with the LR but the power of the 222 being alot more I appreciate hot tips from those who use them.

 

If the ballistics tips blow a 4-5" hole in charley, WoW!, what are they designed for then?

 

I used to shoot a lot of foxes years ago and in those days we sold them for pelts. Does that still happen or has the "Bleeding Hearts Society" managed to get that stopped too?

 

The Scope 8x56 I assume that is a fixed scope not zoom. Is that the best thing to go for with a 222??

 

the 8x56 is a personal thing, many shooters swear by 6x42's or 7x50's (notice the objective lense size is always proportional to the magnification, i.e 6x42, 7x50, 8x56 9x62 etc.....)the reason that a fixed power scope is better for a nite shooting in my opinion is the following

 

-a fixed power scope has less lenses internally so therefore does not loose as much light inside the scope, and there for you get more time that you can see durring the dusk hours.

 

-the rule with the magnification to objective size ratio is due to something to do with our eyes (which i dont understand), but basically, it matches something in our eyes which means it gives the best low light performance. what ever this is in our eyes gives some sort of angle at which we gather light....and the objective lense and magnification must replicate this........so back to the point......with variable power you should turn it down to the correct magnification-objective lense match when going night shooting (i.e a 3-9x44 could be put at just over 6x magnification for optimum)

 

so if you want better light gathering basically a fixed power is better (in my opinion based on the above reasons)

 

in my opinion 6x is ideal for a walk about gun....i.e rimfire airgun or light weight stalking gun

 

7x is a jack of all trades, and can do some longer range work

 

8x is not good for running targets or targets which require a roughly accurate shot, but it is better for longer range shooting, i.e ideally suited to 150-250 yards (fox teritory)

 

the last part is my personal opinion, as many shooters swear by 6x no bigger or the opposite

 

if you can afford a swarofski 8x56 30mm tube, buy it.......it will far out live you, and will have better optics than any scope you will ever use

 

sorry about the confusing description on the magnification-ob lense size.....its hard to explain

 

hope ive helped not hindered,

[Big Dog]

[B]Thanks again Nick for the informative reply.[/b]

I will keep this so it can guide me when I go to purchase.

 

Ps. I had a great weekend. My best 2 shots were a magpie at 100yrs with a Winchester Lazer HP, and a rabbit a 60yrs with Winchester Subs.

The magpie because it was such a nice evening and I had the time to spend just to get the shot right, often with mags it's take it b4 he she you. The Rabbit, this shot was good because I never though a sub good do so much damage at 60yrs. I have never seen so much blood bump out of something, sick I know, but I thing the bullet went in one eye and out the other.

 

 

PPs. At the game fair on Saturday I bought a Peregrine falcon decoy. I though if I left a dead crow below it this would draw crows in to range to a 12g. I have heard of this with owls, will the falcon work too?

 

Thanks again

[rjimmer]

The size of the 'dark hole' (pupil)in the centre of your eye will vary according to how bright is the light that you are looking at.

The maximum size that anyone's 'dark hole' will achieve is about 7mm in pitch-black conditions.

Have a look at your eyes in a mirror and then introduce some extra light from a torch and see the size of your pupil change.

 

The large second figure in a scope spec is the size of the light gathering lens at the 'big end'.

The magnification figure concentrates the size of the image by that amount eg 6x, so the size of the image exiting the eyepiece is the large figure divided by the small figure, in mm's.

 

The image available to the shooter from an 8x56 scope will therefore be 7mm wide.

From a 6x42 it will be 7mm wide, but not as bright.

From a 8x32 it will be 4mm wide.

 

Fixed magnification scopes do not usually have any parallax adjustment, zoom scopes often do!

For long shots(Swarovski say over 100mtrs), with a fixed mag scopes with no parallax adjustment, you have be careful to to get the crosshairs in the centre of the eyepiece image to avoid changing the point of impact.

 

This will be old-hat to some on here, but not to others.

I hope it has been understandable to everybody.

[dunganick]

thanks rjimmer thats what i was trying to say, but you put it in a better way

[Big Dog]

Thanks rjimmer. As a relitively new comer to rifle shooting (excluding my old springey .22 open sight air rifle) that what I like about it there is alway more to learn. I like learning so rifle sport will keep me busy for a while