22-243

Lorne

New member
I'm looking at build a 22-243 not sure weather I want to go just 22-243 or 22-243 ai do you gain much by going ackely or not kind of trying to do my homework of the 2 of them before going to be shooting the 75 grain amax or the new 75 eldm any feedback would be great thanks
 
To me depends on how you want to feed it. I have the plain 22-243 and I have a .243 Ackley both are bdl fed. It’s been my experience that sometimes the 40° shoulder cases don’t feed as smoothly as I like especially with shorter bullets. For that reason I’d pick the plain version or look at the 22-.243 Middlestead which has 30° shoulder. Another thing for me is that barrel life on these throat torchers are short in general (not really and issue if it’s a true calling rifle) but I’d don’t want to waste barrel life fire formkng cases unless you use COW method.

Before I went the Ackley or Middlestead route I’d check on availability of dies
Having said all this, a 75 Amax out of a 22-243 will hit a coyote like Thor’s hammer and I will always keep one in my safe
 
I agree with buster on wasting barrel life fireforming. I have a standard 22-243 and I have to chase the lanes enough as it is. It's an awesome cartridge [beeep] and I don't think I will ever be without one. Prepping new brass only requires one step for me and the the 75 grain AMAX hasnt let me down yet. I've found 47grs of h1000 and seating roughly .012" off the lands to be best for mine. Best group I've come up with was somewhere around .250 i think at 100 yards. Shot it last weekend and kept it around 1/2" at 200 when I did my part.

If you go looking for barrels check out pac-nor. I've been extremely happen with mine. If I recall it's a 3 groove 8 twist finished at 26". I do not remember what contour but if I did it again I would opt for maybe 22-34". It's a little long and heavy for the type of calling I do.

I think I may have a thread about it on here.
 
Have you considered 22 creedmoor?

Factory brass will be available from Alpha very soon, and they will run right with 22-243 AI easily. I shot 22-250, 22-243, and 22-243AI... as well as others, and 22 creedmoor is where I have my flag planted.
 
4000fps? Yeah, an 80 at 4000fps.

... but thats hard to come by. The 22 creed is turn-key with alpha brass. Makes the 22-250AI, 22-243, 22-6, and 22-243 AI obsolete.
 
Hmmmm, I just happen to have a 22-6mm that is starting to get a little long in the tooth and I've been considering rebarreling it to something else. Mine is built on a Rem 700 SA and with how it's throated it doesn't work well as a repeater with the heavy for caliber bullets. A 22 Creed would work a lot better in my Rem SA 700 and I even have a extended mag box already installed.

orkan, do you have any first hand experience with this Alpha brass and if so what's it like?
 
Originally Posted By: B23orkan, do you have any first hand experience with this Alpha brass and if so what's it like? Yes. It is great stuff. I mean it's right there with lapua.

I got some Alpha 6.5CM, and with a 41.5gr charge of H4350 behind berger 140's, I reloaded one piece 58 times before it had a split neck. If I would have annealed it every firing like I usually do in my process... I have no idea how many firings I'd have been able to put on it.

It's quite consistent and accurate brass. The 22 creed brass from them has performed similarly.
 
I shoot a 22-243win and longest coyote was 815yds with 80gr vld at 3350fps. Extremely accurate but all over the place on terminal performance. I’ve heard a few guys swear by the 70 and 75 gr Vld with consistent expansion but I sold my 80’s.

I ran retumbo and h4831sc but have a bunch of reloder 17 on the way to see if I can fling 70-75gr bullets quickly.
 
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Originally Posted By: orkanOriginally Posted By: B23orkan, do you have any first hand experience with this Alpha brass and if so what's it like? Yes. It is great stuff. I mean it's right there with lapua.

I got some Alpha 6.5CM, and with a 41.5gr charge of H4350 behind berger 140's, I reloaded one piece 58 times before it had a split neck. If I would have annealed it every firing like I usually do in my process... I have no idea how many firings I'd have been able to put on it.

WAY TO GO! Thanks for that great feedback!~

It's quite consistent and accurate brass. The 22 creed brass from them has performed similarly.
 
Originally Posted By: Displayed NameI’ve heard a few guys swear by the 70 and 75 gr Vld with consistent expansion but I sold my 80’s.

Pretty much all I've ever shot in my 22-6mm is 75gr Berger VLD's. Though they have always killed the coyotes I've shot with them, expansion has definitely NOT been 100%. Most of the time they make nice size holes but I'd guess 25% of the time mine have penciled straight through. I've considered getting a Meplat trimmer to see if trimming the tips and creating a slightly larger hole to see if they would expand more consistently would help but I've never gotten around to it.
 
Originally Posted By: orkanOriginally Posted By: B23orkan, do you have any first hand experience with this Alpha brass and if so what's it like? Yes. It is great stuff. I mean it's right there with lapua.

That sounds really good and like I said before, you may have just help me make up my mind on what I'm going to rebarrel my 22-6mm to.

Are you using 6.5 Creed bushing dies or does someone make 22 Creed dies?

Also, have you ever measured the case capacity, in water, of one of these 22 Creed cases? If you haven't is there any chance you would or do you possibly have a spare piece I could buy from you and I'll do it myself.
 
I did measure water capacity... but I'll wait until the new batch of brass ships before I would provide data. I talked to my contact there today, and looks like first part of the year they'll have some rolling off. If I remember, I'll come make an announcement thread here after that happens.

This next batch will be a production run, while the earlier batch was just a little blurp. The full production brass is likely to be different than the first batch. So, I'd wait to get a hold of that before you go making detailed decisions. When I get some, I'll happily send you a couple pieces for eval if you like.

Regarding dies, I send 3pcs of fired brass to whidden to get custom FL sizers /micrometer seaters made. You can get your first rounds loaded with 6CM or 6.5CM sets easy enough.
 
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